Dan Wilkofsky

Dan Wilkofsky is a Syria analyst and former editor at Syria Direct. On Twitter: @Dwilkofsky1

Gulf | Aug 18, 2022

Leaking tankers threaten health, livelihoods along Yemen's coast

A series of recent pollution incidents in the port of Aden has brought newfound urgency to addressing the hazardous vessels.

Syria | Jul 11, 2022

ALM Exclusive

Energy company touts oil-for-food scheme as Syrian aid route tightens

With Syria's sole remaining route for cross-border aid in peril, a London-based oil company is lobbying for an initiative that would see the proceeds of Syrian oil being used for aid, with the money going to the UN rather than Damascus.

Syria | May 12, 2022

Syrian Kurdish unity talks crumble as Turkey escalates anti-PKK campaign

The breakdown between sides serves Turkey’s agenda of keeping its Kurdish foes divided and weak.

Syrian Kurds demonstrate on June 10, 2021, in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli.

Syria | Mar 2, 2022

Family ties fuel Islamic State to rebel pipeline in northern Syria

The stories of fighters who turned from the Islamic State to Syria's rebel opposition forces show the how kinship ties, regionalism, and material concerns often trump ideology in the Syrian war.

Syria | Jan 20, 2022

Child recruitment leaves parents heartbroken in northeast Syria

The PKK-linked Revolutionary Youth movement has continued its campaign of child recruitment in northeast Syria despite efforts from local authorities, and SDF chief Mazloum Kobane to stop the practice, leaving a trail of anguished parents in its wake.

Syria | Jul 22, 2021

Turkish-backed rebels leave trail of abuse, criminality in Syria’s Afrin

The serene topography of the Syrian enclave of Afrin belies the power vacuum and violence now afflicting many of the territories under the control of Turkish-backed forces in the war-torn country’s northeast.

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters of the Sultan Murad Turkoman brigade are pictured during a military show in the Afrin region in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria's northern Aleppo province on Nov. 17, 2020.

Syria | Feb 22, 2021

In Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, SDF conscription ‘severs livelihoods’

The Syrian Democratic Forces' recent campaign to conscript youth for military service is compounding economic hardship in Deir ez-Zor province, one of the poorest areas of Syria. In villages where the campaign is most active, young men are staying home for fear of arrest, forgoing daily wages and delaying grocery purchases to avoid passing by checkpoints.

Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attend the funeral of an Arab fighter in SDF who was killed the previous week in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, in northeastern Syrian Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on April 10, 2019. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria | Dec 7, 2020

Child recruitment casts shadow over Syrian Kurds' push for global legitimacy

Failed efforts to secure the return of a recent spate of Kurdish youth recruited to fight in northeast Syria shows the delicate path the region's autonomous administration must navigate in its relations with the PKK.

Fighters from the Kurdish Women's Protection units (YPJ) participate in a military parade on March 27, 2019, celebrating the total elimination of the Islamic State (IS) group's last bastion in eastern Syria, in the northwestern city of Hasakah, in the province of the same name. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria | Sep 10, 2020

For Syria’s opposition activists, Turkey 'best of the bad'

While initially welcoming millions of refugees and supporting opposition activists after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the Turkish government has since shifted positions to further its own interests in a manner that dismays many Syrians living in the country.