President Bashar Assad

Volunteers clear the Old Market district of debris in Aleppo, Syria, in 2019. Years of fighting have left many sections of Aleppo destroyed.

World News

Syria's Civil War Started A Decade Ago. Here's Where It Stands

10:51am March 15, 2021

The conflict has not only pitted the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad against a band of rebels, but drawn the U.S., Iran, Russia and Turkey, among others, into a complex proxy war.

A crowd in central Damascus waves flags and portraits in support of President Bashar Assad on Monday, two days after the U.S., Britain and France carried out airstrikes. The photo was released by the official Syrian news agency SANA.

Why No World Power Really Wants To Topple Syria's Assad

5:15pm April 16, 2018

by Greg Myre

The Syrian leader has few friends. Yet after seven years of devastating war in his country, he's in a position of relative strength and there's no realistic alternative to his continued rule.

Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks in an earlier interview with AFP, in February 2016 in Damascus.

World News

Bashar Assad Tells AFP That Chemical Attack Was Western 'Fabrication'

2:38pm April 13, 2017

by Camila Domonoske

The U.S. intelligence community is confident the Syrian president used the nerve agent sarin against civilians. Assad, in an interview with the wire service, claimed the evidence is all fake.

A minivan drives past a portrait of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus last week. U.S. forces fired a barrage of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base Thursday in response to what President Trump called a "barbaric" chemical attack he blamed on the

World News

U.S. Lays Out Case For Assad's Culpability In Chemical Weapons Attack

5:44pm April 11, 2017

by Camila Domonoske

The White House released a declassified report on the attack in Khan Shaykhun. It says the U.S. is "confident" Syria's Bashar Assad was responsible and that Russia is attempting to deflect blame.

A picture taken Friday shows the damaged Shayrat airfield at the Syrian military base targeted overnight by U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles, southeast of the central Syrian city of Homs.

Russia Says U.S. Broke International Law In Striking Syria, Citing 'Pretext'

3:59pm April 07, 2017

by Bill Chappell

Russia blamed the strike on "speculations on children's photos." At the U.N., Ambassador Nikki Haley said, "The moral stain of the Assad regime could no longer go unanswered."

Experts Suspect Nerve Agent Was Used In Syrian Attack

5:42pm April 05, 2017

by Geoff Brumfiel

An attack on a rebel-held region of Syria on Tuesday has killed dozens of people. Video and eyewitness reports suggest powerful chemical weapons are responsible.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks during the Munich Security Conference last week. McCain's office has confirmed that while he was overseas, he met with U.S. forces in Syria about defeating ISIS.

Sen. McCain Makes Unannounced Trip To Syria To Meet With U.S. Forces

10:26am February 23, 2017

by Doreen McCallister

John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, went to Syria last week to discuss the campaign for defeating militants from the Islamic State.

Russian says its Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier will leave Syria first.

World News

Russia Says It Is Starting To Draw Down Its Forces In Syria

12:12pm January 06, 2017

by Merrit Kennedy

Russia decisively entered the war in September 2015, and has been a major factor keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power. Its only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, will be first to go.

Syrian rebel fighters and civilians are evacuated from pockets of eastern Aleppo on Wednesday.

World News

In East Aleppo, Final Evacuations Continue As Regime Prepares To Enter Enclave

10:25am December 22, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

Remaining rebels and civilians in east Aleppo wait in freezing weather for transportation out of the city; a few hundred people refuse to leave. Pro-regime forces might enter as soon as this evening.

People flee rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo into the Sheikh Maqsud area, controlled by Kurdish fighters, in Syria on Sunday. The photo was provided by the Rumaf, a Syrian Kurdish activist group, and authenticated by The Associated Press.

World News

Thousands Flee Eastern Aleppo As Syrian Regime Forces Advance

9:15am November 28, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

Rebels have held the eastern side of Aleppo for years. Now pro-government troops have retaken some key neighborhoods. Thousands of civilians are fleeing the fighting.