As the US prepares to mark 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001, Donald Trump has removed top Al Qaeda figures from the US list of designated terrorists. Among those he delisted was Abdullah Muhaysini, a Saudi cleric who recruited child fighters and teen suicide bombers to wreak havoc across Syria.
An Israeli news report has offered a rare insight into how civilian activity is being used to strengthen Israeli occupiers’ hold over occupied Syrian territory, describing the deployment of a 140-head cattle herd as part of a strategy to establish a permanent presence beyond the Golan border fence.
US Central Command said on Saturday that its forces launched an additional 10 strikes against ISIS in Syria from February 3 to February 12, an announcement that came after US forces withdrew from a key base in southern Syria.
QUNEITRA, SYRIA—In what has become a regular occurrence in southwest Syria, Israeli tanks and troops stormed the Quneitra countryside on Monday, taking up positions in the village of Saida Al-Hanout. As drones flew overhead, Israeli military units set up a temporary checkpoint and searched civilians before eventually withdrawing.
AMMAN/DAMASCUS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Syria’s de facto president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader, arrived in New York City on Sunday, where he will attend the UN General Assembly, making him the first Syrian leader to do so since 1967.
Continuing the purge of Syria’s Alawite minority that began with large scale massacres back in March, Interior Ministry security forces have almost entirely depopulated the metro Damascus neighborhood of al-Somaria, which was up until the raids, an Alawite majority area.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented the violent deaths of nearly 10,000 people in Syria since the former ISIS commander, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was installed in power in Damascus.
Sunday saw relative calm return to the Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria, after a solid week of fighting among the Druze and Bedouins left in excess of 1,100 documented deaths so far and a final toll that is likely to be even higher.
The Syrian Defense Ministry has announced a ceasefire between Druze forces and Bedouin tribes in and around the city of Suwayda, following Syrian security forces entering the city aiming to bring an end to multiple days of fighting.
TEL AVIV — The recent Israeli-Syrian talks have included discussion of Israeli troop withdrawals from Syria, their replacement by US and Syrian troops and the upgrading of the countries’ border agreements, according to Israeli and foreign officials speaking to Al-Monitor.
LATAKIA, Syria - The young man’s heart was sliced from his chest and placed on his body. His name was No. 56 on a handwritten list of 60 dead that included his cousins, neighbors and at least six children from their coastal Syrian village.
US Central Command on Wednesday announced that it supported a series of operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria from May 21 to May 27, as US troops remain involved in combat in the two countries.
The Trump administration will begin allowing US diplomats based in Turkey to work with local officials in Damascus to make determinations about what kind of aid they need, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday, before delivering a grim warning that the interim Syrian government was on the verge of collapse.
On Wednesday, President Trump met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the founder of al-Qaeda in Syria, who became the country’s de facto leader after his rebranded group of jihadists, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took power in Damascus in December 2024.
BEIRUT/AMMAN, May 7 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria, three people familiar with the matter said, as Syria's new rulers seek regional help to manage an increasingly hostile relationship with their southern neighbour.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States plans to relocate its troops in Syria to two new military bases, one near Turkey-held areas and another on the Syria-Iraq border and maintain at least 400 soldiers in Kurdish-held areas, an official from the northeast Syria (Rojava) administration in Washington DC said on Monday.
Wars are costly and often devastating to the local populace. The road to recovery can also be long and difficult. This is even more true in Lebanon and Syria, with the US engaged in international efforts to preclude any reconstruction funds being sent by other nations.
The situation in northwestern Syria continues to spiral out of control this weekend, as the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been surging forces into the Alawite homelands in the Latakia and Tartus Governorates, clashing with Alawite militias and slaughtering civilians.
