Middle East

Protesters tear down a statue of President Bashar al- Assad’s father, the former president Hafez al-Assad, in a suburb of Damascus. Source link

“There is nothing yet in terms of allocation for reconstruction,” Nasser Yasin, the environment minister and head of the government’s crisis cell told the BBC on Wednesday. “We have some good indications, some pledges from friends of Lebanon,” he said. “But we estimate we are going to need billions of …

In a report to IAEA governors on Friday, Mr Grossi said his inspectors had confirmed Iran was feeding more partially enriched uranium into the cascades of two centrifuges at its Fordow nuclear plant south of Tehran. “The facility’s updated design information showed that the effect of this change would be …

BBC Verify has been tracking the territory captured by Syrian rebels as they move towards Homs. Source link

Whatever the previous strategy of HTS may have been, as it spent years building its power base in the north-western province of Idlib, the momentum of the past week now seems to be leading inexorably towards a direct challenge to the continuing rule of Assad. In an interview with CNN, …

Earlier this week, the United Nations expressed alarm at the sudden escalation of the conflict and warned that the country was “grave danger of further division, deterioration, and destruction”. President Assad has vowed to “crush” the rebels and accused Western powers of trying to redraw the map of the region, …

“Based on the advice of the examining doctor, the public prosecutor suspended the jail sentence against Narges Mohammadi for three weeks and she was released from prison,” her lawyer Mostafa Nili wrote on X. In a statement, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said she underwent surgery last month after doctors discovered …

On Saturday, Trump announced Patel – a loyalist and former defence department chief of staff during his first term – as his nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an agency that both men have often criticised. The president-elect hailed him as “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America …

It’s been one week since rebel forces launched their largest offensive against the Syrian government in years. BBC Verify has been tracking the advance of rebel forces from north-west of the country by analysing and tracking footage that’s been posted on social media. They appear to have captured a large …

In a courtroom in Munich, Nora sat across from the person who had bought her as a slave, abused her and murdered her five-year old daughter. Nora and Reda were being held captive in Iraq by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in 2015, the year after IS began what …

Hezbollah said its mortar attack – the first operation which it had announced since the ceasefire came into effect last Wednesday – was a “warning” in response to repeated violations by Israel. It launched the missiles after Israel fired artillery shells and conducted at least four air strikes that killed …

Abdulkafi, an English teacher from the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, saw his father for the first time in 20 years on Monday. “He is 85, an old man. He never dreamed he would see me again before he died,” Abdulkafi told the BBC. A video of the encounter, seen …

The beaches of Gaza are no longer for day trips. Tens of thousands of people now have to live on the coastline, forced to leave their homes during the war. In recent days they have come under a new kind of assault: from winter seas battering their flimsy, makeshift dwellings. …

Israel says it struck targets in Lebanon on Monday evening after vowing to retaliate for an attack by Hezbollah on a military post, with both sides accusing each other of violating last week’s ceasefire. In a post on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said more details of its strikes …

For several years, Idlib remained a battleground as Syrian government forces tried to regain control. But in 2020, Turkey and Russia brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib. The ceasefire largely held despite sporadic fighting. In October, the UN special envoy for Syria said …

Rihab Faour fled her home. Then she fled again. Then a third time. Then a fourth. And by the fourth time, a year after the first, she had been fleeing Israeli bombs for so long that nowhere in Lebanon felt safe. Her journey had begun in October 2023, when Hamas …

The reignited war in Syria is the latest fallout from the turmoil that has gripped the Middle East since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October last year. The attacks, and Israel’s response, upended the status quo. Events in Syria in the last few days are more proof that …

The footage, which has muted sound, was filmed by Turkish journalist Ibrahim Bozan on 30 November 2024. Source link

The civil war has been largely dormant since a ceasefire agreed in 2020, but opposition forces still controlled the north-western city of Idlib and much of the surrounding province. Idlib sits just 55km (34 miles) from Aleppo, which itself was a rebel stronghold until it fell to government forces in …

Pictures circulating on social media showed a white saloon car by the side of a road, partially burned-out and with its roof caved in. Video filmed inside a mortuary also showed a number of charred possessions – including a laptop, clothing, and and ID badge – bearing the WCK logo. …