Mohammed al-Abad, a wiry young man wearing black jeans and wraparound shades, drives his motorcycle several times a week up a gravel hill amassed from the crushed remains of his old neighborhood in a city just outside Damascus, the Syrian capital. At the top, he surveys a Martian landscape of flattened, dun-colored sand. There is…
President Trump said on Tuesday that he would lift sanctions on Syria, throwing an economic lifeline to a country devastated by nearly 14 years of civil war and decades of dictatorship under the Assad family. Mr. Trump was expected to meet for the first time with Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, on Wednesday in Saudi…
Israeli fighter jets struck near the Syrian presidential palace on Friday in what Israeli leaders said was a warning to the government to protect the Druse minority after a new wave of sectarian violence. More than 100 people were killed this week in clashes involving a number of parties, including Sunni Muslim extremists not fully…
Deadly clashes fueled by sectarian tensions erupted on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least nine people, Syrian officials and a war monitoring group said on Tuesday. The violence erupted overnight from Monday to Tuesday in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, which has a large population from the minority Druse sect. It…
More than 100 chemical weapons sites are suspected to remain in Syria, left behind after the fall of the longtime president, Bashar al-Assad, according to the leading international organization that tracks these weapons. That number is the first estimate of its kind as the group, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, seeks to…
The trainer paced the grounds of a mountain enclave in southwestern Syria, shouting at dozens of new recruits as they drilled sprints between barricades made from old car tires. “You have to practice as if it’s real,” screamed the instructor, Fadi Azam. “Want me to start shooting at you instead to make it real?” he…
As the minutes ticked closer to sundown, the crowd grew more impatient, pressing against the glass display case, shouting and shoving bills toward the young men filling order after order of the Ramadan sweet bread. “If you please—” “What is this stuffed with?” “Sir, take my money!” “Just be patient!” The high-pressure volley of queries,…
The gunfire began at dawn on Friday in the town of al-Haffa on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. At first, Wala, a 29-year-old resident of the town, leaped off her bed to the corner of the room in her first-floor apartment, flattening herself as the rat-a-tat of gunshots sounded outside her bedroom window. When the commotion grew…
The newly appointed president of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, pledged in a speech on Thursday to create an inclusive transitional government that reflects Syria’s diversity and that will lead the country until it can hold “free and fair elections.” The speech was Mr. al-Shara’s first public address since his rebel coalition toppled the country’s longtime dictator,…
The rebel coalition that seized control of Syria last month appointed its leader, Ahmed al-Shara, as president of the country to preside over a transitional period, Syrian state media reported on Wednesday. A spokesman for the coalition, Col. Hassan Abdel Ghani, also declared that the Constitution had been nullified and the legislature and army formed…