Idlib (Syria)
Russia Votes to Shut Down Last U.N. Aid Route Into Syria
WASHINGTON — Russia vetoed a measure on Friday that would have allowed the last U.N. aid route into Syria to remain open for another year, in a vote that diplomats and critics said endangered the lives of millions of people already suffering after more than a decade of war. Foreign officials and international aid workers […]
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Diplomats Fear Russia May Use Syrian Aid as Bargaining Chip in Ukraine
WASHINGTON — Only one route remains open for international convoys bringing food, water and other aid to over one million Syrians besieged by civil war. Now, officials warn, Russia might try to shut it down or use it as a bargaining chip with world powers in another war, about 1,000 miles away in Ukraine. Diplomats […]
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Leader’s Death Is Another Blow for ISIS, but It’s Hardly the End
BEIRUT, Lebanon — For a man who sought to disappear, the leader of the Islamic State seemed to have done everything right. He hid out far from where his enemies expected. He never left the house, relying on trusted couriers to communicate with his far-flung underlings. He was the group’s only leader to never issue […]
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Neighbors Recall Night of Fear in Syria Raid That Killed ISIS Leader
ATMEH, Syria — The neighbors had never heard anything like it. The sudden roar of attack helicopters woke up the families living in a pastoral patch of northwestern Syria after midnight. They huddled in basements, storerooms and bedrooms. “What’s happening, Dad?” a neighbor, Abu Omar, recalled his son asking. A voice speaking Arabic blared from […]
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U.S. Commando Raid in Syria Targets a Senior Jihadist Figure
U.S. Special Operations forces carried out what the Pentagon called a “successful” counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria early on Thursday. The risky commando assault targeted someone believed to be a senior jihadist leader, but rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the raid. American helicopters ferried the commandos […]
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‘Now There Is No One’: The Lament of One of the Last Christians in a Syrian City
On Christmas Day, Michel Butros al-Jisri, one of the last Christians in the Syrian city of Idlib, didn’t attend services, because the Islamist rebels who control the area had long since locked up the church. Nor did he gather with friends and relatives to celebrate around a tree because nearly all of his fellow Christians […]
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