Syria

With Assad gone and Syria's war over, the White Helmets have a new mission

5:00am April 21, 2025

Vilified by the Assad regime, these Nobel-nominated first responders operated only in rebel areas. Now their founder is in the new government and they're extending their reach to all of Syria.

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Syria hopes tourists will return to Palmyra, a World Heritage Site ravaged by war

11:41am April 17, 2025

Before 2015, Palmyra was considered one of the world's most intact ancient Roman sites. ISIS blew up many key monuments of this storied Silk Road city. Syrians hope restoration can begin now.

How Trump's cuts to U.S. foreign aid are imperiling Syria's war crimes investigations

9:37am April 15, 2025

When former leader Bashar al-Assad fell, new Syria war crimes investigations began. But U.S. budget cuts have halted some work. For families of the disappeared, it means justice delayed or denied.

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Syria's dictator is gone. Its civil war is over. But Israel keeps attacking

5:04pm April 09, 2025

by Lauren Frayer

Almost immediately after dictator Bashar al-Assad fled, Syria came under attack. Israeli airstrikes have hit several hundred times since December. Syria's new leaders are starting to speak up.

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What happened when Syria's conservative new leaders tried to shut 60 Damascus bars

5:00am March 31, 2025

When Syria's new leaders shut 60 Damascus bars, drinkers protested, and the government reversed itself. It's an example of the tussle between secular and Islamist values in the new Syria.

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The missing children of Syria: Hidden in orphanages under Assad, where are they now?

8:51am March 16, 2025

Assad's forces detained mothers and children and sent many of the youth to orphanages. Syrians whose children vanished during the war are now seeking information on their fate. NPR investigates.

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Israel targets what it says was an Islamic Jihad command center in Damascus

5:38pm March 13, 2025

An Israeli airstrike targeted a building in an upscale neighborhood, destroying an apartment that neighbors said had been vacant for years.

He fled Syria's war as a teenager. He went back to help launch a tech industry

1:41pm March 11, 2025

Abdulwahab Omira escaped Syria's war with his family as a teenager. He recently returned as a Stanford graduate student and a budding entrepreneur, hoping to help jumpstart the country's tech industry.

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Syria imposes curfew after its worst clashes since the Assad regime ouster

2:02pm March 07, 2025

Syria's new government sent in security reinforcements and imposed curfews on a coastal area after major clashes with fighters loyal to the deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Meet the Syrians behind the music that inspired a revolution

9:37am March 05, 2025

Syrian soccer player Abdel Basset al-Sarout became the poster child for the Syrian revolution with his iconic protest anthems. In death, he has become its saint. But he didn't do it alone.

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