Latest news with #SyriaCivilWar
Associated Press
7 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Explosion in northern Syria kills at least 6 people and injures dozens
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — At least six people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion in northern Syria's Idlib province, officials said Thursday. There was no official statement on the cause of the blast. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the explosion took place in an ammunition depot. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, reported that at least six people were killed in the blast, which took place in the town of Maarat Misrin north of the city of Idlib on Thursday. 'This is the death toll only of those recovered by Syrian Civil Defense teams, who continue to search for those trapped under the rubble,' the White Helmets said in a statement. Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh in a post on social media platform X that teams were transporting the wounded and dead despite 'continued recurring explosions in the area, which are hampering response efforts.' The state-run news agency, SANA, reported four people killed and 116 injured, citing health officials, without giving further details. Syria is struggling to recover from a nearly 14-year civil war that ended with the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive. During the war, which killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country's pre-war population of of 23 million, Idlib was an opposition-held enclave. The country's current interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa formerly led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an insurgent group based in Idlib that spearheaded the offensive that unseated Assad.
Washington Post
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Washington Post
Syrian wildfires spread due to heavy winds and war remnants
LATAKIA, Syria — Syrian firefighters are facing heavy winds, high temperatures and ordnance left behind from the 13-year civil war as they try to extinguish some of country's worst wildfires in years, a government minister said Monday. The fires, which started last week, have proven difficult to bring under control despite reinforcements from Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon that came to the war-torn country to help Syrian teams fight the blaze.
Arab News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Ex-Syrian commander claims Assad ordered execution of missing US journalist Tice: BBC
LONDON: A former Syrian commander who allegedly oversaw the detention of missing American journalist Austin Tice claims that ex-President Bashar Assad personally ordered Tice's execution, according to a BBC investigation released over the weekend. The report centers on Maj. Gen. Bassam al-Hassan, a former commander in the elite Republican Guard and one of Assad's most trusted advisers. According to the BBC, Hassan spoke to FBI and CIA officials about Tice's fate during at least three meetings in Lebanon, one of which reportedly took place inside the US embassy compound. Hassan, who also served as chief of staff of the National Defense Forces — a pro-regime paramilitary group previously linked by the BBC to Tice's abduction — allegedly oversaw the facility where the journalist was held. Sources close to Hassan said that in 2013, following Tice's brief escape attempt, he was instructed to execute him. According to the sources, Hassan initially sought to dissuade Assad but ultimately relayed the order, which was then carried out. The detail of Tice's escape attempt aligns with prior reports, including a Reuters investigation citing witnesses who recalled seeing 'an American man, dressed in ragged clothing' attempting to escape through the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighborhood — believed to be Tice's final sighting. Tice disappeared in August 2012 while reporting on Syria's civil war in the Damascus suburbs, just days after his 31st birthday. A former US Marine captain who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tice was working as a freelance journalist while studying for a law degree at Georgetown University. He was abducted while preparing to leave the country to go to Lebanon. For years, the Assad regime has denied any knowledge of Tice's whereabouts or involvement in his disappearance. However, the BBC previously reported that classified documents obtained during its investigation supported long-standing suspicions by US authorities that Damascus was directly involved. The latest investigation suggests that Tice was held in the notorious Tahouneh prison, a regime-controlled facility in Damascus. Hassan is also said to have provided the US officials with possible locations for Tice's remains, though efforts to verify his claims are ongoing. 'There is not anything, at least at this time, to corroborate what (Hassan) is saying,' a source familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post. 'The flip side of it is, with his role in the regime, it's hard to understand why he would want to lie about something like that.' Despite the recent developments, skepticism persists. Western intelligence officials expressed doubt that Assad would have issued a direct kill order, noting that the Syrian president typically relies on intermediaries to insulate himself from such decisions. Speaking to the BBC during a recent trip to Lebanon, Tice's mother, Debra Tice, said she believed Hassan may have told US officials 'a story they wanted to hear' to help close the case. 'I am his mother. I still believe that my son is alive and that he will walk free,' she said. A former NDF member also told the BBC that Tice was viewed as a valuable bargaining chip for possible negotiations with Washington. According to the report, Hassan fled to Iran following the collapse of the Syrian regime in December. He was later contacted by phone and invited to Lebanon to meet US officials, who assured him he would not be detained. The BBC revelations come on the heels of an interview published by The Economist with Safwan Bahloul, a three-star general who previously served in Syria's external intelligence agency and was tasked with interrogating Tice. Bahloul, who speaks fluent English and has lived in Britain, said Hassan assigned him to question Tice and handed him the American's iPhone. His mission was to determine whether Tice was 'merely a journalist' or 'an American spy.' Bahloul also said Hassan orchestrated the recording of a video, released on YouTube in September 2012, that showed Tice blindfolded and surrounded by armed men. US intelligence later concluded that the video had been staged by the regime to suggest that Tice was being held by Islamic militants.
