Bashar Assad

Kurdish families return to Afrin, Syria after years of displacement

After the invasion, around 150,000 Kurds were forced to flee. The Syrian rebel groups included extremists and they were involved in abuses, including the kidnapping of Kurdish civilians.

A woman with braided hair during a solidarity demonstration in Erbil, Iraq's Kurdish region, on January 23, 2026. The symbolic gesture supports Kurdish female fighters in Syria following a viral video of a Syrian soldier bragging about cutting a fighter's braid.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa gestures outside 10 Downing Street, after meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in London, Britain March 31, 2026.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announces first cabinet reshuffle since Assad ouster - report

Atef Najib, a brigadier general and former head of the Political Security Department in Daraa during Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad's rule, who is accused of committing war crimes, attends a trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus, Syria, April 26, 2026.

Assad brothers summoned in absentia as Syria opens landmark trial of former security chief

Atef Najib, a brigadier general and former head of the Political Security Department in Daraa during Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad's rule, who is accused of committing war crimes, attends a trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus, Syria, April 26, 2026.

Syria opens first public trial of former Assad regime official Atef Najib


Syria accuses Hezbollah-linked cells of plotting attacks, signaling break from Assad-era alliance

Damascus is moving against networks it says planned assassinations, bombings, and rocket fire, raising new questions about sovereignty and power after Bashar Assad’s fall.

A worker tears down the pictures of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Lebanon's late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a gas station in Nubl, in rural Aleppo, Syria, December 11, 2024.

Main suspect in Syria's Tadamon massacre arrested, ministry says

Amjad Yousef was arrested in the Hama province in western Syria, where he had been hiding since the overthrow of Bashar Assad in 2024.

Amjad Yusuf, main suspect accused of the 2013 Tadamon massacre, April 24, 2026

Syria carrying out arrests of Palestinians linked to Assad regime, rights orgs. claim

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria complained that at least 14 men were arrested from the Khan Al-Shih camp, Jaramana camp, the Rukn al-Din neighborhood, and the town of al-Hameh.

 Two girls walk next to the rubble of a destroyed house in the Yarmouk camp on September 14, 2025 in Damascus, Syria.

Turkey’s rearrest of fugitive revives mystery of Syrian defector’s disappearance

The capture of a convicted kidnapper is renewing scrutiny of how two Syrian defectors were abducted in Turkey and handed to Assad’s security apparatus.

Önder Sığırcıkoğlu, in the custody of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization.

Syria detains former political security chief Muhammad Mansoura amid Assad-era abuse investigations

Mansoura is considered one of the prominent security figures who held sensitive positions within the structure of the former Syrian regime.

 Israel police arrests a terror suspect in east Jerusalem

Syria unveils plan to rid country of Assad's chemical weapons stockpile

Syria has unveiled a plan to eliminate Assad's chemical weapons with international support. The operation will inspect 100 sites to track and destroy remaining toxic munitions.

 Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa looks on as he attends the “Aleppo, Key to Victory” celebration marking Syria’s liberation, in Aleppo, Syria May 27, 2025.

Despite rocky history, Israel once again weighing security zone in Lebanon - analysis

After October 7, Israel redrew its border doctrine around buffer zones. Now, as Hezbollah regroups in southern Lebanon, debate is growing over whether a new security strip is needed.

 IDF troops operate in southern Lebanon. January 10, 2025.

Collapse of Iran’s regime may mark end of Syria’s role as an ‘open arena for conflict’ - analysis

A woman in Qamishli told The Media Line: “Any retreat in the influence of forces that participated in the war may help turn the page on the past.”

This aerial view shows a man crossing a road near defaced billboard atop a building depicting Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on December 24, 2024.

In post-Assad era, Hezbollah’s shrinks to cells, smugglers, and cheap rockets - analysis

The Iranian proxy group once helped sustain Assad’s war machine; now it stands accused of running deniable operations with cheap hardware.

Hezbollah and Syrian flags are seen fluttering in Fleita, Syria, 2017

Islamic State terrorists kill four Syrian government security personnel in northern Syria

The assault on a checkpoint west of Raqqa city underlined an escalation in attacks by the jihadist group against President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government.

 An ISIS member carries an Islamic State flag in Syria.