Syria's new rulers faces one of their first serious challenges: bread lines. For Syrians, the long wait is a struggle — but for some, bread is a business opportunity.
The Qatar Airways flight landed at Damascus International Airport. Many passengers were Syrian nationals coming come for the first time in more than a decade.
Former opposition groups — some of whom are U.S.-trained — will be knitted together into new Syrian security forces organized by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that led the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.
When Syria's dictatorship fell, celebrations broke out around the world, including in Ohio, where Mohammed al-Refai, a refugee from Syria, lives now. NPR has followed his story for nearly a decade.
After Bashar al-Assad's ouster, there are questions about the fate of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the U.S.-backed Kurdish coalition that currently controls a third of Syrian territory.
"Our problem is not with Israel. We don't want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel's security," Damascus Governor Maher Marwan tells NPR. Syria and Israel have never had diplomatic ties.
More than 7,000 people had taken shelter in the Rukban camp, near the border with Jordan, many of whom fled the regime and ISIS attacks almost a decade ago.
As Syria's economy collapsed during its civil war, the country became something of a narco state. The regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad earned billions by trafficking in the drug Captagon.
As the world watches Syria grapple with the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime and the formation of a new government, one neighbor has emerged as having great influence over the new Syria.
Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is believed to have issued his first remarks, via the Telegram app from Moscow, since opposition forces took over the capital over a week ago.
The number of Syrians who were resettled in Georgia in fiscal year 2024, which ended in August, was 264, according to the U.S. Department of State’s Refugee Processing Center.
Comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend were the first time a U.S. official has acknowledged contact with the Syrian rebel group that drove Bashar al-Assad from power.
Travis Timmerman, a U.S. citizen found wandering barefoot in Damascus after being freed from a Syrian prison following the fall of the Assad regime, was handed over to U.S. forces in Syria on Friday.
