More than 100 chemical weapons sites are suspected to remain in Syria, left behind after the fall of the longtime president, Bashar al-Assad, according to the leading international organization that tracks these weapons. That number is the first estimate of its kind as the group, the Organization for the Prohibition …
The trainer paced the grounds of a mountain enclave in southwestern Syria, shouting at dozens of new recruits as they drilled sprints between barricades made from old car tires. “You have to practice as if it’s real,” screamed the instructor, Fadi Azam. “Want me to start shooting at you instead …
Syria’s new president has spoken often about the urgency of merging the many armed groups that fought to topple the strongman Bashar al-Assad into a unified national army. But the spasm of violence that erupted this month in northwestern Syria, which killed hundreds of civilians, made it clear just how …
The first ransom demand came in a text message on Sami al-Izoo’s phone 10 days after he witnessed his brother being kidnapped, forced into a truck with dark tinted windows by six masked men. Next came a video in which he said his brother, Abdulrazaq al-Izoo, 60, appeared with his …
The gunfire began at dawn on Friday in the town of al-Haffa on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. At first, Wala, a 29-year-old resident of the town, leaped off her bed to the corner of the room in her first-floor apartment, flattening herself as the rat-a-tat of gunshots sounded outside her bedroom …
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the country’s new leader has hosted a national unity conference and welcomed foreign dignitaries as crowds gather at cafes, speaking out freely for the first time in decades. But 400 miles away in northeastern Syria, a region beyond the control of the Damascus government, battles …
As the commander of a rebel group allied with Al Qaeda during Syria’s long civil war, the man known by his nom du guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, welcomed foreign jihadists, dispatched suicide bombers to blow up military posts and vowed to create an Islamic state. A decade ago, he told …
Ruwayda al-Aqaar was sleeping next to her husband and 3-year-old daughter in late December when they were awakened by the sound of approaching tanks and bulldozers. They rushed outside their small house and saw dozens of Israeli soldiers marching into their small farming village, she said. “I was terrified,” Ms. …
No international body is searching for hundreds of Yazidi women and girls still held captive by the Islamist terrorists. Instead, their fates depend on a ragtag army of activists, relatives and armchair detectives. Feb. 16, 2025 The investigator’s eyes dart between the two photographs. In one, a young girl, maybe …
As the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah intensified last September, Abed Al Kadiri sat glued to the television in the art studio where he was working in Kuwait. Mr. Al Kadiri watched as Beirut, the Lebanese capital and city of his childhood, was ravaged by Israeli …