Tag - middle-east

 
 

MIDDLE EAST

Farhan al-Khouli, a Syrian military conscript who deserted his post on the first day of the rebel offensive, works at a horse stable in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 13, 2024
Demoralized and abandoned by allies: Why Syria’s army failed to fight
Rampant corruption and a heavy reliance on foreign allies hollowed out Bashar Assad's once-feared army.
People wave the flag of the Syrian National Coalition as they celebrate the fall of the Assad regime in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2024
The Syrians have a chance to be free. They need our help.
The future of Syria, and the wider Middle East, remains uncertain, however, and the ultimate outcome could be more threatening than that of the Assad era.
The leader of Syria's rebel group, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, addresses a crowd in Damascus on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 12, 2024
Militant leader's endgame is big unknown in post-Assad Syria
Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to project a moderate image so far, but there is distrust in the air.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a hearing in his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2024
Israel's Netanyahu dismisses allegations in corruption trial
Benjamin Netanyahu is the first sitting prime minister of Israel to face a criminal trial.
The aftermath of an overnight strike attributed to Israel is seen on the Barzeh scientific research center affiliated with the Syrian defense ministry in northern Damascus on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2024
Israel steps up airstrikes and sends troops deeper into Syria
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists.
People hold a banner featuring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as members of the Syrian community and supporters gather to celebrate the fall of Syrian president Bashar Assad in the face of an offensive by Islamist-led rebels, in Istanbul on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 10, 2024
With Assad’s fall, Erdogan oversees Turkey’s growing regional clout
Erdogan’s clout over his southern neighbor has increased dramatically with the fall of his onetime friend Bashar Assad.
A truck pulls the head of a toppled statue of late Syrian President Hafez Assad, the father of ousted-President Bashar Assad, through the streets of Hama on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2024
Assad’s fall shows Russia, Iran and Hamas made a bad bet
That’s not to say the Middle East is entering a bright new era of peace. The collapse of Assad’s regime could cause a revival of the Islamic State.
A sanitary serviceman stands by body bags at the morgue of a hospital in Damascus on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 10, 2024
Syria rebels say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus
One rebel shared dozens of photographs showing corpses with evident signs of torture.
The suffering of people with disabilities has been compounded by steep shortages in devices to aid them, including wheelchairs and hearing aids, and in damage to roads, sidewalks and homes with accessible features.
WORLD / Society
Dec 9, 2024
Gaza's disabled people face ‘impossible times’ of chaos and war
The war has forced most of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents from their homes and has been particularly punishing for people with disabilities and their families.
A woman waves a Syrian opposition flag as she celebrates at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Sunday as celebrations erupted around Syria after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared President Bashar Assad had fled the country.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 9, 2024
Assad’s fall in Syria puts world on watch for more Middle East chaos
Multiple Arab and U.S. officials said that a power vacuum could now be dangerous, with memories of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq still fresh.
Syrian rebel fighters celebrate near the Clock Tower in Homs on Sunday after rebel forces entered Syria's third city overnight.
WORLD
Dec 9, 2024
Stunned, elated prisoners pour out as Syria's jails are flung open
Throughout the civil war that began in 2011 in Syria, security forces have held hundreds of thousands of people in detention camps known for torture.
A Syrian rebel fighter kisses a child as they gather in Homs after Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar Assad's 24-year authoritarian rule had ended on Sunday.
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 9, 2024
How Syrian rebels' stars aligned for Assad's ouster
Opposition militias sensed an opportunity to loosen the president grip on power when, about six months ago, they received Turkey's tacit blessing for a major offensive.
People gather at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Sunday. The Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken the city.
WORLD
Dec 8, 2024
Syrian rebels topple President Assad; prime minister calls for free elections
Syrian rebels seized Damascus, ending President Bashar Assad's 13-year rule and raising uncertainty over a transition led by Islamist group HTS in a war-torn nation.
Rebel fighters hold weapons in front of the Hama governor's building after capturing the city during their advance across northern Syria on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 6, 2024
Syria rebels capture another key city in fresh blow to Assad
Hama lies about halfway between Aleppo, which opposition fighters captured in a shock attack on government-held territory last week, and Damascus.
Displaced Palestinians arrive in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024
Trump's Mideast envoy in push to reach Gaza ceasefire before inauguration
Steve Witkoff met the prime ministers of Israel and Qatar separately in late November.
Members of a Lebanese NGO clear debris from their office that was damaged in an Israeli strike on a nearby building, in Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday.
WORLD / Society
Dec 4, 2024
In Lebanon, people with disabilities isolated and abandoned by war
More than 900,000 people in Lebanon are classified as living with disabilities, according to the United Nations Development Program.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in Riyadh on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2024
France and Saudi Arabia planning a conference about Palestinian state
The French president said he would recognize a Palestinian state "at the right moment" and at a time "when it triggers reciprocal movements of recognition."
Anti-government fighters move past abandoned Syrian army military equipment and vehicles southeast of Aleppo on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2024
Syria rebels 'at gates' of central city Hama
The advance on Syria's fourth-largest city is buoyed by the group's lightning capture of swaths of the north in an offensive that ended four years of relative calm.
Saudi Arabia has executed 303 people this year according to a tally based on official figures.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 4, 2024
Saudi Arabia surpasses 300 executions in 2024
Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
Iraqi military equipment is transported towards the border with Syria on Monday.
WORLD
Dec 3, 2024
Iraqi fighters head to Syria to battle rebels but Lebanon's Hezbollah stays out, sources say
Syria's civil war had been frozen since 2020, with Assad in control of most territory and all major cities.

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.