Syrian conflict
Graphic content
Human rights
The race to rescue those trapped in Syria’s ‘human slaughterhouse’
Footage emerging from the liberation of Bashar al-Assad’s most notorious prisons has revealed underground cells and body-crushing iron presses used to detain and torture.
- by Sarah Newey
Latest
Israel attacks Syrian air bases, destroying dozens of aircraft, say Syrian sources
The United Nations says Israeli forces are occupying a demilitarised buffer zone between Israel and Syria in violation of a 1974 ceasefire agreement.
‘The fear is palpable’: Australian women and children trapped in Syria afraid for their lives
Australia has had five years to repatriate dozens of women and children who went to Syria under Islamic State.
- by Michael Bachelard
‘It has come at last’: Sydney Syrians celebrate Assad’s fall
Diaspora are celebrating the sudden end of over half a century of dictatorship in their homeland.
- by Ben Cubby
Analysis
Iran
With Assad gone, a brutal dictatorship ends. But the new risks are huge
The overthrow of the Assad government could mean Iran’s pathway to Hezbollah is cut off. Now Iran, newly vulnerable, will have to decide between negotiation and the bomb.
- by David E. Sanger
Analysis
Analysis
Peter Dutton said it was too dangerous to go to this Syrian prison camp. We went there anyway
In the power vacuum left by Bashar al-Assad’s fall, amid the weakness of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, nobody knows who will control Syria or how they will rule.
- by Michael Bachelard
Analysis
Syria
The quiet media student turned rebel commander who toppled a brutal regime
Syria’s rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani was once a middle-class student with middling grades and a quiet disposition. He is now credited with helping liberate his country.
- by Hassan Hassan
Updated
Syria
Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow, says Russian state media
The swiftly moving events have raised questions about the future of the country and the wider region.
Updated
Syria
Countries close borders after rebels’ stunning advance against Assad
A collection of rebel groups aiming to depose the Assad regime are advancing towards the capital, Damascus, making Iran and others nervous.
- by Raja Abdulrahim, Farnaz Fassihi and Thomas Fuller
Updated
Bashar al-Assad
What’s behind the Syrian offensive?
The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East.
- by Ellen Knickmeyer
Opinion
Middle East at war
I was detained by Assad’s secret police, but I have no time for Syria’s rebels
Successive US governments have studiously avoided meaningful engagement in Syria. Under Donald Trump, that paralysis may be thrown to the wind.
- by David Livingstone