Instead of bombs there were beats. Guitars took over for guns, and there were cheers, not screams. Still, Aleppo was never far from the minds of the band Musiqana and the crowd at its record-release concert in Berlin. “I didn’t know if I should cry or be happy,” said Syrian-born Samaa...

 Ahmad Alkhalaf has had a busy year. He attended Democratic President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address as a special guest of a congressman. He learned to bike and rollerblade, took martial arts and gymnastics classes and spent his summer playing soccer and swimming...

(The Huffington Post)- The first airstrike hit at 9:02 on the morning of Feb. 15. As rescue teams dashed to the scene, warplanes circled back for a “double tap,” pummeling the isolated hospital in northwestern Syria a second time, minutes later. And a third. And a fourth. Twenty-five...

(Al-Monitor)- In northern Syria, a group of Western volunteers is trying to bring combat medics into the fight against the Islamic State (IS). In September, when northern Syria was still hot enough for sand flies to bite, John Harding sat at a makeshift table of plywood and concrete...