Stephen Kalin

Rebel gains have left foreign powers scrambling to secure their interests while President Bashar al-Assad faces his most precarious position in more than a decade of civil war.

Raed Al Saleh, head of the White Helmets, an independent Syrian rescue organization that has led evacuation and rescue efforts in opposition areas for years, said the group would provide emergency relief to families across the country and "help them shake off the dust of war." "The chemical regime, the criminal Assad regime has fallen, fallen, fallen," Saleh said in a video posted on X. "The Syria of peace and civilization will return to you."

The Assad family dictatorship that ruled Syria for more than 50 years melts away, and outside powers maneuver for influence.

Syrians who spent years lobbying Washington to impose sanctions on the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad want to see the penalties lifted following the country's takeover by rebel forces, a prominent Syrian-American opposition figure said. "As soon as we have a democratic government, we're going to be mobilizing in Washington, D.C., for all sanctions on Syria to be lifted and for reconstruction with the support of the international community to commence," said Mohammed Alaa Ghanem, strategist and policy adviser at nonprofit advocacy group C4SSA.

SAFED, Israel—Since the Assad regime imploded, Israel's military has seized a strategic mountaintop in its contested border area with Syria and advanced on positions beyond it,reshaping the frontier potentially for the long term.

Militants are looking to resurrect their dream of ruling a new Islamist empire

Weakened by war, Iran's waning sway, Hezbollah clears way for Aoun's ascension

A surge in truckloads brings desperately needed food to the besieged Palestinian enclave after months of halting deliveries.

Cease-fire allows desperately needed deliveries to starving Palestinian residents

A surge in truckloads brings desperately needed food to the besieged Palestinian enclave after months of halting deliveries.