[Published here October 2, 2017]
RAQA (SYRIA) (AFP) – US-backed fighters on Monday combed through a central district of Syria’s Raqa that once housed key Islamic State group command centres, recovering communication equipment and weapons used by the jihadists.
[Published here October 1, 2017]
Raqa (Syria) (AFP) – US-backed fighters were tightening the noose on Sunday around Islamic State group jihadists holed up in Raqa’s national hospital, one of the last IS-held positions in the Syrian city.
[Published here September 27, 2017]
HAWI AL-HAWA (SYRIA) (AFP) – For years, Gharam Habbal and her elderly father had desperately dreamt of escaping the Islamic State group’s hellish grip on Raqa. But when she finally fled, he wasn’t with her.
[Published here on September 12, 2017]
They honed their media skills secretly filming Islamic State group beheadings in Raqa. Now, these Syrian activists have become impromptu war reporters, covering the US-backed assault on their city from the ground.
[Published here on August 30, 2017]
Beirut (AFP) – The US-led coalition carried out two sets of air strikes on Wednesday to block Islamic State group fighters evacuated from Lebanon from reaching eastern Syria, its spokesman told AFP.
[Published here August 29, 2017]
Jurud Ras Baalbek (Lebanon) (AFP) – The dust-covered soldiers, armoured vehicles and tents may not look very official, but they mark the first time Lebanese troops have deployed in this sliver of land along the Syrian border.
[Published here August 17, 2017]
Beirut (AFP) – Syria’s opposition has lost one of its most powerful factions with the collapse of Islamist heavyweight Ahrar al-Sham, which once walked a fine line between jihadists and more mainstream rebels.
[Published here on August 5, 2017]
Beirut (AFP) – From special forces officer to brigade-hopping rebel, Abu Jaafar has seen Syria’s uprising from all angles. But after years of setbacks, culminating in cuts to US support, he feels disillusioned.
[Published here on July 27, 2017]
Beirut (AFP) – A US-backed alliance has ousted Islamic State group jihadists from half of their Syrian bastion Raqa, a monitor said Wednesday, as the escalating fighting drove up the civilian death toll.
[Published here on July 11, 2017]
Three Siberian tigers rescued in Lebanon from an attempt to smuggle them into war-ravaged Syria were being resettled to France on Tuesday, an animal rights group said.
MAYA GEBEILY 