Thousands went missing during Syria’s decades-long intervention in Lebanon. Months after the fall of the Syrian regime, families are still clinging to hope.
Spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, the secretive religious minority has long balanced integration and independence. Now, members are at the heart of the region’s shifting power struggles.
President Ahmed al-Shara said the airstrike on Damascus threatened to escalate sectarian violence, in his sharpest criticism of Israel since he came to power.
Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.
Syrian government forces entered the predominantly Druse city of Sweida on Tuesday. Israel intervened after days of deadly sectarian clashes in the southern Sweida region.
Israel has been conducting near-daily strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets as the Iranian-backed group comes under pressure to disarm amid fears of a renewed war.
An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week. Israel has conducted near-daily strikes in southern Lebanon since it agreed to a cease-fire in November.
For months, Israel has conducted near-daily strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah has not responded militarily since a November truce.
An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week. Israel has conducted near-daily strikes in southern Lebanon since it agreed to a cease-fire in November.
Emergency responders with the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, near the town of Rabia, in the Latakia countryside of Syria, late Sunday.
Firefighting efforts have been hampered by the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance left over from the civil war, as the country grapples with the worst drought in decades.
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