Shortly before its operatives killed 14 Iraqi Shiite children in a school bombing this month, the group once known as al-Qaeda in Iraq sent guerrillas into northern Syrian villages with orders to reopen local Sunni classrooms. In a series of early fall visits, the militants handed out religious...

Officials have said a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer and three of six Red Cross staffers taken hostage in Syria are free and safe. Robert Mardini, the International Committee of the Red Cross' head of operations for the Middle East, said on Twitter that the four were released "safe and...

A Sufi Muslim shrine was blown up in eastern  Syria  on Sunday, opposition activists said, blaming al Qaeda-affiliated militants who have joined in the increasingly sectarian civil war. Militants placed explosives at the shrine of Sheikh Eissa Abdelqader al-Rifaiy in the...

Lebanon's government is enforcing new rules to limit the flow of Syrian refugees into the country, as the United Nations now registers about 3,000 a day. Yet many of the Syrians in Lebanon are not looking for assistance. Rather, they believe refugee status is a ticket to Europe or the United...