ISIS Continues to Gain Territory Despite U.S.-Led Strikes

“ISIS continues to gain substantial ground in Syria, despite nearly 800 airstrikes in the American-led campaign to break ISIS’s grip there,” the Daily Beast Reports.

At least one-third of Syrian territory is now under ISIS influence, raising concerns about the effectiveness of U.S. policy in combatting the group. ISIS has nearly doubled the amount of territory in its control since airstrikes began in September last year, according to a map developed by the Coalition for a Democratic Syria (CDS), a Syrian American opposition umbrella group. “More importantly, the number of people who now live under ISIS control has also increased substantially,” CDS political advisor Mouaz Moustafa said to the Daily Beast. His group estimates that at least a million more Syrians are living under the control of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked group, than before the coalition airstrikes began.

U.S. Secretary of State Backs Russian Bid to Relaunch Peace Talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voiced support Wednesday for a Russian bid to relaunch peace talks between Syrian government and opposition figures, even though some opposition members have declined the invitation, AP reports.

“We hope that the Russian efforts could be helpful,” Kerry said following a meeting in Geneva with the United Nations Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

Kerry also praised de Mistura’s local cease-fire plan in embattled Syrian towns, starting with the city of Aleppo.

“Mr. Kerry said before the failed peace talks in Geneva last year that the United States’ goal was a transitional government in Syria that did not include Mr. Assad. But he refrained from making such an explicit demand on Wednesday, urging instead that Syria’s leaders rethink their course,” the New York Times reports.

“It is time for President Assad, the Assad regime to put their people first and to think about the consequences of their actions, which are attracting more and more terrorists to Syria, basically because of their efforts to remove Assad,” Kerry said.

Although his plan has not yet succeeded, de Mistura is hopeful that stopping the fighting in Aleppo will become a model for cease-fires elsewhere in the country, eventually leading to a political solution.

“I will continue, I can tell you, pushing for Aleppo, because Aleppo has become an iconic example of where things could start sending the best signal, in other words that bombing, shelling, barrel-bombing, mortar-shelling would stop, and bring some humanitarian aid, which means giving some hope to the Syrian people,” he said.

Russia, a staunch ally of the Syrian government, is planning to host talks between the government and Syrian opposition members on January 26.

Two-Thirds of Syrian Refugees Living in Jordan Are Facing Poverty

Syrian refugees facing abject poverty and desperate living conditions will resort to increasingly drastic messages to survive unless the world does more to help, the U.N. said, as it released a new report on Syrian refugees living in Jordan.

The report, Living in the Shadows, claims that two-thirds of the Syrian refugees in Jordan are living below the national poverty line of $96 per person per month. One in six is living in abject poverty, with less than $40 a month to make ends meet.

“Unless the international community increases its support to refugees, families will opt for ever more drastic coping strategies,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement, as quoted by the BBC.

“More children will drop out of school to work and more women will be at risk of exploitation, including survival sex,” he said.

Mohammad, a father of four children, told UNHCR that “life as a Syrian refugee in Jordan is like being in quicksand; whenever I move, I sink a little bit further.”

According to UNHCR figures, as many as 3.7 million people have fled Syria and are registered as refugees. Turkey is host to 1.6 million, Jordan hosts 622,000 Syrian refugees, Lebanon 1.16 million, and Iraq 223,000.

Recommended Reads:

• Wall Street Journal: Months of Airstrikes Fail to Slow Islamic State in Syria
• New York Times: Kerry Supports Syrian Peace Talks in Russia
• NPR: Increasing Number of Western Women Flee to Syria
• AFP: Syria Militants Execute Women for ‘Adultery’: Monitor
• AP: Assad: Syria Sympathizes with Paris Attack Victims
• Reuters: Syrian Opposition Will Lose Out if Boycotts Moscow Talks, Russia Says
• New York Times: Journey to Jihad
• Newsweek: U.N. Paints Bleak Portrait of Life for Jordan’s Syrian Refugees

Photo Courtesy of AP Images