For several months, local armed groups in Daraa have resorted to a strategy often used in neighboring Suwayda province: taking hostages and besieging regime security headquarters to force the release of detainees when attempts at civil mediation fail.
After facing major local, regional and international pushback—including a Turkish threat to invade northeastern Syria—the AANES postponed municipal elections scheduled for this week until August, citing “internal” reasons and "the demands of the political parties and alliances participating."
Suwayda’s protest movement—marked by a prominent role for women and an insistence on nonviolence—is holding strong nearly 10 months in, despite Damascus deploying military reinforcements and appointing a man accused of war crimes as governor of the southern province.
Six years after HTS forces left southern Syria, the hardline faction is back in Daraa province in the form of small groups made up of former fighters and new local recruits.
A billion-euro EU aid package to Lebanon, in part to stem migration, caused an uproar in the country and triggered a crackdown on Syrian refugees that advocates warn will only push more to flee abroad
Demonstrators in northwestern Syria continue to demand the fall of HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, while authorities offer concessions with one hand and crack down on protests with the other.
While the immediate threat of open war between Iran and Israel has receded in the wake of this month’s unprecedented escalation, the risk of renewed conflict lingers. Syria—fertile ground for another spark—remains a place to watch.
Communities and local armed groups in Syria’s southern Suwayda and Daraa provinces are taking the fight against drug traffickers and smugglers into their own hands. With Damascus and Hezbollah profiting from the trade, they face an uphill battle.
In Syria’s southern Suwayda province, suspected Jordanian airstrikes hunt drug traffickers and kill civilians. Regime-linked gangs operate with impunity and smugglers ferry drugs over the border. Local armed groups fight back. How did we get here?
Thirteen years after the Syrian revolution, displacement camps in Idlib’s Atma look increasingly like towns, tents replaced by cement buildings. Has the dream of return been lost?
