The United States on Friday launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State (IS) targets across central Syria in retaliation for a deadly attack on US personnel, officials said. USSecretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a Christmas service at the Pentagon.(AFP) Defence secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons…
In the last year, Israel averaged nearly two daily attacks on Syria and grabbed more land in the occupied Golan Heights. It has been one year since a lightning offensive by allied rebel groups led to the fall of Damascus, ending the al-Assad dynasty’s 54-year reign. Yet, as the regime collapsed, Israel seized on the…
Syria’s Asaad al-Shaibani meets with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi as Damascus pushes to bolster international ties. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has pledged to deepen collaboration on “counterterrorism” with China on his first visit to Beijing since the toppling of former President Bashar al-Assad last year. Al-Shaibani and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi agreed on Monday…
new video loaded: How Syria’s President Transformed His Image Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara’s meeting with President Trump in Washington signifies a new turn for al-Shara, a former Islamist rebel leader who was once designated by the United States as a terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. Our reporter Christina Goldbaum describes the…
Avi Gold’s visit to Syria stands out for the unexpected affection he received from locals, including a special encounter with one of Damascus’s last Jews. Jewish globe-trotter Avi Gold said that in a recent trip to Syria, rather than experiencing any hostility, he encountered people who expressed affection for the Jewish people and Israel. Gold,…
Al-Sharaa’s trip, planned for November 10, will be first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House. United States President Donald Trump will host Syria’s interim leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, for talks on November 10, according to Washington’s envoy to Damascus, in what would mark the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the US…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Joel Rayburn, an envoy for Syria during his first White House term, to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The Republican president nominated Rayburn in February for the State Department position overseeing…
The British government on Tuesday removed Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group which spearheaded the Syrian rebel alliance that helped oust President Bashar al-Assad, from its list of banned terrorist organisations. HTS, a former al Qaeda affiliate, was proscribed in 2017, meaning that Britain designated it as a terrorist group, making it illegal to support…
new video loaded: We Investigated Assad’s Fugitive Henchmen Haley Willis and Christiaan Triebert, reporters from the Times’s Visual Investigations team, share findings from their ongoing reporting project on the roles and whereabouts of henchmen for Bashar al-Assad, the former Syrian president. These key officials powered Assad’s brutal regime for years. Where are they now? By…
The Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad was the face of the regime, but he was far from alone. During his two decades in power — and over the course of a 13-year civil war that left half a million people dead — Mr. al-Assad’s many enforcers oversaw the torture of political prisoners. They developed and deployed…