Hayat Tahrir al-Sham

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order terminating all U.S. sanctions on Syria, to “support the country’s path to stability and peace.”

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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Kurdish militias in Syria on Wednesday to either lay down their arms or be “buried.” On the same day, the Turkish military said it killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq – including members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the leading Syrian Kurdish force allied with the United States against the Islamic State.

Protests broke out in Syria’s coastal cities after a video showing an Alawite shrine attacked by unknown militants appeared on social media.

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.

Syrian insurgent leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani when he was a high-ranking al-Qaeda member, on Sunday repeated his promise that the new Syria would be inclusive and respectful of minority groups.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Syrians on Sunday to rise up against the insurgents who toppled Tehran’s puppet dictator, Bashar Assad. Khamenei claimed the rebel assault that ended five decades of rule by the Assad dynasty was organized and directed by the United States and Israel.

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.

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.

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.

The Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia on Monday accused Israel of “sabotaging chances for Syria to reclaim its security, stability and its territorial integrity” by controlling territory in the Golan Heights after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad.

Russia may lose its base at the Syrian port of Tartus after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad, which would deprive the Russians of their only fueling port on the Mediterranean Sea and cripple Moscow’s ability to threaten the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from the south.

Turkish mayors belonging to the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) are offering Syrian refugees free one-way tickets back home, now that dictator Bashar Assad has been overthrown.

The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that led the recent overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria has been tied to the terrorist beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty.

Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghany says his forces have begun to penetrate the strategic city of Hama.

Humanitarian groups are concerned that the surprise offensive launched by al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) against the Syrian government last week could put Syrian Christians in even greater danger, and they were already struggling to survive after a decade of civil war and the rise of the Islamic State.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed Syrian militia group led by Syrian Kurdish forces, said on Tuesday that its fighters clashed with Syrian government troops and took control of seven villages near Deir al-Zor, potentially opening a new front against the regime of dictator Bashar Assad.

Hundreds of Iran-backed Shiite militia fighters from Iraq have reportedly crossed the border into Syria to help dictator Bashar Assad battle a surprise offensive from Islamist insurgents in Aleppo.

Russian warplanes joined Syrian government jets for intense airstrikes against the rebel-held city of Idlib on Saturday and Sunday, killing dozens of civilians along with the militants, including at least ten children.

Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, launched a surprise offense in Idlib province on Thursday.

Maysr al-Jabouri, a leading Iraqi jihadist widely known by the alias “Abu Maria al-Qahtani,” was killed on Thursday by a suicide bomber.

The United Nations said on Sunday that disaster relief for quake-ravaged towns in Syria is being held up by a “hardline group” that refuses to allow aid convoys from government-controlled areas to enter its turf. The group in question soon revealed itself to be Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebranded Nusra Front, which was itself an offshoot of al-Qaeda.

The U.S. military on Sunday launched deadly airstrikes against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria, marking the first time in two years that American troops have targeted members affiliated with the international terrorist organization, which now controls more territory than any other jihadi group in the war-ravaged country.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told Syria and Russia to stop “bombing the hell” out of Syria’s last jihadist stronghold Idlib.

KHAN SHAYKHUN, Syria — Violence in northwest Syria has displaced more than 30,000 people this month alone, the United Nations said Monday, warning that a looming assault could create the century’s “worst humanitarian catastrophe.”

SUWAGHIYA, Syria – Buses began evacuating fighters and civilians from two besieged pro-regime towns in Syria early on Thursday morning under a deal that will allow thousands to leave after three years of encirclement.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Five Syrian rescue workers were killed in an attack by masked assailants Saturday on one of their centers in the northern province of Aleppo, the White Helmets said.

A jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda has capitalized on the international troops’ near single-minded focus to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to consolidate its power in northwestern Syria and surface as the last major terrorist group standing in the war-ravaged country.

Contents: Russia’s ‘humanitarian pause’ in Syria turns into farce on first day; Report: North Korea is selling chemical weapons supplies to Syria; Areas of control in Syria and Iraq

Contents: Turkey gets bogged down with military ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in Afrin, Syria; Syria says it will send its ‘popular forces’ to support the YPG against Turkey in Afrin

Contents: Israel’s F-16 warplane shot down in aftermath of downing Iranian drone; Turkish helicopter shot down in Afrin, days after Russian warplane downed in Idlib; With defeat of ISIS, war escalates, and Syria becomes more fragmented and chaotic

Contents: Russia’s Syria peace talks in Sochi dissolve into farce as Lavrov gets heckled; Russia sidelines the failed United Nations Syria peace process; War continues in full force, with Syria and Turkey killing ‘terrorists’

Contents: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad targets civilians and hospitals in never-ending war of extermination; Russia’s ‘de-escalation zones’ turn into total farce