New York Times
08-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
They Went to Syria to Fight With Rebels. Now Some Are Joining the New Army.
In the eyes of Syria's new leaders, the foreign fighters who battled alongside their rebel groups to oust the Assad dictatorship are loyal allies 'who have stuck beside the revolution.' For the United States, many of these fighters conjure images of terrorist groups like the Islamic State. Thousands of foreigners flocked to Syria to fight in the multi-sided civil war that began in 2011 and lasted nearly 14 years. Some joined rebel groups like the Islamist faction formerly led by Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Shara, and helped them to unseat President Bashar al-Assad in December. Now, the foreign fighters who remain in Syria have become a point of contention as the Trump administration takes steps to warm relations with the country. Over the past couple of months, American officials have variously suggested expelling them or excluding them from senior positions in the government and military. But as Syria's government rebuilds its military after the devastating war, it has already begun folding some of these foreigners into the army, according to government officials and some of the fighters themselves. The defense, foreign and information ministries did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. Mr. al-Shara's rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, included many foreign combatants. He now finds himself in the difficult position of trying to balance his loyalties to them with his focus on establishing diplomatic relations with countries that want the fighters either marginalized or gone. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
05-06-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Returning to Syria to reckon with the ghosts of my father's past
In an Assad torture prison, I saw my father's poem still on the wall. As my father watched the news, his breath caught. A video of the inside of a prison cell was on the television. Tears streamed down his face. On one of the walls he could make out a poem, one he had written with his own hands. He watched as the Assad regime, which had imprisoned him in the notorious Palestine Branch, collapsed; watched as thousands fled the dungeons where Syrians had been starved, tortured, killed. These were memories I longed to forget: the days without my father, the stories of what he endured. But now, as a photographer on assignment in Syria, I had no choice but to confront them. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The return I never imagined I'd return to Syria — especially not after my family and I left in 2004, and certainly not after the civil war. What began in 2011 as peaceful demonstrations — part of a broader wave of uprisings across the Middle East — was met with unsparing brutality by the Assad regime. The scars of its aftermath were everywhere. Crossing into Syria from Turkey, I felt disoriented. As I drove through the scorched countryside toward Aleppo — the first major city to fall in the final days of Bashar al-Assad's regime — we passed through towns that looked suspended in ruin. New revolutionary flags fluttered above the crumbling walls. Posters of Assad and his father, Hafez, had been torn down by those they had oppressed. Tanks and military uniforms were scattered along the road, evidence of a regime that had fled in haste. We drove past Aleppo, then Hama, where I remembered taking youth group trips to the old city. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement As we neared the capital, we stopped at Mezzeh military airport, once a tightly guarded area. During Assad's reign, approaching it had been unthinkable. Now, I walked freely through the wreckage there: destroyed helicopters, twisted steel, shattered cockpits — all reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes in the chaotic hours after the regime's collapse. Damascus, though, felt frozen in an earlier time: the narrow alleyways, the ancient stone, the scent of jasmine in the air. Here, I had walked as a boy, laughed with friends, built a thousand memories. But there were also pangs at what lay ahead — I knew had to see the Palestine Branch with my own eyes. The prison I found myself standing alone in a dark corridor. I walked through the cells, each more haunting than the last. The stench was suffocating. On one wall, a man had etched: 'I wish the reality was a dream, and the dream was a reality.' That man was my father. I had found his cell. More than two decades had passed, but his words remained — a haunting reminder of what he had endured. