Syria's new leader is saying that he will dissolve the many rebel factions there and absorb them into the new ministry of defense. That new leader is Ahmed al-Sharaa. And if he can achieve unity, he'll do something that Syria's former dictator, Bashar al-Assad, never could.

NPR's Leila Fadel, Jane Arraf, and Ruth Sherlock share their reporting from Syria more than a week after the fall of the Assad regime.

Our colleague, Leila Fadel, is in Syria learning some of the secrets of a government that has now fallen. Her latest revelation is painful enough that some people may find it hard to listen to ...

Hey, Leila. LEILA FADEL, BYLINE ... DETROW: Have you met and talked to anyone from HTS during your time in Syria? FADEL: Yeah, I mean, I've talked to a lot of the rebel fighters.

And, Leila, I spoke with a senior U.S. military ... that they will be equally safe in this new Syria. FADEL: And not to mention all of the outside influences, right? Turkey's influence.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, on his trip to Syria to help preserve evidence from mass graves.

When Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the country, members of his own minority sect say he left them impoverished and stained with his legacy.

A possible ceasefire in the 14-month long war between Israel and Hamas is gaining momentum. There are signs that the two sides are closer to making a deal, but many sticking points remain.

In some ways, Syria is a land of ghosts, and the job of speaking for the dead falls to their loved ones and the new Syrian government. Leila Molana-Allen reports from the suburbs of Damascus. A warning, images in this story are disturbing. Syrians are ...

Syria's military said it had carried out a "temporary troop withdrawal" in Aleppo to prepare for a counteroffensive against "terrorists". And it admitted insurgents had entered large parts of the ...

Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race. Most recently, she was NPR's international correspondent based in Cairo and ...

The leader of the Islamist militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is very much putting himself forward as the figurehead of a post-Assad future in Syria. Without his ...