Their positions exposed, Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias are repositioning themselves in Syria to avoid being targeted, while Russia uses its own forces as a counterbalance.
As Israel wages a full-blown aerial and ground campaign in Lebanon, will Iran’s proxies in Syria come to the aid of its beleaguered ally Hezbollah?
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited China for the first time in nearly 20 years this week, deepening ties between the two countries in the hopes of increased financial support that may not be forthcoming.
An estimated 25 houses have been illegally seized by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in the “triangle of death” in southern Syria.
A year and a half after "reconciliation" agreements were signed, Damascus is going after Syrians' assets more than ever.
AMMAN— Despite years of fighting in southern Syria between the government forces and its allied Iranian-backed militias, on the one hand, and the opposition factions on the other, Abu Hassan al-Jolani's house survived the destruction. However, the house has been pummeled into rubble a year after the end of hostilities which resulted in government forces taking control of the entire area in July 2018.
Just downhill from the occupied Syrian villages of Majdal Shams and Masaada, there is a small valley filled with plots of cherry and apple trees. A handful of the orchards reach upwards along the terraced hills that outline the Marj Yaafouri valley, overlooking the trees and a Druze shrine down below.
Up one of the hillside streets that winds through Majdal Shams is a run-down tailor shop hidden among the limestone apartment buildings. There are no signs of Israeli tourists on this street, in a quiet residential corner of town just steps from a fenced-off border zone separating Israeli-occupied territory from a ceasefire line demarcating areas controlled by the Syrian government.
Syrian rebels ride on buses during evacuation from Daraa city in July 2018. Mohamad Abazeed/AFP.
For around five years, Judi Arash lived under siege in a bombed-out, encircled rebel-held area of northern Homs that, at one point, was restricted to just three square kilometers.As a respite, she threw herself into her job as a journalist, choosing to report on the conflict unfolding around her.
