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Syria Crisis
The Syrian government Sunday announced a ceasefire with the Syrian Democratic Forces, taking almost full control of the country and dismantling the Kurdish-led forces that controlled the northeast for over a decade. The announcement comes as tensions between government forces and the SDF boiled over earlier this month, eventually resulting in a major push by government forces toward the east. The SDF appeared to have largely retreated after initial clashes on a tense front line area in eastern Aleppo province. Syria's Defence Ministry said it ordered the fighting to halt on the front lines after the agreement was announced. The SDF did not confirm the agreement, nor immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Syria's new leaders, since toppling Bashar Assad in December 2024, have struggled to assert their full authority over the war-torn country. An agreement was reached in March that would merge the SDF with Damascus, but it didn't gain traction as both
A third round of retaliatory strikes by the US in Syria resulted in the death of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated leader, who officials say had a direct tie to the Islamic State member responsible for last month's ambush that killed two US soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in the country. US Central Command announced that the strike in northwest Syria on Friday killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, who they claim was an experienced terrorist leader who plotted attacks and was directly connected" to the December 13 attack that killed Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard and civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat. The death of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three Americans demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who attack our forces, Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement. There is no safe place for those who conduct, plot, or inspire attacks on American citizens and our warfighters. We will find you. It was the lates
Syrian security forces began deploying on Saturday in a neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of intense clashes with Kurdish fighters that killed and wounded dozens. Syria's state news agency SANA reported that two Kurdish fighters blew themselves up in the middle of security forces without inflicting casualties, as gunfire was still heard in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud around noon Saturday. Since the early hours, Syrian security forces were sweeping the neighbourhood after calling on residents to stay home for their own safety. Hundreds of people who fled the neighbourhood days earlier were waiting at Sheikh Maqsoud's entrances to be allowed in once the military operations were over. Clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish northern neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid, after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge their forces i
A year ago, Mohammad Marwan found himself stumbling, barefoot and dazed, out of Syria's notorious Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus as rebel forces pushing toward the capital threw open its doors to release the prisoners. Arrested in 2018 for fleeing compulsory military service, the father of three had cycled through four other lockups before landing in Saydnaya, a sprawling complex just north of Damascus that became synonymous with some of the worst atrocities committed under the rule of now ousted President Bashar Assad. He recalled guards waiting to welcome new prisoners with a gauntlet of beatings and electric shocks. They said, You have no rights here, and we're not calling an ambulance unless we have a dead body,' Marwan said. His Dec. 8, 2024 homecoming to a house full of relatives and friends in his village in Homs province was joyful. But in the year since then, he has struggled to overcome the physical and psychological effects of his six-year imprisonment. He
The secretary general of Amnesty International said Saturday that the new authorities in Syria have taken steps to show commitment to reform, transitional justice and reconciliation but says democracy is still lacking. A year after the fall of President Bashar Assad's government, Agnes Callamard, who visited Damascus this week, said that having legal reform plans before parliament, committees for transitional justice and welcoming international rights groups and other experts were signs that change is happening in Syria. All of those things are very good signs but they are not very deep, Callamard said in an interview with The Associated Press. Messages left with Syrian officials seeking comment Saturday were not immediately returned. After the fall of Assad in an offensive led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Syria remains unstable. Forces loyal to the government were blamed for taking part this year in sectarian violence against members o
Syria is set to hold parliamentary elections on Sunday for the first time since the fall of the country's longtime autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, who was unseated in a rebel offensive in December. Under the 50-year rule of the Assad dynasty, Syria held regular elections in which all Syrian citizens could vote. But in practice, the Assad-led Ba'ath Party always dominated the parliament, and the votes were widely regarded as sham elections. Outside election analysts said the only truly competitive part of the process came before election day with the internal primary system in the Ba'ath Party, when party members jockeyed for positions on the list. The elections to be held on Sunday, however, will not be a fully democratic process either. Rather, most of the People's Assembly seats will be voted on by electoral colleges in each district, while one-third of the seats will be directly appointed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa. Despite not being a popular vote, the election resu
