The number of US troops in Syria has regularly surged higher than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed since at least 2020, and in recent months increased to more than double the roughly 900 troops the US has long said are in Syria,

Assad’s ouster has raised urgent questions about the 2,000 troops who serve as a bulwark against ISIS and Iran.

Thousands of women rallied in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on Monday to demand the new Islamist rulers in Damascus respect women's rights and to condemn Turkish-backed military campaigns in Kurdish-led regions of the north.

Two African states are frustrating Moscow's efforts to establish a stronger military presence in the continent following the fall of Assad.

The military junta ruling Myanmar, an ally of Russia which also has close ties to China, has suffered a series of major military losses to insurgents in the western Rakhine and Chin states in recent days that have highlighted its weakening hold in the Southeast Asian country.

That was his reference to an illegal narcotic that has flooded the Middle East over the past 10 years. "Syria has become the biggest producer of Captagon on earth," he said. "And today, Syria is going to be purified by the grace of God." Mostly unknown ...

Jordan stands ready to help Syria rebuild, its foreign minister said after meeting Syria's new de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, the highest-level contact by an Arab state with Syria's new Islamist-led administration.

The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule.

Syria’s leadership isn’t the only aspect of the country to be changing as a result of this month’s toppling of longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad. The blurring of its borders is also underway — from Israel to the southwest and Turkey to the north.

The Syrian regime’s collapse came more quickly than the rebels had dreamed — the circumstances were both serendipitous and part of a larger global realignment.