BEIRUT — Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a strategic northwestern town from government forces on Thursday, opposition activists said, cutting a key highway just days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012. Despite losing the town of Saraqeb, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces made major gains...
Turkey Sends More Troops, Tanks to Syria Amid Idlib Assault
BEIRUT — Several Turkish armored vehicles and tanks entered rebel-controlled northwestern Syria early on Friday, the latest reinforcements sent in by Ankara amid a Syrian government offensive that this week brought the two countries' troops into a rare direct confrontation. The Syrian government, backed by its ally Russia, has kept...
At the Oscars, 'The Cave' Aims to Provide Hope to Syria
NEW YORK — Home is a complicated notion for Feras Fayyad, the director of the Oscar-nominated Syrian documentary “The Cave.” His family home in Syria is believed to have been taken just weeks ago as President’s Bashar al-Assad’s Russian-backed forces seized the area. His family is living in temporary housing...
Syrian Troops Capture Key Town in Rebel-Held Idlib Province
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces captured one of the largest and most strategic rebel-held towns in the country's northwest, the Syrian military and opposition activists said Wednesday, part of a Russian-backed military assault that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to safer areas. The town of Maaret...
Syria Talks: Possible Path Toward Peace, or Another Dead End
GENEVA — Syria's government and opposition have delicately sat down for their first face-to-face talks, amid the hopes of millions of Syrians and governments from Washington to Moscow that they could become a step toward ending the country's devastating 8 ½-year war. It could be a chance for peace, or...
Documents Shine Rare Light on Syrian Government Crackdown
BEIRUT — Thousands of documents purportedly collected from abandoned Syrian government offices during the country's civil war reveal the reach of President Bashar Assad's shadowy, labyrinthine security agencies as they spied on the population at large, sought to eliminate dissidents at all cost and systematically persecuted the Kurdish minority even...
How Assad and Hezbollah Beat the West in Syria
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s downfall seemed all but guaranteed at many points during the eight years since the Arab Spring began to topple Middle Eastern dictators, Haaretz reported. Yet Assad has now outlasted fellow despots like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and also Western leaders like President Barack...
Video Reveals Horrific Effects of Syrian Gas Attack on Civilians
The New York Times reports today (Feb. 27) that the Syrian government's use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in its long-running civil war may have been aided by North Korea. The Times story is based on an unpublished United Nations report prepared by a panel of eight experts from...