Middle East
Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad. Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than
Middle East
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi emphasized in his Christmas message to the Lebanese on Tuesday the importance of “not giving in to despair or hopelessness, no matter how severe the circumstances or challenges may be.” Speaking on the eve of the most significant date in the Christian calendar, Al-Rahi said:
Middle East
Human rights group Amnesty International on Friday condemned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for firing salvos of unguided rockets at civilian areas of Israel during the latest conflict. “Hezbollah’s reckless use of unguided rocket salvos has killed and wounded civilians, and destroyed and damaged civilian homes in Israel,” said Amnesty’
Middle East
Kurdish fighters in northern Syria are increasingly under pressure from Turkish-backed armed groups while also fearing the new authorities in Damascus will upend their hard-won autonomy. Suppressed for decades, the Kurds took advantage of the weakness of Bashar Assad’s government during the civil war, but with the rise of
Middle East
An international war crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday that evidence emerging from mass grave sites in Syria has exposed a state-run “machinery of death” under toppled leader Bashar Assad in which he estimated more than 100,000 people were tortured and murdered since 2013. Speaking after visiting two mass grave
Middle East
Basim Faiz Mawat stood in the Damascus cell that his fellow prisoners used to call the “death dormitory,” struggling to believe that the system that abused him for so long had been overthrown and his suffering had ended. “I came here today only to see that truly nothing lasts forever,
Middle East
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has sent 2,000 fighters into Syria, a source close to the armed group said on Saturday, as ally Damascus reels from a militant offensive that has seized major cities. The Iran-backed group, which has fought alongside the forces of President Bashar Assad during Syria’s war
Middle East
Lebanon's Hezbollah has been significantly degraded militarily by Israel, but the Iran-backed group will likely try to rebuild its stockpiles and forces and pose a long term threat to the US and its regional allies, four sources briefed on updated US intelligence told Reuters. US intelligence agencies assessed
Middle East
The office of France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Friday it would appeal against a French court’s decision to grant the release of a Lebanese militant jailed for attacks on US and Israeli diplomats in France in the early 1980s. PNAT said Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a former head of
Middle East
Lebanon’s prime minister on Monday urged the international community to support the state, not factions operating in the country, and in a thinly veiled swipe at Iran, urged countries to stop interfering in its affairs. At a summit of Arab and Islamic countries, Prime Minister Najib Mikati demanded that
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Middle East
Two United Nations agencies on Tuesday called for more funding to address "increasing" needs in Lebanon, where the war between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. "We are preparing for the reality that the needs are increasing," said UNICEF deputy executive director
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Middle East
Pope Francis on Monday slammed the “shameful inability” of world powers to end the conflict in the Middle East, on the first anniversary of Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack on Israel. “A year ago, the fuse of hatred was lit; it did not sputter, but exploded in a spiral
Middle East
Israel said Tuesday that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could ignite an all-out conflict. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to take heavier
Middle East
Shopkeeper Alaa Fakih lies awake at night scared that another catastrophe could strike Lebanon. Like many she is traumatized by the past — from the 1975-1990 civil war to a devastating Beirut port blast in 2020 and an enduring economic collapse — and fearful of the future. “I shouldn’t be thinking