Damascus

December 9, 2025 10:29 AM

Syria marks one year since Assad was toppled

Syrians marked the first anniversary of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and his iron-fisted rule on Monday with jubilant celebrations in major cities, as the fractured nation struggles to find stability and recover after years of war. The new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, told a large crowd of supporters that his government had "laid out a clear vision for a new Syria as a state that looks towards a promising future", calling it a historic break from a "dark chapter". Assad fled Syria fo...

July 21, 2025 10:36 AM

Calm reported in Syria’s Sweida, Damascus says truce holding

Residents reported calm in Syria's Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a U.S. envoy signalled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented. With hundreds reported killed, the Sweida bloodshed is a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, prompting Israel to launch airstrikes against government forces last week as it declared support for the Druze.Fighting continued on Saturda...

July 17, 2025 4:18 PM

Syria’s Sharaa vows to protect Druze rights as ceasefire holds

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority on Thursday, after U.S. intervention helped end deadly fighting between government forces and Druze fighters in the south. Overnight, the Islamist-led government's troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict. One local journalist said he'd counted more than 60 bodies in the streets of Sweida on Thursday ...

March 4, 2025 9:40 PM

Syrian forces search former Assad stronghold after suspected loyalist attacks

Syrian security forces searched for suspects in the city of Latakia on Tuesday, residents said, after two defence ministry members were killed in an attack blamed by state media on remnants of Bashar al-Assad's ousted government. The coastal region of Latakia area has emerged as one of the main security challenges for Syria's Islamist-led government as it works to consolidate control after seizing power in Damascus in December. Assad drew support from among the region's Alawite minority, to wh...

February 19, 2025 5:36 PM

After decades in exile, Syria’s Jews visit Damascus

For the first time in three decades, Rabbi Joseph Hamra and his son Henry read from a Torah scroll in a synagogue in the heart of Syria's capital Damascus, carefully passing their thumbs over the handwritten text as if still in awe they were back home. The father and son fled Syria in the 1990s, after then-Syrian president Hafez al-Assad lifted a travel ban on the country's historic Jewish community, which had faced decades of restrictions including on owning property or holding jobs. Virtuall...

January 3, 2025 1:01 PM

German, French foreign ministers to meet Syria’s new rulers in Damascus

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is travelling to Syria for a one-day trip with her French counterpart on behalf of the EU, where she will meet Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Syria's new rulers, the German foreign ministry said on Friday. "My trip today - together with my French counterpart and on behalf of the EU - is a clear signal to the Syrians: A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible," Baerbock said, according to a ministry statem...

December 20, 2024 11:32 AM

Top US officials in Damascus to meet new Syrian rulers, State Department says

Top diplomats from the Biden administration are in Damascus on Friday to meet new Syrian authorities led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a State Department spokesperson said, the first in-person and official meeting between Washington and Syria's de-facto new rulers. The State Department's top Middle East diplomat Barbara Leaf, Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and newly appointed Senior Advisor Daniel Rubinstein, who is now tasked with leading the Department's Syria engageme...

December 18, 2024 1:18 PM

Syrian mass graves expose “machinery of death” under Assad, top prosecutor says

An international war crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday that evidence emerging from mass grave sites in Syria has exposed a state-run "machinery of death" under toppled leader Bashar al-Assad in which he estimated more than 100,000 people were tortured and murdered since 2013. Speaking after visiting two mass grave sites in the towns of Qutayfah and Najha near Damascus, former U.S. war crimes ambassador at large Stephen Rapp told Reuters: "We certainly have more than 100,000 people that were dis...

December 10, 2024 3:10 PM

Israeli troops near Damascus, say Syrian security, after Israeli airstrikes hit Syrian bases

An Israeli military incursion into Syria has reached about 25 km (16 miles) southwest of Damascus, Syrian security sources said on Tuesday, after Israel seized a buffer zone in southern Syria and launched air strikes on Syrian army and air bases overnight. Israel's military operation into Syria comes two days after the lightning overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad by a rebel alliance left Syrians, regional countries and world powers nervous about what comes next. A Syrian security source sa...

April 5, 2024 9:49 AM

India expresses concern over air strike on Iranian embassy in Syria, asks Israel to ensure safety of Indians

India has expressed concern over the Israeli attack on Iran's embassy complex in Syria's capital Damascus on April 1. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in the weekly press conference on Thursday that India is angry over the deteriorating security situation in West Asia. This may increase violence and instability in the area. All concerned parties must follow international rules and regulations. Several commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard were killed in the recent attack. C...