Syria

The 2000–2006 Shebaa Farms conflict was a low level border conflict consisting of Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks on the Israeli Defense... Forces and IDF artillery barrages and air strikes in Southern Lebanon. Clashes followed the withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon in 2000, which Hezbollah viewed as incomplete due to the presence of Israeli troops in the disputed Shebaa farms. Fighting came to an end after the 2006 Lebanon War.
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Operation Phantom Linebacker was a coalition military operation in Iraq designed to interdict anti-government fighters from entering Iraq from Syria.... The U.S. 3rd Brigade and the 2nd Infantry Division conducted the operation with the Iraqi National Guard, Iraqi Border Police, and other Multinational Forces. The U.S. III Corps uses ‘Phantom’ as its nickname. Launched in early August 2004. No US, Coalition or Iraqi casualties or deaths were reported during the operation.
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The Ain es Saheb airstrike occurred on October 5, 2003 and was the first overt Israeli military operation in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In... response to the suicide bombing in Haifa 12 hours earlier by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, four Israeli Air Force 110 "Knights of the North" Squadron F-16Cs attacked an alleged Palestinian militant training camp about 15 miles northwest of the Syrian capital Damascus. A single civilian guard is reportedly injured in the strike, the first in Syrian territory for nearly thirty years. The jets took off from Ramat David Airbase at 03:00 and headed north over the Mediterranean before turning east, crossing the coastline into Lebanon and approaching the target from the west. It is uncertain whether the aircraft actually crossed the border into Syria proper as the exact type of munitions used is unknown and the target is located close to the Syrian-Lebanese border. The Israel Defense Forces claimed the camp was used to train recruits in bomb assembly and guerrilla warfare and has released footage of the camp taken from the Al-Arabia TV station showing hundreds of weapons and underground tunnels packed with arms and ammunition.
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The 2003 Invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from... the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations. The invasion phase consisted of a conventionally fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraq capital Baghdad by United States forces. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from 19 March to 9 April 2003. These were the United States , United Kingdom , Australia , and Poland . 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February. The United States supplied the majority of the invading forces, but also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan. According to U.S. President George W.
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The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries is a multi-governmental organization headquartered in Kuwait which coordinates energy... policies between oil–producing Arab nations, and whose main purpose is developmental. On 9 January 1968, three of the then–most conservative Arab oil states Kuwait, Libya, and Saudi Arabia agreed at a conference in Beirut, Lebanon to found the Organization of Arab Petroleum Engineering Countries, aiming to separate the production and sale of oil from politics in the wake of the halfhearted 1967 oil embargo in response to the Six Day War. Such use of the economic weapon of oil embargo in the struggle against Israel had been regularly proposed at Arab Petroleum Congresses, but it took the Six Day War for the embargo happen. However Saudi Arabia's oil production was up by 9% that year, and the main embargo lasted only ten days and was completely ended by the Khartoum Conference. OAPEC was originally intended to be a conservative Arab political organization which, by restricting membership to countries whose main export was oil, would exclude governments seen as radical such as Egypt and Algeria.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank's official... goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the former incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference.
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The United Nations , is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security,... economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions. There are 193 member states, including every internationally recognised sovereign state in the world but Vatican City. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year.
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The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and... Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. The Arab League currently has 22 members . The main goal of the league is to "draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries." Through institutions such as the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization and the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League's Council of Arab Economic Unity , the Arab League facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific and social programs designed to promote the interests of the Arab world.
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Assala Mostafa Hatem Nasri is a Syrian musical artist. Asalah was born in Damascus, Syria to a middle class couple. Mostafa Nasri, Asalah's father,... was a revered Syrian composer and singer. Asalah began her musical career by performing patriotic, religious, and children's songs when she was four years old. She sang the theme song "Qessas Al Sho'oub" , of the cartoon show, Hekayat Alamiyah . In 1986, Mostafa Nasri died after suffering from internal bleeding caused by a car accident. Aged 17 she helped care for her siblings, Reem, Amani, Ayman and Ayham with her mother. Asalah's commercial musical career debuted in 1991 with Law Ta'rafou . The album had 4 songs in the oriental operatic tarab style. The album was an instant hit with heartbreaking songs like Ya Sabra Yana and Samehtak Ketir. She quickly cemented her presence in a growing industry brimming with new, young talent like Najwa Karam, Saber Rebai, Angham, and Abdelmajeed Abdullah.
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Lena Chamamyan is a Syrian singer of Armenian descent. Born in Damascus, she started singing at an early age giving her first concert when she was... five years old. Through her elementary and secondary education she held many school concerts. She started studying music at the age of nine in Damascus. After graduating from the Faculty of Business in 2002, she studied classical singing at the Damascus Conservatory, but also ventured into jazz and traditional Armenian music. On her first album Hal Asmar Ellon , which reflects her style of oriental music mixed with elements of jazz, Chamamyan collaborated with the Aleppo-born instrumentalist and trumpet player Basel Rajoub. The idea of the project was born before Lena started studying music academically. Classic was mixed with jazz and Oriental music to reflect the unique essence of Lena's style as a vocalist. She was charmed from the very beginning by the idea of mixing simple oriental tunes with cords.
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Kinan Azmeh is a clarinet player. Hailed as a “virtuoso” and "Intensely Soulful" by the New York Times and “engagingly... flamboyant” by the L.A. Times, and "Incredibly Rich Sound" by the CBC, Kinan Azmeh is one of Syria’s rising stars. His utterly distinctive sound across different musical genres is now fast gaining international recognition.  Born in Damascus, Kinan was the first Arab to win the premier prize at the 1997 Nicolai Rubinstein International Competition, Moscow. A graduate of New York's Juilliard school as a student of Charles Neidich, and of both the Damascus High institute of Music where he studied with Shukry Sahwki, Nicolay Viovanof and Anatoly Moratof, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering, Kinan is currently finishing his doctoral work in music at the City University of New York. Kinan has appeared worldwide as a soloist, composer and improviser.
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Israel, officially the State of Israel ; Arabic: دَوْلَة... إِسْرَائِيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl], is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state. Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine.
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Lebanon , officially the Lebanese Republic , is a country in the East Mediterranean. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the... south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history, and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than 7,000 years—predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for nearly 2,500 years . Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the five provinces that comprise modern Lebanon were mandated to France. The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronite Catholics and Druze, to include more Muslims.
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Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of... the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert. Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia. Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC.
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Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlakah Al-Urdaniyyah Al-Hashimiyyah is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The... country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing control of the Dead Sea with the latter. Jordan's only port is at its south-western tip, at the Gulf of Aqaba, which is shared with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Over half of Jordan is covered by the Arabian Desert. However, the western part of Jordan is arable land and forests. Jordan is part of the Fertile Crescent. The capital city is Amman. According to the CIA World Factbook, Jordan has the second highest life expectancy in the Middle East, after Israel. The average life expectancy is one position behind the United Kingdom, although the age remains exactly the same . Modern Jordan was founded in 1921, and it was recognized by the League of Nations as a state under the British mandate in 1922 known as The Emirate of Transjordan.
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