A convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday under Syrian military escort, surrendering their enclave and traveling to eastern Syria after a week-long battle. A line of ambulances and buses were shown on Syrian state television...

( The Independent )- Zahira (not her real name) was 45 when she was arrested at her workplace in a suburb of Damascus in 2013. As soon as she arrived at Al Mezzeh Military Airport, she was strip searched, tied to a bed and gang raped by five soldiers.  For the next 14 days, she was...

By Tim Ramadan ( The Guardian )- Around three months have passed since the Syrian Democratic Forces launched a military operation to wrest back control of Raqqa from Islamic State. These forces are backed directly by the US-led international coalition, and they have so far succeeded in...

 French President Emmanuel Macron has asked his Turkish counterpart to free a French journalist who has been jailed in Turkey since July on suspicion of terrorism. The French president's office said Sunday that Macron spoke by telephone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and...