Tag - bashar-assad

 
 

BASHAR ASSAD

Smoke rises while members of the Syrian forces ride on a vehicle as they battle against an insurgency by fighters from ousted leader Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, in Latakia, Syria, on March 7.
WORLD
Mar 17, 2025
'Pray for us. They've arrived': How Syria descended into revenge bloodshed
Just three months after Bashar Assad's ouster, parts of western Syria descended into vengeful bloodletting.
A woman reacts next to one of the pictures of victims of a recent wave of sectarian violence targeting Syria's Alawite minority in the west of the country along the Mediterranean sea coast, during a protest condemning the attacks in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on Tuesday.
WORLD
Mar 12, 2025
Syria determined to 'prevent unlawful revenge,' says fact-finding committee
The latest violence has marked the gravest threat to Syria's new authorities, calling into question their ability to govern.
Syrian army personnel gather as they head toward Latakia to join the fight against the fighters linked to Syria's ousted leader Bashar Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 10, 2025
Syrian leader scrambles to contain deadliest violence in years
Clashes that a war monitoring group said had already killed over 1,000 people in Syria continued for a fourth day.
A soldier stands guard at a roundabout in Latakia, Syria, on Sunday. Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa called for national unity and peace after more than 1,000 people were reportedly killed in clashes in coastal regions of the country.
WORLD
Mar 9, 2025
Syria's new leader calls for peace as communal clashes continue
More than 1,000 people had been killed in the two days of fighting in the Mediterranean coastal region in some of the worst violence for years in a 13-year-old civil conflict.
A Russian military vehicle heads toward Hmeimim air base in Latakia, Syria, on Dec. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025
Russia gambles to keep military bases in post-Assad Syria
Syria's interim president wants to renegotiate the 49-year lease for one base and an indefinite lease for the other to secure better terms.
A member of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus on Jan. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 3, 2025
Digital discord: Online disinformation sows discontent in Syria
There are fears online disinformation is derailing the transition of power after Sunni Islamist rebels defeated Assad in December.
Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government in Damascus, Syria, on Jan. 14.
WORLD
Jan 24, 2025
Syria's new leaders turn to Islamic law in effort to rebuild Assad's police
Syria's new authorities are using Islamic teachings to train a fledgling police force.
People shop at a mall in the town of al-Dana, near Sarmada, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on Dec. 13.
WORLD
Jan 13, 2025
'It was a mafia': Syrian businesses hope for revival after Assad
Syria's new caretaker government has told business leaders it will adopt a free-market model and integrate the country into the global economy.
Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (left), greets a member of Qatar's delegation in Damascus on Dec. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024
Syria's de facto leader says holding elections could take up to four years
Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Ahmed al-Sharaa said, adding that it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.
Bashar Assad's fall offers a chance to rebuild Syria, but the history of Middle East stabilization is littered with failure, making the coming months crucial.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 26, 2024
Rebuilding Syria after the ouster of the dictator Assad
Hope must be tempered by caution. Across the Middle East, the removal of strongmen has generally produced violent chaos.
Syria symbolized Russia's "great power" status, but Vladimir Putin's failure to stop Bashar Assad's ouster exposed Russia as merely a regional power.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024
Russia just lost its 'great power' status
If Russia’s war in Ukraine is about identity and empire, its presence in Syria was about prestige and status.
Orthopedic surgeon Mohammed al-Hanash sits at his clinic in Douma, east of the Syrian capital Damascus, on Saturday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 24, 2024
Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
The medics, who treated the wounded at a field hospital near Damascus after the April 7, 2018, attack, said they were coerced into giving false testimony.
Protesters behead a statue of Saddam Hussein's predecessor, Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, president of Iraq from 1968 to 1979, in Baghdad's al-Mansur district in May 2003, erasing one of the last symbols of the Baath Party's 35-year regime.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2024
Can lessons from Iraq's regime change be applied in Syria?
If regional tensions escalate, disruptions to energy supplies could impact global markets, including Japan, which remains disengaged despite the mounting crisis.
Syrians step on posters of Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad, in Homs, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 22, 2024
How Bashar Assad's inner circle fled Syria after his fall
The ousted president was accompanied by only a handful of confidants, leaving both family members and loyal aides to find their own means of escape.
Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed, a former detainee in a Damascus prison, poses for a picture with his mother at their home in Sarmada, in the northern Syrian Idlib province, on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024
Bashar Assad's prisoner #3006 tells his story
When Syrian military intelligence officers detained Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed, they told him to forget his name and who he was.
Members of the Orthodox community of Latakia attend a Sunday Mass at St. George's Cathedral in Latakia, Syria, on Sunday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024
Syrian Christians attend services, schools reopen a week after Assad's overthrow
Some Syrian Christians remain jittery at the prospect of an Islamist government.
A damaged poster of Syria's ousted leader, Bashar Assad, in Aleppo on Nov. 30
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 15, 2024
Assad's final hours in Syria: Deception, despair and flight
Hours before he fled to Moscow, Assad assured army and security chiefs that Russian support was on its way and urged ground forces to hold out.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters gather in Damascus on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 15, 2024
U.S. says it is in contact with new Syria rulers
Secretary of State Antony Blinken's comment on "direct contact" with the HTS rebels came despite the United States having designated the group as terrorists in 2018.
A satellite image shows an An-124 heavy transport aircraft with its nose cone lifted, at Russia's Khmeimim airbase, near Latakia, Syria, on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 14, 2024
Russian military appears to be packing up equipment in Syria, satellite imagery shows
The moves could be a prelude to Moscow’s military withdrawal from the country in the wake of President Bashar Assad’s fall.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's downfall stemmed from his failure to reform the country's corrupt, sectarian regime and an economy ravaged by war, leaving his government unable to withstand the recent rebel offensive.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2024
Syria’s kleptocratic rule and a house of cards
Like the fictional mafia family, Assad’s regime relied on kickbacks from wealthy business owners and shaking down foreigners.

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Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan