Syria - AL-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Palmyra

Syria

January 16, 2026

Damascus 10:57 am

3°C

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 Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the whole of Sweida province after days of sectarian bloodshed in the heartland of the Druze minority, a war monitor and witnesses said July 17, 2025.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

Syrian Kurds hoping for lifeline from Biden administration

Damascus, Ankara and Moscow turn up the heat on US-backed group; UN Syria envoy says, "We can’t continue like this."

golani fbi.png

HTS leader shocks popular base after interview with Western journalist

Whenever Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani makes a media appearance, it causes a commotion among Syrian activists and analysts, the most controversial of which is his recent appearance in a suit.

A Turkish soldier stands guard next to a military vehicle during a joint Russian-Turkish patrol in the eastern countryside of the town of Darbasiyah near the border with Turkey in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on December 7, 2020. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

How Turkey fits in regime-Kurdish showdown in Syria

Some claim that a secret deal between Ankara and Damascus is behind the latest escalation between the Syrian government and the Kurds, but the situation could be more complex than it seems.

Syrian rebel fighters unload artillery shells amid clashes with government forces in the last major rebel bastion of Idlib in northwestern Syria on February 6, 2020. - Syrian regime forces were locked in clashes with jihadists and allied rebels in a key highway town in northwest Syria, a monitor said, despite Turkey warning pro-government fighters should back off. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP) (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images)

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham shuts down arms stores across Idlib

The Syrian Salvation Government in Idlib issued a decision to shut down all weapons stores in the areas under its control as a result of accidental shootings and explosions taking place inside these stores.

A man watches as Russian troops escort a convoy of Syrian civilians leaving the town of Tal Tamr in the northeastern Hasakeh province, to return to their homes in the northern town of Ain Issa in the countryside of the Raqqa region, via the strategic M4 highway, on January 10, 2021. - The town of Tal Tamr is on the front line between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian factions supported by Turkey.
Civilians stranded on both sides of the line because of heavy fighting, have been able to retur

Russia, Iran compete for influence in Syria via private security companies

Private security companies in Syria with ties to Russian and Iranian forces are busily recruiting young men with attractive salaries.

Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike targeting south of the capital Damascus, on July 20, 2020. - Israeli strikes south of the Syrian capital wounded seven Syrian soldiers, state media reported, in an attack which a war monitor said hit several positions of regime forces and Iran-backed militias. (Photo by STR / AFP) (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria reports Israeli airstrikes in south

The news follows reports of suspected Israeli airstrikes against Iranian and Syrian military targets in the country in December and January.

A worker walks with a piece of wood on his shoulder at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba in Ethiopia, on December 26, 2019. - The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 145-metre-high, 1.8-kilometre-long concrete colossus is set to become the largest hydropower plant in Africa.
Across Ethiopia, poor farmers and rich businessmen alike eagerly await the more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity officials say it will ultimately provide.
Yet as thousands of workers toil day and night to finish

The Takeaway: Egypt welcomes US mediation to help break high-stakes deadlock over Nile dam

Motaz Zahran, Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, says Ethiopia has "no political will" to resolve dam dispute; who’s buying Golani’s makeover?; former ambassador to United States says Israel needs "united front" against Iran nuclear deal; Egypt’s first female mixed martial arts fighter.

A Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) flag is pictured as Kurdish and Italian associations attend a rally against the visit of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on February 5, 2018 in Rome.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Pope Francis on February 5, with a protest ban imposed in central Rome as feelings run high over Turkey's offensive against Kurdish militia inside Syria. Nevertheless a sit-in protest by 200 people, organised by a Kurdish association in Italy, was scheduled to take pla

US-backed Syrian Kurdish unity talks to resume amid mounting distrust

Although talks are set to resume this week, the prospects of a Syrian Kurdish unity deal seem more elusive than ever, with plenty of sticking points threatening to sink the effort.

A Syrian man reacts as water floods tents at a camp for the internally displaced near the town of Kafr Lusin in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, by the border with Turkey, on January 19, 2021. - Flooding following heavy rain at displacement camps in northwest Syria has killed a child and damaged or destroyed the tents of thousands of people, according to residents and aid workers. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP) (Photo by AAREF WATAD/AFP via Getty Images)

Al-Qaeda-linked leader again descends on Idlib streets to polish his image

Once more, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Syria’s Idlib is making appearances in public places and visiting camps in a bid to present himself as a popular leader and to have his organization’s name removed from the international terrorist list.

Triple car bombings in Turkey-occupied Syria draw UN condemnation

Bombings in Afrin, Azaz and a village near al-Bab claimed at least 18 lives this weekend.

Destroyed vehicles are seen at the scene of a car bomb in the Turkish-controlled town of al-Bab in the north of Syria's Aleppo province on November 24, 2020. - The explosion, which targeted a police station on the outskirts of the town, killed a police chief from another station, two policemen and two civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP) (Photo by BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images)

How car bombs are making their way into northern Syria

As local councils in northern Syria, which is under the control of Turkish-backed rebels, fail to make car dealers obtain licenses and register their offices, chaos prevails in the car market, as car bombs and explosions claim the lives of dozens of civilians.

Syrians buy produce and foodstuffs at an open-air market in a street in the country's central and third largest city of Homs, on April 7, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER (Photo credit should read STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Syrian regime forces Homs residents to reopen their shops

Regime-affiliated authorities in Syria’s central province of Homs are threatening shopkeepers to reopen their shops or risk confiscation of their properties by the regime.