Syria
Policing a New Syria
Thousands of Syrian women signed up for a police force without knowing exactly why they were being recruited. Some were revolutionaries, some widows. One left a 2-month-old at home to train.
A Nobel Prize for Syria?
Syria's president and the country's foremost Kurdish militia commander have defied expectations of a major military clash, overcoming years of discord to make peace against the odds.
The Buried Treasure Left Behind by the Islamic State
When the Islamic State sensed its imminent demise, it ordered regional commanders to bury cash and gold in underground locations, including at least three “central” burial sites, camouflaged and designed to safeguard against humidity and dust, an exclusive joint investigation shows.
Reviving Yazidi Rituals in the Ruins of Syria’s Afrin
Returning to Syria’s Afrin region after eight years, Yazidis are lighting candles at bulldozed shrines, honoring practices that kept their faith alive through genocides and a Turkish occupation.
How the Assad Regime Poisoned Former Rebels in Southern Syria
After Syria’s Daraa fell to regime forces in 2018, at least 24 people, including former rebel commanders, civilians and two children, were poisoned in assassination attempts tied to Assad's intelligence branches.
Syrian Torture Survivors Respond to Death Sentences for Assad and Others
Syria's first major trial of deposed regime figures ended in nine death sentences, including for Bashar and Maher al-Assad and Atef Najib, who ran the Political Security branch in Daraa in 2011. Survivors of the Daraa schoolboy arrests testified. Rights groups called the proceedings historic but flawed.
Listen Again: How Defiance Began at Home in Assad’s Syria
Loubna Mrie joins Faisal Al Yafai on the podcast to discuss her experience of authoritarianism at home, obedience to the Assad regime, and joining the revolution, as detailed in her new memoir, “Defiance.”