Sirens blaring, a truckful of armed men trailing in its wake, the black sport utility vehicle that sliced sharklike through the Syrian town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya on Friday morning was impossible to miss. Government forces had retaken control from the armed groups that turned the town into a sectarian battlefield for two days this week,…
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…
A delegation of Syrian Druse made a rare visit to Israel over the weekend for a pilgrimage to a shrine as Israel seeks to extend its influence inside Syria after the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad. Both Israel and Syria have sizable minorities who belong to the Druse sect — an Arabic-speaking religious minority…
As Western diplomats explore establishing ties with the rebels who took power in Syria, a religious minority has been conducting its own diplomatic push to ensure protections for its members as the country rebuilds. A representative of the group, the Druse, recently went to Washington to meet with lawmakers, members of the Biden and Trump…