Damascus

Hundreds of demonstrators in Sweida and other cities with large Druze populations across southern Syria marched to demand self-government on Saturday.

Three Syrian security personnel and a Druze fighter were reportedly killed on Sunday in renewed clashes across the southern province of Sweida, while the Kurdish-led, U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it fought against government troops in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Syrian central government on Monday began evacuating hundreds of Bedouin families from the region around Sweida, the heavily Druze city where deadly violence broke out between the two groups last week.

A disturbing spree of kidnappings has struck women in the Alawite Muslim minority community in Syria since the fall of dictator Bashar Assad, reports revealed this week, including at least 33 known cases of brazen abductions in broad daylight.

Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab announced on Monday that “a number of criminals involved in the attack” on a church in Damascus have been arrested.

A horrific gun and suicide bomb attack on a church in Damascus killed at least 25 people and wounded 63 more on Sunday, posing a stiff challenge to the ruling junta’s promise that it would make Syria safe for all ethnic and religious groups.

Soon after President Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the White House said he was prepared to meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda and Islamic State lieutenant who has governed Syria since his insurgent alliance toppled dictator Bashar Assad in December.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of jihadist terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), reportedly offered oil and gas concessions, peaceful relations with Israel, and even a new Trump Tower in the capital of Damascus as inducements for President Donald Trump to meet with him during Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday brushed aside the demands of Syrian Kurds for partial autonomy under a decentralized Syrian government as “nothing more than a dream.” The junta currently in control of Damascus was also unreceptive to Kurdish ambitions for independence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to Syria’s “interim president” Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday, offering “practical cooperation” and “friendly” relations to “stabilize the situation in the country as soon as possible.”

The Canadian Foreign ministry said on Thursday that it plans to ease some financial sanctions on Syria and send a non-resident ambassador to Damascus, despite the horrific massacres of Alawites and Christians perpetrated by the new Syrian government and its allies last weekend.

Russia sent a delegation of high-level diplomats to Damascus on Tuesday, the first official contact between Moscow and the insurgent government that overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in December.

The jihadi insurgents who overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in December are using Islamic sharia law to train new police recruits – a troubling development for minorities who doubt the new regime’s promises to protect religious freedom.

Hundreds of Christians marched through the streets of Damascus on Tuesday to protest the burning of a Christmas tree in a village in central Syria. Christians have been highly skeptical of promises to protect all religious minorities made by the Islamist rebel leaders who overthrew dictator Bashar Assad.

A group of U.S. diplomatic officials met on Friday with the rebels who toppled Bashar Assad, awkwardly seeking to open channels with an insurgency whose leaders are designated terrorists. 

Western powers, including the United States, are tentatively opening lines of communication to the new rulers of Syria — an alliance of Islamists led by an al-Qaeda splinter group whose boss is, inconveniently, a designated terrorist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.

CNN confirmed on Monday that it was duped by Syrian Air Force intelligence officer Salama Mohammad Salama, who posed as a hapless civilian prisoner named “Adel Ghurbal” so CNN could free him on-camera.

Members of Syria’s Alawite community — a small but formerly influential Shiite sect whose members included dictator Bashar Assad — are fearful of persecution at the hands of the Sunni Muslim extremist groups that deposed Assad in a swift attack on Damascus last week.

CNN’s viral video sensation has turned into an embarrassment as a rescued “Syrian prisoner” is reportedly an intelligence agent from Assad’s regime.

A spokesman for the victorious jihadi rebels in Syria said on Thursday that the national constitution and parliament will be suspended during a three-month “transition period,” after which a new constitution will be created.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikahil Bogdanov told state media on Thursday that Moscow had made “direct contact” with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the al-Qaeda offshoot that toppled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad last weekend.

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani insists his forces have abandoned terrorism and wish to build a more free and inclusive Syria.

Christians in parts of Lebanon celebrated the downfall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad over the weekend, gathering in town squares to launch celebratory fireworks and gleefully tearing down pictures of Assad from border crossings.

The regime in Iran is scrambling to explain why it was unable to protect its client Bashar Assad in Syria from being overthrown by a lightning-fast jihadi offensive that accomplished in less than two weeks what a decade of civil war could not.

A senior Iranian official said on Friday that his country will send missiles, drones, and more “military advisers” to Syria.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) praised Iran on Sunday for attacking Israel, describing the massive but largely ineffectual wave of drones and missiles as “brave,” “legal,” and “natural.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations released a statement about the attack on Israel on Saturday evening, saying that Iran’s retaliation “can be deemed concluded,” unless Israel or the United States escalates further.

A senior adviser to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Israel’s embassies around the world are “no longer safe.”

Syria’s two main airports were taken out of service Thursday by simultaneous Israeli missile strikes, Syrian state media said, in the first such attack since Hamas terrorists launched their assault on Israel.

Senior Israel defense officials said the military has destroyed around 90 percent of Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria, ahead of reports of an Israeli raid on Damascus.

Tel Aviv is the world’s most expensive city to live in as soaring inflation has dramatically increased costs, a survey published on Wednesday showed.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for bombing a major natural gas pipeline in Syria. The attack caused significant disruptions to the power supply for the Syrian capital of Damascus and other cities in the region.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that Syrian refugees from the area around Damascus should return home because Denmark has assessed the region to be safe.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group on Tuesday accused Israel of killing one of its members raising concerns of a retaliatory strike, the Kan public broadcaster reported.