The Syrian government on Monday started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the city of Sweida, where Druze militiamen and Bedouin fighters have clashed for over a week. The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria's already fragile postwar transition. The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The UN International Organisation for Migration said some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a week ago. Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins. Syrian state media said early Sunday that the government had coordinated with some officials in Sweida to bring in buses to evacuate some 1,500 Bedouins in the city
Syria's armed Bedouin clans on Sunday announced that they had withdrawn from the southern city of Sweida following over a week of clashes, as per a US-brokered ceasefire agreement. The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria's already fragile postwar transition. Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins. A series of tit-for-tat kidnappings sparked the clashes in various towns and villages in the province, which later spread to the city. Government forces were redeployed to halt renewed fighting that erupted Thursday, before withdrawing again. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was more sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of the militias. He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying that they cannot replace the
Lebanon and Syria have signed an agreement on border demarcation and to boost coordination between the two countries regarding security along their tense frontier, the Saudi Press Agency reported Friday. The deal signed by the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers in Saudi Arabia late Thursday came after clashes in border areas earlier this month left several people dead and dozens wounded on both sides. The plan for border demarcation also comes after the ouster in early December of the 54-year Assad family rule in Syria, leading to tensions along the frontier where Lebanon's Hezbollah group was active on both side of the border during Syria's 14-year conflict. Hezbollah had been fighting in Syria alongside Assad during the conflict that has left half a million people dead. The deal also comes after the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war that weakened the Iran-backed group in Lebanon. Lebanese Defence Minister Michel Menassa was scheduled to visit the Syrian capital, Damascus, on ...
Three months following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad, Syria is at a crossroads, the top UN envoy for the country said. Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Council that Syria can return to violence or start an inclusive transition and end decades of conflict. He said the road back to conflict, fragmentation and violations of Syrian sovereignty by external powers "must not come to pass". The other road, which would restore Syria's sovereignty and regional security, is "viable" but "requires the right Syrian decisions" and international support, Pedersen said. Syria's civil war had gone on for 13 years when a lightning insurgency led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew Assad in December, ending his family's more than 50-year rule. Former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa was announced as the country's interim president after a meeting of armed groups that took part in the offensive. Pedersen spoke weeks after clashes between al-Sharaa's security forces an
Lebanese and Syrian defense officials reached an agreement late Monday for a ceasefire to halt two days of clashes along the border, Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported. The agreement also stipulates enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides, the statement from the Syrian Ministry of Defense said. Lebanon's president earlier Monday ordered troops to retaliate against the source of gunfire from the Syrian side of the border after more deadly fighting erupted overnight along the frontier. Lebanon's Health Ministry reported that seven Lebanese citizens were killed and another 52 injured in the clashes, including a 4-year-old girl. The fighting happened after Syria's interim government accused militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah group of crossing into Syria on Saturday, abducting three soldiers and killing them on Lebanese soil. Hezbollah denied involvement and some other reports pointed to local clans in the border region that are not directly affiliated with .
The European Union hosts a donor conference for Syria on Monday to muster support to ensure a peaceful transition after President Bashar Assad was ousted by an insurgency last December. Ministers and representatives from Western partners, as well as Syria's regional neighbors, other Arab countries and UN agencies will take part in the one-day meeting in Brussels which will be chaired by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Syria will attend the conference the ninth edition of its kind for the first time, and will be represented by Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani. The event was organized in haste by the EU to try to take advantage of the change sweeping the country. The gathering comes at a precarious time. Syria's new leaders are trying to consolidate control over territory that was divided into de facto mini-states during nearly 14 years of civil war and to rebuild the country's economy and infrastructure. The United Nations in 2017 estimated it would cost at least $250
Ordnance from Syria's 13-year conflict exploded in the coastal city of Latakia, collapsing a building and killing more than a dozen people, the Syrian Civil Defense said Sunday. The paramedic group known as the White Helmets said it worked overnight, searching through debris and recovered 16 bodies, including five women and five children, and that 18 others were injured. The group and residents said the explosion occurred in a metal scrap storage space on the ground floor of the four-story building. Elsewhere, the Syrian Defense Ministry late Sunday accused the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group of crossing the Lebanon-Syria border and killing three Syrian soldiers. Hezbollah denied any involvement in the killing that took place near northeastern Lebanon, where clashes between Syrian forces and Lebanese clans happened last month. Local Lebanese media have reported Syrian shelling on the northeastern Lebanese border town of Al-Qasr. The Defense Ministry will take all the necessary ..