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Syria

November 9, 2026

Damascus 12:11 am

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Bakr ALkasem / AFP via Getty Images

Syria foils Hezbollah-linked plot to attack Homs refinery: What to know

Syrian authorities have intensified a crackdown against Hezbollah’s alleged plans to launch attacks inside Syrian territory as well as smuggling attempts.

BING GUAN/AFP via Getty Images

Lawmakers urge Commerce Dept to ease Syria investment restrictions

Syria may be off the terrorism blacklist, but the Commerce Department’s export controls have yet to catch up.

Muzna Al-Atrash

Explainer

Meet Muzna al-Atrash, Syria's new Druze adviser for peace affairs

Atrash, from the Suwayda province and a member of the Druze community, will advise Damascus on peace affairs as it looks to assert authority in the south.

People inspect the damage at a site targeted by airstrikes

Analysis

How Syria is balancing public anger, regional stability after Jordan's strikes

Shelly Kittleson

By Shelly Kittleson

In Middle East, reporting on regional politics

Latest News

Analysis

Gaza progress, Syria pullback: What Turkey wants from Israel’s next government

Demonstrators hold a banner reading "Free Gaza, free world"

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Syria flash floods kill at least 5, force hundreds of families from camps

Mohammed Mir / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Interview

US oil firm HKN aims to double output in Syria's formerly Kurdish-run fields

A general view shows the Awad oil field in the eastern Qamishli countryside in northeastern Syria, on Feb. 15, 2026.

Matthew Zais

Matthew Zais

HKN vice president for government affairs

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Danny Makki

In London, reporting on Syrian politics and culture

Ali Hashem

In Doha, reporting on Iran, regional politics, conflict

Cagatay Cebe

In Istanbul, reporting on security and counterterrorism

A general view shows a besieged hospital, the last remaining Syrian army foothold in the town of Jisr al-Shughour, in the province of Idlib May 3, 2015. Syrian troops backed by heavy air strikes have edged closer to a hospital in northwestern Syria where dozens of Syrian soldiers and loyalist fighters have been holed up for the past two weeks, the army said on Sunday. The town was overrun last month by insurgents, including al Qaeda's wing in Syria, Nusra Front. Picture taken May 3, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abd

Iran’s new strategy in Syria

Iran and its allies, such as Hezbollah, seem to be getting more involved in the Syrian civil war.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu attends the opening of the Geneva-2 peace conference in Montreux January 22, 2014. Syria's government and opposition, meeting face to face for the first time at a U.N. peace conference, angrily spelled out their hostility on Wednesday as world powers also restated contrasting views on the future of President Bashar al-Assad. REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX17PGV

The Turkey-Saudi axis against Damascus

Will the US support the gains of Islamist opposition in Syria?

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad are seen at al-Sakhra village in Qalamoun Mountains, northeast of Damascus, after taking control of the village from rebel fighters April 14, 2014. Syrian soldiers backed by Hezbollah fighters recaptured the town of Maaloula, north of Damascus, on Monday, military sources and state television said, further squeezing rebels' supply routes through the Qalamoun mountains into Lebanon. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT CIVIL UN

The battle at Qalamoun

Hezbollah and the Syrian regime army have been fighting militants for control of the Qalamoun area near the border.

Peshmerga fighters stand guard at Mosul Dam in northern Iraq August 21, 2014. Despite its structural faults, the country's biggest dam at 3.6 km long, built by a German-Italian consortium in the 1980s, is a vital water and power source for Mosul, Iraq's largest northern city of 1.7 million residents. Control the dam and you control the 'keys' to the city. With that in mind, Islamic State insurgents who captured swathes of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate, wrested control of the dam from Kurdish force

How IS uses water as weapon of war

The Islamic State's expanding control over the water resources of the Middle East will only compound the region's water crisis.

Iran’s Kurds rise up as their leaders remain divided

Various Iranian Kurdish groups have split further apart instead of uniting in their struggle to obtain their rights.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey (not pictured) speak to reporters at the Pentagon in Washington April 16, 2015. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan - RTR4XNHW

Carter: Syria 'safe zones' would be 'major combat mission'

US secretary of defense tells Congress no-fly zone would be "difficult thing to contemplate"; state institutions collapse as result of war in Yemen; Obama administration rejects direct arms to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkish army tank takes position near Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeasternTurkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa provincee, October 18, 2014. A U.S.-led military coalition has been bombing Islamic State fighters who hold a large swathe of territory in both Iraq and Syria, two countries involved in complex multi-sided civil wars in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake.. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (TURKEY - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR4ANT

Turks fear Saudi alliance will drag country into Syria

Opposition politicians in Turkey have charged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with leading Turkey to war in Syria.

Morocco battles Islamic State cells

After attacks in neighboring Tunisia, Morocco is doing all it can to crack down on Islamic State sympathizers.

United Arab Emirates

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie (L) looks on as US Vice President Joseph R. Biden (C) and Amos J. Hochstein, US State Department Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, talk before the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative Luncheon during the Caribbean Energy Security Summit at the US Department of States January 26, 2015 in Washington, DC. Leaders from around the Caribbean attended the summit to discuss energy and regional issues. AFP PHOTO/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI (Photo cre

Price impact of Iranian oil uncertain, says US official

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Amos Hochstein, special envoy and coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the US State Department, says Middle Eastern countries are increasingly investing in renewables, international oil companies are returning to Egypt and Israel needs get its regulatory house in order if it wants foreign investments in offshore natural gas.

Turkish soldiers monitor the border line as they stand guard near the Akcakale border crossing in Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, where Islamic State militants control the Syrian side of the gate, January 29, 2015. An audio message purportedly from a Japanese journalist being held by Islamic State militants said a Jordanian air force pilot also captured by the group would be killed unless an Iraqi female prisoner in Jordan was released by sunset on Thursday. The message appeared to postpone a previ

Turkish military puts brakes on Syrian intervention

While a Turkish military operation against Syria is unlikely, Mosul is another story.

An army officer looks at a Felix Airways plane, destroyed by an air strike at the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. Jets from a Saudi-led alliance destroyed the runway of Yemen's Sanaa airport on Tuesday to prevent an Iranian plane from landing there, Saudi Arabia said, as fighting across the country killed at least 30 people. Airport officials said the strikes set a civilian aircraft operated by Yemeni Felix Airways ablaze. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Saudi shake-up underscores stakes in Yemen

Saudi credibility on the line in Yemen; al-Qaeda’s “free rein” in Yemen; Iraq seeks balance, distance from Saudi-Iranian rivalry; Iran’s Reformists still waiting for Rouhani to deliver; Syrian government intensifies attacks on rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

Fighters loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad go through weapons near a tank after regaining control of Hamreet, a town south of Damascus, in the Daraa countryside March 1, 2015. Government forces say they've regained control of this and many other villages in the south - wresting them back from rebel hands. A general made the announcement on state television, saying a large number of Nusra Front fighters were killed and their weapons destroyed.The gains were said to happen on Friday and Saturday in a

Iranian doc follows Afghan fighters in Syria

The film, which was broadcast on an unofficial government channel, shows why Afghans living in Iran are fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.