Syria

The world's first criminal trial on torture in Syria's prisons ended Thursday in Koblenz, Germany — the first time a high-ranking ex-Syrian official faced Syrians in open court in a war crimes case.

Kevin Dawes describes how a fellow prisoner in Syria kept a promise that called attention to Dawes' detention. Now, five years after his release, Dawes is suing the Syrian regime.

After luring asylum-seekers to the EU as a political stunt, Belarus has now sent people back to the dangerous place they were escaping, rights groups and migrants tell NPR.

The count, by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, comes after more than a decade of a war that's killed at least 350,000 people and displaced millions.

While the numbers are far below the levels during the height of the civil war, the number of Syrians applying for asylum in the EU increased 70% over last year.

NPR has sued the Defense Department to get it to release files regarding possible civilian casualties during the 2019 raid in Syria that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Witnesses have detailed Syrian prison abuse in a crimes against humanity trial in Germany for over a year. Some withdrew over threats, while many have persevered to bring to justice an ex-official.

It was a decision that appalled and angered Syrian opposition groups and international medical organizations. On May 28 Syria was appointed to the World Health Organization's Executive Board.

The dictator's choice of voting location sent "a message telling the opposition that we are celebrating through your demise," one Syrian analyst tells NPR.

Denmark says security in Syria has improved enough for some refugees to go back. "The words 'to send us back to Syria' means to destroy our lives," says a Syrian whose residence permit was revoked.

The case of a woman who reportedly married ISIS fighters and is now stuck in Turkey with her young children has become the subject of a diplomatic dispute between Australia and New Zealand.

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.