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Syria

July 4, 2026

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Volunteers of the Druze-led National Guard manage traffic at a checkpoint, Suwayda, Syria, Jan. 22, 2026.

Clashes between Druze fighters, Syrian forces raise fears of renewed violence

The episodes in Druze-majority Suwayda escalated amid kidnappings, various disputes, and absent movement on integrating Druze into state institutions.

Oil drilling near Dakhiliyah in the desert region of Hasakah, Syria, Jan. 25, 2026.

Syria launches gas project with Saudi firm in latest Gulf energy partnership

The project is the latest in a series of Gulf-backed investments aimed at rebuilding Syria's energy sector after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Nawaf Salam and Asaad al-Shibani shake hands in Beirut on July 2, 2026.

Syria, Lebanon stress noninterference as Damascus mulls Hezbollah talks

When asked whether Damascus would be willing to meet with Hezbollah in the future, Syria’s foreign minister indicated that it would not rule out such a meeting.

Syrian security forces and people gather at the site of an explosion at a cafe in the capital, Damascus, on July 2, 2026.

At least 6 killed, 22 wounded in Damascus cafe explosion: What to know

Syrian authorities have yet to identify a perpetrator in relation to the incident, and armed groups opposing the transitional government did not immediately take credit.

Latest News

Explainer

Turkey eases job rules for 1M+ Syrians under temporary protection: What to know

Syrian textile employees work in a textile workshop in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Jan. 30, 2025.

Syria announces Sharaa's parliamentary appointees, SDF Kurds sidelined

Al Sharaa

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Danny Makki

In London, reporting on Syrian politics and culture

Ali Hashem

In Doha, reporting on Iran, regional politics, conflict

Cagatay Cebe

In Istanbul, reporting on security and counterterrorism

Activists from of the Lebanese LGBT community take part in a protest outside the Hbeish police station in Beirut on May 15, 2016, demanding the release of four transsexual women and calling for the abolishment of article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature". / AFP / ANWAR AMRO (Photo credit should read ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

‘I still wake up at night’: Syrian men and transgender rape survivors struggle in Lebanon

LGBT survivors of sexual violence told Human Rights Watch that accessing services for their physical and psychological trauma is a challenge in Lebanon.

Will there be a new military confrontation in Syria’s Idlib?

The possibility of renewed conflict continues to simmer in the war-torn province of Idlib months after Ankara and Moscow reached a cease-fire agreement.

Russian soldiers sit in their vehicle next to a portrait of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in Khan Sheikhun in the southern countryside of the Idlib province on September 25, 2019. - With military backing from Russia, President Bashar al-Assad's forces have retaken large parts of Syria from rebels and jihadists since 2015, and now control around 60 percent of the country. Russia often refers to troops it deployed in Syria as military "advisers" even though its forces and warplanes are also directly in

Intel: US ramps up Syria pressure campaign with sanctions targeting Assad’s teen son

The latest reason Australia won’t take back citizens detained in Syria’s prisons for IS? Coronavirus

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne says COVID-19 has further complicated the possibilities of repatriating Australians captured during the war against the Islamic State in Syria.

A Syrian doctor, on her own initiative, instructs children how to properly wear a mask during the novel coronavirus pandemic crisis, in the displacement camp of Janid near the town of Dana, east of the Turkish-Syrian border in the northwestern Idlib province, on July 26, 2020. (Photo by Ibrahim YASOUF / AFP) (Photo by IBRAHIM YASOUF/AFP via Getty Images)

First barrel bombs, now coronavirus: doctors in Syria's Idlib hit hard by outbreak

Doctors working in already short-staffed hospitals are struggling with a flare-up of new cases in the country's last rebel stronghold.

WASHINGTON - MARCH 09: The seal of the F.B.I. hangs in the Flag Room at the bureau's headquaters March 9, 2007 in Washington, DC. F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller was responding to a report by the Justice Department inspector general that concluded the FBI had committed 22 violations in its collection of information through the use of national security letters. The letters, which the audit numbered at 47,000 in 2005, allow the agency to collect information like telephone, banking and e-mail records without a

US woman allegedly sought to join al-Qaeda in Syria

The woman's conversations were actually with FBI employees posing as members of the designated terrorist organization.

TOPSHOT - This picture taken on January 19, 2020, near the northern Israeli kibbutz of Misgav Am, shows a general view of the Israel-Lebanon border as Israeli army forces begin deployment of infrastructure for a ground "defensive system" along the fence. - Israel's army said it would start drilling to install ground sensors along its border with Lebanon on January 19, a year after a weeks-long operation to destroy tunnels dug across the frontier that it had accused Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah of buildin

Israel upping alert on tensions with Hezbollah

According to the latest reports, Israel has decided to up the level of alert on its borders with Lebanon and Syria; several roads near the borders will be closed for civilian vehicles as of this evening.

Coronavirus compounds Syrian crisis in Idlib

Amid lack of international aid and a fragile health system, officials and activists are concerned about the rapid spread of the coronavirus in northwest Syria.

Iran accuses US fighter aircraft of harassing Iranian airliner over eastern Syria

An Iranian broadcaster says an Iran-to-Beirut commercial passenger flight had US jets make an aggressively close pass to it over Syria near the Iraqi border.

Will Syrian rebels kill each other in Libya's proxy war?

Syrian mercenaries from that country's civil war could now meet opposite each other in the Libyan conflict, only this time as Wagner Group mercenaries.

TOPSHOT - Displaced Syrian women walk at a camp in Kafr Lusin village on the border with Turkey in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, on March 10, 2020. - When protesters in March 2011 demanded their rights and regime change, they likely never imagined it would trigger a reaction that has led to the 21st century's biggest war. Nine years on, President Bashar al-Assad is still in power and there to stay, more than 380,000 people have died, dozens of towns and cities razed to the ground and half of the c

Women journalists in northwest Syria brave daily dangers

Syrian female journalists face challenges and abuse just for being women.

Erdogan: Turkey will stay in Syria until the 'people are free'

The Turkish president's comments follow parliamentary elections in Syria over the weekend that critics described as a farce.