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

Palmyra

Syria

October 10, 2026

Damascus 5:43 pm

29°C

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

The house of local farmer Hamad al-Ibrahim is seen destroyed in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz on March 13, 2020, a year after the fall of the Islamic State's (IS) caliphate. - A year after the last black flag of the Islamic State group was lowered in the Syrian village of Baghouz, traces of the jihadist group are still all around this small and remote village near the Iraqi border, where Kurdish fighters and the US-led coalition declared the IS proto-state defeated in March 2019 after a blistering m

Report: Iran-backed militia members enter Syria via Iraq

The news from a Syrian pro-opposition group contradicts statements by some Israelis that Iran may be pulling back from Syria.

A woman watches the Facebook video of Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf on her mobile in Syria's capital Damascus, on May 11, 2020. - Syria's top tycoon publicly airing his grievances has revealed a power struggle within the ruling family as it tries to cement its power after nine years of war, analysts say. After years of staying out of the limelight, business magnate Rami Makhlouf this month in two videos on Facebook laid bare his struggles with the regime headed by his first cousin President Bashar al-Ass

Syrian government freezes assets of Assad cousin

The move to seize the assets of the businessman is the latest in a dispute that began to heat up late last year.

A drone images shows Syrian demonstrators gathering during a protest in the village of Maaret al-Naasan in Syria's Idlib province on May 1, 2020, to protests against a reported attack by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, on a protest the previous day. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP) (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images)

The not-so-sacred profit bonanza of Syria's jihadi groups

Economic gains have been at the core of clashes between rebel groups in Syria’s Idlib and Turkish-controlled regions that Syrian rebels describe as “liberated” areas.

In shadow of COVID-19, US-led battle against Islamic State continues

A Pentagon report declares the Islamic State a "low-level insurgency" as the United States and Iraq prepare for strategic dialogue.

Syrian refugees in Jordan build robot to fight coronavirus

A group of young Syrians in Jordan’s Zaatari camp designed a sanitizing robot to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

ANKARA, TURKEY - APRIL 22: A view of Sincan Penal Institutions Campus on April 22, 2020 in Ankara, Turkey. Guardians and institution employees wearing masks and gloves and following the social distance rules, are working for 15 days at the prison. After being subjected to the isolation process, officers are working before going to their homes without seeing their families for about a month. As well as throughout the country, also in capital Ankara, guardians and institution employees stay in places of publi

Syrians held in Turkish prison 'in breach of international law,' advocates say

Scores of Syrians detained after Turkey's Operation Peace Spring began in October have been accused of links to the Kurdistan Workers Party and moved to a prison in Sanliurfa, Turkey.

A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stands on the back of a pick-up truck, with a weapon installed on it, in Qamishli, Syria March 30, 2019. Picture taken March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho - RC1961AA5550

Pentagon says Damascus, Moscow exploit discontent in Kurdish-controlled Syria

A US military report accuses Russia and the Syrian regime of using Arab discontent in eastern Syria to undermine the Kurdish-led administration.

Hezbollah chief says Israel fighting 'imaginary battle' in Syria

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-aligned Lebanese Hezbollah, accuses Israel of targeting missile-manufacturing sites in Syria.

U.S. special envoy for Syria and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Jim Jeffrey speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2019. REUTERS/Yara Nardi - RC28BD9QFAZ9

Intel: US sanctions squeezing Iranian forces in Syria, says US envoy

Cash-strapped Iran is reining in some of its forces in Syria as a result of American sanctions, US envoy James Jeffrey said today.

An officer of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) stands guard near the Syrian-Iraq border October 31, 2012. Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani warned Kurds in Syria against being sucked into the "fires of discord," urging them to preserve Kurdish unity as tensions between rival factions threaten to spillover into violence. Syria's Kurds see the war ravaging their country as an unprecedented opportunity to gain the kind of freedoms enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighbouring Iraq, where they

Turkey targets US-backed Syrian Kurdish peace talks

Turkey is openly disgruntled over the US-backed effort to unite disparate Syrian Kurdish factions that kicked off last month.

Press freedom watchdog criticizes suspension of Kurdish reporter in northeast Syria

Rudaw's Vivian Fatah was suspended because she did not describe Kurdish fighters who had been killed in Syria as martyrs.

Iraqi-Syrian desert border area key amid geopolitical tensions

Recent security incidents indicate that the Islamic State continues to operate in the Iraqi-Syrian border area despite reduced capabilities.