Syria | DD News

January 23, 2026 10:44 AM

UN agencies take responsibility for IS camps in Syria after Kurds retreat

The United Nations said on Thursday it was taking management responsibility for vast camps in Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children associated with Islamic State, after the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces who guarded them for years. Iraq, which has begun taking in detainees transferred from prisons in Syria as the Kurds retreat, said it would begin prosecuting them through its criminal justice system, and called on other countries to help take them in. More than 10,000 mem...

January 21, 2026 10:29 AM

Syria gives Kurds four days to accept integration as US signals end of support

Syria on Tuesday announced a ceasefire with Kurdish forces it has seized swathes of territory from in the northeast and gave them four days to agree on integrating into the central state, which their main ally, the United States, urged them to accept. The lightning government advances in recent days and the apparent withdrawal of U.S. support for the continued holding of territory by the Syrian Democratic Forces represent the biggest change of control in the country since rebels ousted Bashar a...

January 18, 2026 2:10 PM

US kills al Qaeda affiliate leader tied to December attack in Syria, Centcom says

U.S. military forces on Friday killed an al Qaeda affiliate leader linked to an Islamic State attack on Americans in Syria last month, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Saturday. Bilal Hasan al-Jasim had "direct ties" to an ISIS gunman who killed and injured U.S. and Syrian personnel on December 13 in Palmyra, Syria, Central Command said. “The death of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three Americans demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who attack our forces...

January 9, 2026 12:12 PM

Syria conflict: Ceasefire declared in Aleppo amid ongoing tensions

A ceasefire has been declared in parts of Aleppo following days of heavy fighting between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Syria’s defence ministry says the unilateral truce took effect early Friday at three a.m. local time in the Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zeid districts. Under the agreement, SDF-affiliated fighters are to withdraw carrying only light personal weapons, while the Syrian army has pledged safe passage towards the northeast. State me...

January 9, 2026 9:53 AM

Syria signals renewed cooperation on chemical weapons destruction

Syria’s current government under Ahmed al-Sharaa has indicated a renewed willingness to cooperate with international efforts aimed at dismantling the country’s chemical weapons programme. The United Nations has described this as a critical opportunity to address long-standing gaps in verification. Briefing the Security Council, Adedeji Ebo, officer-in-charge of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, said Damascus is now working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, ...

January 8, 2026 10:58 AM

Israel and Syria agree to share intelligence following Paris talks

Israel and Syria reached an agreement to exchange intelligence information and pursue commercial opportunities aimed at reducing military tensions and strengthening diplomatic relations. The arrangement emerged from discussions held in Paris under the oversight of US special envoy Tom Barrack, where both nations committed to establishing a joint coordination mechanism. The talks resulted in plans for a US-supervised 'fusion' cell designed to facilitate intelligence sharing, military de-escalati...

January 4, 2026 11:11 AM

Britain says it and France bombed suspected Islamic State arms dump in Syria

Britain's and France's air forces conducted a joint operation on Saturday evening to bomb a suspected underground arms cache previously used by the Islamic State group in Syria, Britain's defence ministry said. Western aircraft have been conducting patrols to stop a resurgence of the Islamist militant group that ruled parts of Syria until 2019. Intelligence analysis identified an underground facility believed to be used to store weapons and explosives in mountains north of Palmyra, Britain said...

January 1, 2026 3:36 PM

Syria Introduces New Banknotes from January 1

Syria has introduced redesigned banknotes from January 1, bringing into circulation a new series of currency that removes images of former leader Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez al-Assad in a symbolic break with the past. The new currency was formally unveiled by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa at a ceremony in Damascus. It reflects a revaluation in which two zeros have been removed from existing bills and includes denominations of 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 Syrian pounds. The redesign...

December 29, 2025 3:12 PM

Syria secures Assad-era mass grave revealed by Reuters and opens criminal investigation

Syria’s government has ordered soldiers to guard a mass grave created to conceal atrocities under Bashar al-Assad and has opened a criminal investigation, following a Reuters report that revealed a yearslong conspiracy by the fallen dictatorship to hide thousands of bodies on the remote desert site. The site, in the Dhumair desert east of Damascus, was used during Assad’s rule as a military weapons depot, according to a former Syrian army officer with knowledge of the operation. It was late...

December 26, 2025 8:06 PM

Explosion at Alawite mosque in Syria’s Homs kills eight

Eight people were killed in an explosion at a mosque of the Alawite minority sect in the Syrian city of Homs on Friday, Syrian state news agency SANA said. SANA cited Syrian Health Ministry official Najib al-Naasan as saying 18 others were wounded and that the figures were not final, indicating they could rise. The city's press office said an explosive device had detonated inside the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib mosque and that security forces had cordoned off the area. A local security official tol...