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Nusra Front as another triumphant day seizing nearly the entire major city of Idlib. Fighting against the regime lasted nearly four days but regime was eventually driven away. This was a good victory for the opposition to take another city, but is the strengthening of Nusra Front a good thing as well?

Some 18,000 civilians have been trapped with limited food and water in the Yarmouk camp near Syria's capital, caught between government forces and dueling rebel groups. Their already-tenuous situation deteriorated sharply last week when ISIS launched a push to seize control of the camp from rival armed groups like the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, setting off street battles and mounting alarm for those trapped in the crossfire.

Islamist militias have seized control of Tripoli. The anti-Islamist Zintan militia attacked the libyan town of Kikla, an Islamist stronghold.

A Syrian and Jordan border crossing has now been closed due to tensions between the "freedom fighters" and other similar groups. 

ISIS has taken over a refugee camp near Damascus, the Syrian capital. They say they are targeting opposition forces living in the camps. ISIS is making it nearly impossible to evacuate those inside the camp and the UN has called this a major "humanitarian crisis."

The US-led coalition has carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria, where the jihadists have launched a new offensive and kidnapped 220 Assyrian Christians. The raids on Thursday struck areas around the town of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, without giving information on possible casualties.

The Kurds in Syria are now fearing the use of chemical weapons by the extremist group, ISIS. The chemical weapons were used near the town of Kobani.

Turkey has seen the Kurdish groups as an enemy. But because Assad faces a much greater threat, they are forced to see the Kurds as allies in fighting. Similarly the Kurds must utilize Turkey as an allie, or be surrounded by enemies.

George Orwell, the author of the famous novel 1984, is trending on Twitter after a student was arrested while carrying a copy of the book. Egyptian on social media seized on the perceived irony of the situation and a well known journalist remarked, "that the book is now more popular than ever in Egypt." The reports however may be false and the Giza Security Directorate, General Mahmoud Farouk says the novel had nothing to do with the arrest. Instead it is reported that the student was carrying materials supportive of the IS. The charges against the student remained unclear.

The Turkish government recently went into an extremist-controlled territory in order to evacuate a tomb of a major historical figure, and the soldiers who guarded it. The safe passage of this mission has shown that the relations between Turkey and Syria have gotten a bit better. 

As the United States has closed its embassy and withdrawn its last troops, Yemen has slid into total chaos, with rebels and jihadists on both sides capturing military bases and seizing tanks and heavy weapons.

Syrian government forces say they have seized the last major town held by rebels in western Latakia province. Russian air strikes were crucial in the recapture of Rabia.

Two hospitals, six laboratories, and ten pharmacies were taken and handed over to the Health Ministry after "it has been asserted that they were owned and run by members of a terrorist organization." These were facilities under Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and in their news database they described the incident as being called "terrorists" and that the committee was "looting the Brotherhood's money".

An article from the firm's blog talking about World War II weapons being used in the Syrian Civil War. I found both the article and accompanying video very interesting. Besides showing a bunch of very old weapons being used and the essentially finding new life in this conflict, it also shows a government stockpile seized by rebels full of Stg 44s (assault rifles from Nazi Germany). For me this raises the question of how did they get there?

the general intelligence revolution has revealed an alleged Hezbollah plan to take over Beirut by purposely bombing the organization's own munition factories as well as military positions of the Lebanese army

Progress has been made in Syria with the recapture of the central city of Palmyra. ISIS seized the city in May of last year and has now left it in a wake of destruction.

This Al Jazeera article discusses the recent failed UN proposal presented by the Palestinian Authority calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from recently seized territories. More importantly though, the article discusses the current state of affairs and calls for a single state solution.