New Delhi: With Bashar al-Assad’s departure, the fate of Syria’s Alawite community remains precarious. Once empowered by the regime, many Alawites now face reprisals from rebel factions and displaced Sunni populations who suffered under Assad’s rule. Revenge attacks have already killed over 1,000 people, including hundreds of Alawites, as power dynamics in Syria shift violently. … Read more
The death count from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago. The Britain-based Syrian … Read more
A Syria war monitor reported on Saturday that more than 300 Alawite civilians have been killed in recent days by the security forces and their allies, as authorities clash with militants loyal to the former government of Bashar al-Assad. Restoring security has been one of the most complex tasks for Syria’s new authorities, installed after … Read more
Syria: More than 300,000 refugees have returned to Syria since president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, the United Nations said Friday. “Since December 8… we’ve now crossed the 300,000 returns,” Celine Schmitt of the UN refugee agency UNHCR told reporters in Geneva, via video-link from Damascus. Her comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on … Read more
Damascus, Syria: More than 70 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Syria in fighting between government security forces and militants loyal to deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said Friday. “More than 70 killed and dozens wounded and captured in bloody clashes and ambushes on the Syrian coast between members of the … Read more
Damascus, Syria: From a Bond villain lair in the rugged heights overlooking Damascus, the all-seeing eye of a notorious Syrian military unit gazed down on a city it bled dry. Many of the bases of the elite Fourth Division formerly run by toppled president Bashar al-Assad’s feared younger brother Maher now lie looted. But papers … Read more
New Delhi/Damascus: The Druze community, historically concentrated in southern Syria’s Suwayda and the surrounding areas of Jabal al-Druze, has long been wary of external threats. While small Druze communities exist near the Golan Heights, they are part of a larger network of Druze populations spread across Syria and Lebanon. The Druze, like the Kurds or … Read more
More than 1,000 Syrians died in detention at a military airport on the outskirts of Damascus, killed by execution, torture or maltreatment at a site that was widely feared, according to a report to be published Thursday tracing the deaths to seven suspected grave sites. In the report, shared exclusively with Reuters, the Syria Justice … Read more
Damascus: Syria’s new authorities on Friday announced the arrest of a cousin of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, accused of orchestrating a crackdown in Daraa, where the 2011 uprising began. Atif Najib, the former head of political security in Daraa in southern Syria, was arrested in Latakia, on the country’s west coast, the official SANA news … Read more
Damascus, Syria: In less than two months, Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa has risen from rebel leader to interim president, after his Islamist group led a lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa was appointed Wednesday to lead Syria for an unspecified transitional period, and has been tasked with forming an interim legislature after the dissolution of … Read more
Damascus: Syria’s new authorities announced Wednesday that Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took the helm after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last month, has been appointed interim president and tasked with forming a transitional legislature, state media reported. A rebel alliance led by Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, … Read more