[Published here May 4, 2018]
Beirut (AFP) – Rights groups and specialists are sounding the alarm over a new Syrian law on urban development, saying millions of displaced risk never returning home after losing claim to land left behind.
Syria
As Syria rebels quit Douma, questions linger over detainees, activists | AFP
[Published here on April 13, 2018]
Damascus (Syria) (AFP) – As Syrian rebels evacuate their holdout town of Douma, hope is dwindling that four iconic activists and hundreds of others suspected to have been kidnapped there will be found alive.
Syrians in exile search for answers in leaked ‘wanted list’ | AFP
[Published here April 5, 2018]
Desperate to find out if they can ever return home, Syrians exiled by their country’s uprising-turned-war are scouring a leaked database of people reportedly wanted by the intelligence services. Typing in first, last and father’s names into the online list, Syrians abroad hold their breath to learn if a long-awaited visit to Damascus would land them in government prison or potentially far worse.
Broken by siege, Syria rebels face worse loss yet in Ghouta | AFP
[Published here April 4, 2018]
Beirut (AFP) – The expected loss of Eastern Ghouta will deal Syria’s fragmented rebels their biggest blow yet, leaving them unable to threaten President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and increasingly subservient to competing global interests.
Four years and one caliphate later, IS claims Idlib comeback | AFP
[Published here January 16, 2018]
The Islamic State group has been roundly defeated across much of Syria — which made it all the more surprising when it announced an official comeback in the country’s northwest last week.
Syrian boys caught in ‘vicious cycle’ of sex abuse, UN says | AFP
[Published here on December 7, 2017]
Beirut (AFP) – Syrian men and boys, in their war-torn country and abroad, have suffered “a vicious cycle” of sexual abuse with more devastating consequences than previously reported, the United Nations said Thursday.
In its new report, “We Keep it in our Heart,” the UN’s refugee agency said it had documented widespread sexual violence against Syrian males, including those seeking refuge.
In ravaged Raqa, clues to IS’s bygone media empire | AFP
[Published here on October 22, 2017]
“Special operations by the Caliphate’s soldiers!” boasts a torn, blood-stained pamphlet at a bombed-out media kiosk in Syria’s Raqa, a symbol of the Islamic State group’s once fearsome propaganda machine. Continue reading
After IS, rotting corpses and empty jail cells in Syria’s Raqa | AFP
[Published here October 18, 2017]
Raqa (Syria) (AFP) – Days ago in Syria’s Raqa, die-hard jihadists made their final stand in the city’s national hospital. On Wednesday, it stood eerily silent, its entrance inhabited only by swarming flies and two rotting corpses.
To beat jihadists, anti-IS Syria force goes back to basics | AFP
[Published here October 16, 2017]
Raqa (Syria) (AFP) – Once the last Islamic State group fighters are ousted from Syria’s Raqa, the unconventional forces battling the jihadists say they’ll have batteries and masking tape to thank for their victory.
Far from front line, volunteers prepare to rebuild Raqa | AFP
[Published here on October 13, 2017]
Ain Issa (Syria) (AFP) – As US-backed forces fight to oust the Islamic State group from its last hideouts in Syria’s Raqa, a city council-in-exile is already working to bring life back to its devastated home town.
MAYA GEBEILY 