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Syria

January 16, 2026

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Members of the Kurdish forces hold a portrait of Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler which reads "Shame on the killers of innocents in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood" during a protest by Syrian Kurds against violence they say was committed by Syrian government forces during recent clashes in Aleppo's Kurdish neighbourhoods, in the Kurdish-controlled northeastern city of Qamishli on Jan. 13, 2026.

Syria declares 'closed military zone' east of Aleppo as Kurds protest

The Syrian government accused the Kurdish-led SDF of mobilizing in the area, reflecting ongoing turmoil following a ceasefire.

President of Syria Ahmed al-Shara arrives for the 80th session of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) at UN Headquarters on Sept. 23, 2025 in New York City. — Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Syria’s Sharaa heads to Davos, ending years of global isolation

The World Economic Forum begins on January 19 and ends on January 23, hosting a cohort of around 400 political leaders.

Sheikh Hikmat Salman al-Hijri is pictured at Qanawat, the headquarters of the Druze spiritual presidency, on Dec. 28, 2024, in Suwayda, Syria.

Syria Druze leader Hijri calls for independent entity, says country ‘heading toward partition’

Controversial Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hijri, in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda, praised Israel as the only party he said intervened to stop the killing of Druze during a wave of unrest last summer.

Israel military vehicles drive along the border fence into Israel, near the town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, on July 17, 2025. Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the whole of Sweida province after days of sectarian bloodshed in the heartland of the Druze minority, a war monitor and witnesses said July 17, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP) (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

What Syria and Israel’s new communications cell really signals

The deal reached in Paris under US mediation reflects a rare step toward managing tensions but stops short of halting Israeli military strikes or producing a broader security pact.

Rina Bassist

By Rosaleen Carroll , Rina Bassist

Latest News

Exclusive

Closed-door breakdown in Syria-Kurdish talks foreshadowed Aleppo clashes

Bakr ALKASEM / AFP via Getty Images

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Sharaa tells Iraq's Barzani Kurds integral to Syria amid fears of Aleppo spillover

Safin HAMID / AFP via Getty Images

Interview

Top Syrian Kurdish official Foza Yusuf says war with Damascus lose-lose for all

An undated image of Foza Yusif.

Foza Yusuf

Foza Yusuf

Top Syrian Kurdish official

Turkey's Fidan says Israel ties harden SDF stance as Syria clashes grow

ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images

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

This picture taken on November 26, 2020 shows Syrian students from the "Aleppo University in Liberated Areas", controlled by the pro-Turkey opposition, attending a tutorial at a laboratory facility in Marea in the rebel-controlled northern countryside of Syria's Aleppo province, while mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. - The university had its first batch of 32 doctors to ever graduate after its founding in 2014, headquartered in Azaz for the past three years. Humanitarian workers fear any

Understanding Turkey's vision of medical schools for small Syrian town

Ankara plans to establish two medical educational facilities in a small Syrian town across the border as Turkish entrenchment deepens in Syria.

This picture shows the Eastern Catholic Saint Elijah Cathedral, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on January 1, 2021. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia plays up ties to Syrian Christians

Russia declares its support for the Orthodox Christian militias fighting alongside the Syrian regime, as it shows great interest in the ideological factor within its expansion and domination strategy in Syria

Family of American held in Syria pins hopes on Biden

This month marks four years since psychotherapist Majd Kamalmaz disappeared in Syria.

Members of the civil society delegation attend the first meeting of the new Syrian Constitutional Committee at the United Nations in Geneva on October 30, 2019. - Syria's government may be on board for the UN-brokered review of its constitution, but it will sink the Geneva talks opening on October 30, 2019, before agreeing anything that compromises its authority, experts have said. (Photo by DENIS BALIBOUSE / POOL / AFP) (Photo by DENIS BALIBOUSE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Syrian opposition regroups as another round of talks crashes

The Syrian opposition is mulling its next moves after the faltering of yet another round of talks of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

Workers restore a palatial Ottoman-era home called Beit al-Quwatli to turn it into a cultural institution in the old part of Syria's capital Damascus on November 10, 2020. - The old city of the Syrian capital is famed for its elegant century-old houses, usually two storeys built around a leafy rectangular courtyard with a carved stone fountain at its centre. While the capital has been largely spared the violence of Syria's almost ten-year war, several of these traditional homes have been abandoned by their

Jobless Syrians have little use for government’s new construction training program

Syrians are reluctant to apply to the technical training centers the regime plans to establish because of the shockingly low stipends provided.

TOPSHOT - People walk past tents in the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp in the al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on August 25, 2020, where families of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters are held. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

57 nations hit for failure to repatriate women, children from Syrian camps

UN human rights experts are pressing Great Britain, France, Iran, Russia, Turkey, the United States and 51 other countries to repatriate nearly 10,000 of their citizens associated with the Islamic State.

Who benefits from attacks on Turkish forces in Idlib?

Repeated attacks on Turkish posts and soldiers in Idlib are obstructing Turkish efforts to reopen the M4 international highway and cement the cease-fire, raising questions about the parties behind the attacks.

TOPSHOT - A boy walks through a rainwater pond near a laundry line with clothes hanging out to dry at a flooded camp for Syrians displaced by conflict near the village of Kafr Uruq, in Syria's northern rebel-held Idlib province on January 17, 2021. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP) (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images)

Displaced Syrians left out in rain by HTS government's building fees

The Syrian Salvation Government has imposed construction fees on displaced citizens trying to build homes in Idlib, raising the costs beyond what many can afford.

Islamic State kills two dozen pro-regime fighters in Syria

A firefight in the Deir ez-Zor desert is the latest sign of the Islamic State terror network's lingering presence.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SAMMY KETZ
Sheikh Hikmat Hajari, a top Druze cleric, sits in his home in the southern city of Sweida on January 23, 2013. Abductions of Druze officials in Daraa were rampant in May and June of last year, prompting the inhabitants of Sweida to respond in kind, leaving behind a palpable distrust between the provinces, though Sweida hosts some 9,000 displaced people of Daraa. AFP PHOTO/ANWAR AMRO (Photo credit should read ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Syrian regime scrambles to defuse tensions after insult to Druze leader

The people of Suwayda in southern Syria were outraged when a Syrian army officer insulted the spiritual leader of the Druze community in the governorate, and high-ranking officials are trying to defuse the tension by offering apologies to the community.

A combine harvests wheat in a field in the countryside of al-Kaswa, south of Syria's capital Damascus, on June 18, 2020. - Heavy rain and reduced violence provided a relief to Syrian farmers with a good harvest this year, as a tanking economy leaves millions hungry across his war-torn country. Prior to the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, Syria produced more than 4.1 million tonnes of wheat, enough to feed its entire population. But production plunged to record lows during the war, boosting reliance on imp

Syrians in Kurdish-administered regions struggle with price of bread

Should Syria’s economy and currency continue to deteriorate, it is likely that the cost of wheat will also rise, further straining the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in its efforts to maintain bread subsidies and keep basic goods affordable in northeast Syria.

Syrian government, SDF trade accusations of violations of Russian-mediated cease-fire

No sooner had an agreement been reached between the Syrian regime and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to lift the mutual sieges imposed in northeast Syria that accusations were traded about violations of the Russian-sponsored deal.