Syria

Dr. Omar Ibrahim went from Aleppo to Idlib province in Syria to continue treating injuries from shelling. Now, after six years of doing surgery in a war zone, he is starting a new chapter in his life.

The Saleh family lost four young children in a fire that broke out in their tent in June, when the parents were working in farm fields. Syrian refugees make up about 70% of Jordan's farm workers.

Medical workers in and outside the country say there's a lack of medicine and tests.

Oscar-nominated documentary maker Feras Fayyad delivered the first witness testimony in a crimes against humanity trial against a former Syrian government official in Germany.

"Hydroxychloroquine is included in the [Syrian] national case management guidelines for COVID-19," though there's no evidence that it's effective, a World Health Organization representative tells NPR.

In a first, Syrian witnesses and plaintiffs, some of whom survived torture in a Damascus prison, will see a former high-ranking Syrian official in court on charges of crimes against humanity.

Dozens of Kurdish families fled to the northeast Syrian village of Tal Tamr last fall, escaping a Turkish invasion. U.S. forces help provide some security, but the families face an uncertain future.

When Rumi wandered onto a military base in Syria, 1st Lt. Shelby Koontz took her in. She didn't want to abandon Rumi when her deployment ended, so Koontz used social media to find her a forever home.

American soldiers are helping secure oil fields in northeast Syria — not only from ISIS extremists, but from Syria and Russia as well. It's a relatively new mission for these troops.

"We're scared of coronavirus and we don't know what God has written for us," says an aid worker. "The precautions being taken here are very little and very weak."

"It is a very, very sad thing when my son says to me, 'Mum, I don't want to die,'" says Etab Hadithi, a 41-year-old mother of two. "We are all suffering ... from a dangerous life."

The military is conducting a credibility assessment of claims of civilian casualties during the U.S. operation against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.