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The Palestine Branch was one of the most feared security centers in Syria, infamous for its brutal interrogations, arbitrary detentions and systematic torture. For decades, it stood as a symbol of repression. My father was imprisoned there for seven months in 2000, at a time when Syria was gripped by paranoia and deep mistrust. We had come to Syria as refugees from Iraq, where my father had served in the military, which was mandatory during Saddam Hussein's rule. That was enough for the Assad regime to be suspicious. My father spent the first few months in Cell No. 4, a space meant for about three people. He recalled being there with 11 others. Later, he was moved to Cell No. 8, where he spent the bulk of his detention and endured severe torture. Living in Damascus After my father's release from prison, we settled in a neighborhood called Dwela, a modest working-class suburb of Damascus. I started sweeping up hair clippings and making tea at a barbershop nearby. Later, I worked in the basement of our building, where the landlord — a man named Abu John — ran a tailoring workshop. It was in that neighborhood that I experienced my first protest. The mass uprisings of 2011 were still years away, but you could already feel the growing anger. The government had announced plans to demolish homes in our area to make way for a highway and a bridge. One afternoon, we gathered in the street, chanting against the demolition. Riot police soon arrived, and before we knew it, we were surrounded by tear gas. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement When I returned to the neighborhood this year, the open fields where we once played were gone, buried beneath layers of concrete and makeshift buildings. Trash spilled into alleyways. After decades of war, residents' faces were etched with grief and exhaustion. The monastery One of the places I was most eager to revisit was the monastery where I had spent a significant part of my childhood — St. Ephraim, nestled in the village of Maarat Sednaya, just outside Damascus. We had lived in the capital for nearly a year when the government intensified its crackdown on undocumented refugees like us. Our Orthodox church stepped in, offering us shelter in the monastery. We spent about four years there. My parents helped with the cooking, and I worked in the fields alongside a monk named Hanna. Together, we tended to nearly a thousand olive trees that covered the hillside. Returning after two decades, I felt time had paused. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement I wandered among the olive trees that I had once watered, whose fruit I had once harvested and cleaned. I ate meals with the monks, joined them for morning and evening prayers, walked among the ancient books, and stood once again inside the small room where I had spent years of my life. A few miles away, across the mountain, a new monastery had been built. The Holy Cross Monastery reminded me of how the place once felt: sacred and untouched by the chaos below. When I visited, I was stunned to find Monk Hanna there. It was a bittersweet reunion. He barely remembered me. After my family left, hundreds of other Iraqi refugees sought shelter at the monastery. To him, I was one of many — a fading memory buried in decades of faces and names. When I showed him a photo of the two of us in the olive fields, something flickered, a faint recognition. I held on to that moment. I didn't need more. The departure In 2004, I sat in the departure hall of Damascus airport. We were leaving the home we had known for years. I didn't know if I'd return, but I still remember my heart pounding with excitement for what might come next. Two decades later, walking through the same halls, I was overwhelmed by a flood of memories — of uncertainty, of longing, of a younger version of myself who didn't yet know how long the journey ahead would be. As our plane lifted off, I looked down at the landscape of Syria — the cities and towns, the valleys and ridges, the scars of war and the quiet strength still holding the country together. I tried to stay in the moment, to reflect on everything I had seen over the past few months: the fall of the regime, the devastation, the resistance, the resilience. I thought of the people I was leaving behind — the shopkeepers, the mothers, the children, the former detainees, the elderly survivors who held their stories like heirlooms. They had endured so much under the iron grip of the Assad regime. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement I thought, too, about how rare it is for refugees to return. Most never do. But I had been blessed twice: once to return to my homeland, Iraq, and now to my second home, Syria.
