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Syria

October 11, 2026

Damascus 5:47 pm

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Demonstrators ride through a street while waving Syrian flags

Analysis

Why Syria and Iraq are taking different approaches to armed groups

Shelly Kittleson

By Shelly Kittleson

In Baghdad, reporting on Iraqi politics

A view of the Great Umayyad Mosque during the reopening ceremony, Oct. 8, 2026.

Culture

Syria reopens Aleppo's 1,300-year-old Great Umayyad Mosque after 13 years

Syrian authorities are working to restore cultural landmarks and ancient sites that had been damaged or destroyed during the civil war.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Oct. 6, 2026.

Analysis

Why Syria sending troops to Yemen would be a risky bet for Sharaa

Syria insists it will not send troops to fight the Houthis alongside Saudi Arabia, but its economic dependence on Riyadh could complicate Damascus’ resistance to the idea.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

Culture

Syria's Kurds, Arabs find common cause in battle for language rights

Youths play the daf, an Iranian frame drum, during a protest demanding the right to education in the Kurdish language in Al-Qamishli, Syria, on September 22, 2026. The demonstrations follow a decision by the Syrian Interim Government to allocate only Kurdish language classes in schools. (Photo by Amjad Kurdo / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Syria’s Sharaa in Riyadh as Saudi airports come under Houthi attacks: What to know

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Oct. 6, 2026.

UAE-Syria move ahead on $20 billion real estate mega-developments

A view of a traffic roundabout in central Latakia, Syria on June 12, 2025. The city's road network converges near the coast, forming one of the busiest urban intersections in the province. (Photo by Omar Albaw / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by OMAR ALBAW/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria denies meeting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Turkey: What to know

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

Rebel fighters gather near the front line in Ratain village, north of Aleppo February 17, 2015. The Syrian army backed by allied militia have captured several villages near Aleppo in battles aimed at encircling the northern city and cutting off insurgent supply lines, a monitoring group said on Tuesday. The army also took villages including Bashkuwi and Sifat, while fighting raged in Hardatain and Ratain, said the Observatory, which tracks the Syrian conflict using sources on the ground. It added that at le

Syrian regime, allies lose decisive battles in Aleppo

The regime and its allies have suffered heavy losses in an offensive against the opposition’s largest stronghold in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

A Palestinian policeman loyal to Hamas stands guard near burning tyres during a protest by Palestinians calling for reconstruction of their houses that witnesses said were destroyed by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer, outside a United Nations food distribution center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 16, 2015. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW) - RTR4PQSX

Regional events have Hamas in political limbo

Various events and unresolved regional crises have fed Hamas' reluctance to forge regional alliances and take decisive positions on developments in the Arab world.

Photographers and members of the media watch the Syrian town of Kobani from atop a hill on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 15, 2014. American-led forces sharply intensified air strikes against Islamic State fighters threatening Kurds on Syria's Turkish border on Monday and Tuesday after the jihadists' advance began to destabilise Turkey. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (TURKEY - Tags: CONFLICT POLITICS) - RTR4A8TR

Kurdish journalists use IS media strategy to their advantage

Kurdish journalists are trying to counter Islamic State propaganda by showing the world the horrors that the group has committed.

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Turkish military mission becomes media circus

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party framed its cross-border mission to evacuate the Tomb of Suleiman Shah as a victory for the nation, but political opposition and social media commenters saw much to mock about the operation.

A woman supporter of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement holds onto an image of the movement's slain commander Imad Mughniyeh during a Hezbollah parade in the city of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on December 19, 2010, to mark the 13th day of Muharram-Ashura, where believers mourn the killing of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussein, in the seventh century, during the battle of Karbala in central Iraq. AFP PHOTO/MAHMOUD ZAYYAT (Photo credit should read MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP/Getty Images)

Was Hezbollah's Mughniyeh an unintended target?

A security source from Beirut tells Al-Monitor how the perpetrators of the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah's military commander might not have known they were targeting the elusive Imad Mughniyeh.

Turkish army enters Syria to evacuate tomb

The Turkish army successfully evacuated its soldiers from the Tomb of Suleiman Shah in Syria in coordination with Kurdish forces on the ground.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism at the State Department in Washington February 19, 2015. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) - RTR4Q9O7

Can returned extremist fighters be rehabilitated?

Participants in a White House summit on countering violent extremism say the most useful aspect was exchanging information on the sidelines of the meetings about how to prevent recruitment of vulnerable youth and rehabilitate foreign fighters returning home from Syria and Iraq.

Rebel fighters of al-Jabha al-Shamiya (the Shamiya Front) sit in an armoured vehicle along a main road between Raitan and Bashkuwi villages, north of Aleppo February 19, 2015. Battles in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo have killed at least 70 pro-government fighters and more than 80 insurgents after the army launched an offensive there, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Rami Zayat (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTR4Q8LA

Should US back UN plan for cease-fire in Aleppo?

UN Syria envoy says that "assurances will not be enough" to end fighting; Turkey’s border a "strategic problem" in anti-Islamic State campaign.

Rebel fighters fire a mortar towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad who are stationed in Tel Merhi and Deir Adass villages, from the northwestern countryside of Deraa February 18, 2015. Heavy fighting in southern Syria has killed scores of pro-government and insurgent fighters in the past week, a group monitoring Syria's war said on Sunday, forecasting even fiercer violence as the weather clears. Picture taken February 18. REUTERS/Wsam Almokdad (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLIC

Syria opposition forces claim regime attack in Daraa futile

The opposition forces in southern Syria say that the regime, which has launched a battle with its allies Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is not advancing there.

Jordanian Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mashal Al Zaben (C) shakes hands with Iraqi military officers at the Defence Ministry in Baghdad February 11, 2015. Zaben held talks in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart as Arab states continued their attacks on Islamic State (IS) militants occupying chunks of Iraq and Syria. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTR4P57F

Jordan rejects land offensive against IS, for now

Observers believe that Jordan is being dragged into a land offensive against the Islamic State in Syria, using the execution of its pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh as cover.

A rebel fighter carries his weapon as he walks in front of a rainbow in Ratian village, north of Aleppo, after what the rebels said was an offensive against them by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad that attempted to advance in the village but failed to February 18, 2015. Battles in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo have killed at least 70 pro-government fighters and more than 80 insurgents after the army launched an offensive there, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. Picture taken Feb

Syrian army's advances near border rattle Ankara

If the Syrian regime army captures Aleppo, the Turkish border will come under heavy pressure.

Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq, a monitoring service said. The Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), posted pictures online on Sunday of people waving black flags from cars and holding guns in the air, the SITE m

Who holds the real power in IS?

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may be caliph of the Islamic State, but he does not rule alone.