There is a country in the Middle East ruled by a secular authoritarian regime — a state sponsor of terror — that has reigned for 44 years under the leadership of a father and then his son who belong to a minority Shiite-derived religious sect. For four years, this regime has been the target of a brutal civil war. In that civil war, the regime's two leading antagonists are the al-Nusra Front, which is the local al-Qaida affiliate, and the Islamic State, which has supplanted al-Qaida as the most aggressive Sunni Islamist terror group.

Dan Gilmore

Syria

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