Syria

Syria Leader tells Podcast Thousands Joining New Army

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview released Monday that "thousands" of people were joining the country's new army following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and the dissolution of his military. "I did not impose mandatory conscription in Syria. Instead, I opted for voluntary enlistment, and today thousands are joining ...

Syrian Artillery Bombs Border Areas

Tensions remain high on the Lebanese-Syrian border, with violent clashes continuing, particularly in Matraba, between armed elements in Hermel and Syrian security forces. Sunday afternoon, the Lebanese army has sent reinforcements to Masharih el-Qaa, on the border. This afternoon, shells struck the official school in Qanaf and the locality of ...

Syrian Whistleblower "Caesar" Reveals Identity

A Syrian whistleblower, who smuggled tens of thousands of pictures depicting torture under Bashar al-Assad, on Thursday revealed his identity for the first time, two months after the longtime ruler was toppled. "I am First Lieutenant Farid al-Madhan, the (former) head of the forensic evidence department at the military police in Damascus, known ...

Four Dead, Ten Wounded in Border Clashes Between HTS and Hezbollah-Linked Drug Traffickers

A precarious calm prevailed Friday evening along the Lebanese-Syrian border after intense clashes between Syrian forces of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Lebanese tribes involved in trafficking in which four people were killed and ten injured. On Friday morning, artillery fire was launched by HTS towards the Jarmash area in Syria, ...

Syria: UN Reports "Systematic" Looting During War

A United Nations commission said Thursday it had documented the systematic destruction and pillaging of displaced people's property during Syria's war, warning of demographic change nearly two months after Bashar al-Assad's ouster. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria has documented "pillages of such large scale that ...

Erdogan Hails Syria Leader's 'Strong Commitment' to Fighting Terror

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday hailed Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa for his "strong commitment" to fighting terror as the newly installed interim president made his first visit to Turkey. Sharaa flew to Ankara from Saudi Arabia where he had sought Riyadh's support to fund Syria's reconstruction and revive its economy after 13 years of civil ...

Syria's Sharaa Says Elections Could Take Up to Five Years

Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa said Monday organising elections could take up to five years, the week after he was appointed interim president and less than two months after ousting Bashar al-Assad. "My estimate is that the period of time will be approximately between four and five years until the elections," Sharaa said in a pre-recorded ...

Car Bomb Kills 15 in Northern Syria

A car bomb on Monday killed 15 people, mostly women farm workers, in the northern Syrian city of Manbij where Kurdish forces are battling Turkey-backed groups, state media reported. Citing White Helmet rescuers, SANA news agency said there had been a "massacre" on a local road, with "the explosion of a car bomb near a vehicle transporting ...

Mitigated or Stifled Transitions?

The transitions in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza are still controversial, and their actors are undecided about their outcomes. Observers ask whether the various actors are genuinely interested in the transformative courses and to what extent. The newly set dynamics that have taken place throughout the Near East have not yet been relayed by steadier, ...

Explaining the Diplomatic Roller-Coaster in Damascus

The diplomatic roller-coaster in Syria’s capital since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime suggests that a strategic shift is underway. This is all the more significant as the Prince of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, made an official visit to Damascus on Thursday, where he was received by the interim Syrian president, Ahmad ...