Syria

One Million Refugees Are Expected to Return to Syria in 2026

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) predicted that around one million Syrian refugees will return to their country during 2026, given the gradual recovery that Syria is witnessing after the fall of the Assad regime. Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the UNHCR representative in Syria, stated, "Our estimates indicate that 2026 could see ...

Israeli Military Says Detained Suspected IS Jihadist in Syria

The Israeli military said on Saturday its forces had arrested a suspected Islamic State group jihadist in Syria earlier this week and taken him back to Israel. In a statement, the military said that on Wednesday "soldiers completed an operation in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS." "The ...

Syria Monitor Says US Strikes Killed at Least Five Islamic State Members

A Syria monitor said Saturday that five Islamic State jihadist group members were killed in US strikes overnight as Jordan confirmed it participated in the raids after a deadly attack on American troops last weekend. US forces said they struck more than 70 IS targets in what President Donald Trump described as "very serious retaliation" ...

Clashes Between the Lebanese Army and Syrian General Security at Border

According to information reported by LBCI, clashes broke out between the Lebanese army and members of Syria’s General Security, lasting around 20 minutes in the Machrafa area between Hermel and Qaa on Sunday, as the army was attempting to cut off one of the smuggling routes in the region. Al-Jadeed also reported that the Lebanese army returned ...

Syrian Who Killed Americans Was Part of Security Forces

Syria's interior ministry said Sunday the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism. Two U.S. troops and a civilian interpreter died in what the Syrian government described as a "terrorist attack" on Saturday, while Washington said ...

U.S. and Syrian Soldiers Wounded as Shots Fired at Delegation

Two American troops and an interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an alleged member of the Islamic State group opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the deaths on X after Syria's state media earlier reported that an attack in the city of Palmyra had wounded American ...

WSJ: Ex-Syrian General Jamil Hassan Hiding in Lebanon

Maj. Gen. Jamil Hassan, the former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence and one of the most wanted figures of the Assad regime, is believed to be hiding in Lebanon after fleeing Syria last December, according to an investigation published by The Wall Street Journal. Hassan, long considered a central architect of the regime’s repression, ...

Lebanon’s Collective Trauma Needs Peace

There was an unmistakable irony on Monday as Lebanon’s “Sunni street” marked the first anniversary of the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime. The same community that has condemned its Shia counterparts for venerating Iran’s rulers now engages in the same political canonization, this time for Syria’s new leaders. The motorbike convoys ...

Israel’s Power Vacuum Dilemma

On December 2 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in recent fighting in southern Syria. Their injuries followed a November 26 IDF raid on the village of Beit Jinn in southern Syria, an operation that left several Syrians dead and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu had a ...

Barrack's Glaring Error on Syria and Lebanon

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack keeps warning that Lebanon will be “reabsorbed” into Syria unless Hezbollah is disarmed, a historically unfounded threat from someone who derides the Sykes-Picot boundaries as colonial nonsense yet treats Syria’s borders as sacrosanct. His selective anti-colonialism spares Syria, disregards Kurdish and Druze ...

Aoun Sends Well-Wishes to Al-Sharaa During Airspace Transit

Syrian state news agency SANA reported Tuesday that President Ahmed al-Sharaa received a diplomatic cable from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun as Aoun’s aircraft transited Syrian airspace on its way to the Sultanate of Oman. The gesture came as Damascus marked the first anniversary of its liberation from the former Assad regime. In his ...

Who Really Defeated ISIS in Syria?

In the narrative promoted by Moscow and Damascus, Russia and Bashar al-Assad’s regime are credited with delivering the decisive blow against ISIS in Syria. This account frames Russia’s military intervention, which began in September 2015, as the turning point in the fight against the terrorist group. Yet, a closer look at the data paints a ...