Syria

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Ammar Hammasho, migrant from Edlib, Syria, who lives in Cyprus, kisses one of his four children after they arrived with their mother at a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia, outside the capital Nicosia, in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. Cyprus has formally called on the European Union to re-evaluate which areas of Syria can be declared safe and free from armed conflict so that Syrian migrants can eventually be repatriated there, the Cypriot Interior Ministry said Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

Cyprus calls on the E.U. to rethink Syrian safe zones for eventually repatriating Syrian migrants

By Menelaos Hadjicostis - Associated Press

Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, waves to his supporters at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, May 26, 2021. President Bashar Assad will head to China later this week in his first visit to Beijing since the country's conflict started 12 years during which China was one of his main backers, his office said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives in China on first visit since the beginning of war in Syria

Associated Press

Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, waves to his supporters at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, May 26, 2021. President Bashar Assad will head to China later this week in his first visit to Beijing since the country's conflict started 12 years during which China was one of his main backers, his office said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Syria’s Assad will visit China as Beijing boosts its reach in the Middle East

By Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand guard in Raqqa, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2022. Syria's U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, pushed deeper into the last stronghold of Arab tribesmen who have taken up arms against them in eastern Syria as a spokesperson said they hoped to end the dayslong clashes there in the “next 24 hours.” (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) **FILE**

Attack on Turkish-backed opposition fighters in Syria kills 13 of the militants, activists say

By Ghaith Al-Sayed - Associated Press

FILE - Children gather outside their tents at the al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on May 1, 2021. Iraq is stepping up repatriation of its citizens from a camp in northeastern Syria housing tens of thousands of people, mostly wives and children of Islamic State fighters but also supporters of the militant group. It’s a move that Baghdad hopes will reduce cross-border militant threats and eventually lead to shutting down the facility. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

Iraq steps up repatriations from Islamic State camp in Syria, hoping to reduce militant threats

By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

In this photo released by Suwayda24, people stage a protest as they wave the Druze flags in the southern city of Sweida, Syria, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. The protests in the Druze-majority city have been ongoing for more then two weeks, initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiraling economy but later widening to calls for the fall of the Assad government. (Suwayda24 via AP)

U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters say battles with tribesmen in eastern Syria that killed dozens are over

Associated Press

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, speaks at the government palace, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, March 27, 2023. Mikati is warning, Thursday, Sept. 7, that Syrian refugees could become a threat to the small Mediterranean nation’s delicate demographic and sectarian balance. Over a thousand Syrian refugees each week are fleeing to Lebanon from their country’s worsening economic and financial conditions. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

Lebanese premier warns Syrian refugees pose a danger to the small nation’s balance

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

A U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter stands on his armored vehicle, at al-Sabha town in the eastern countryside of Deir el-Zour, Syria, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. Weeklong clashes between rival U.S.-backed militias in eastern Syria, where hundreds of American troops are deployed, point to dangerous seams in a coalition that has kept on a lid on the defeated Islamic State group for years. That could be an opportunity for the radical group to re-emerge. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)

Fighting between rival US-backed groups in Syria could undermine war against the Islamic State group

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

Doaa al-Hassan, 10 years old, who lost her hand to a cluster bomb in 2022, studies at a camp near the town of Ain Sheeb, northern Idlib province, Syria, on July 18, 2023. More than 300 people were killed by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, according to an international watchdog, displacing Syria as the country with the highest number of deaths from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Cluster munition deaths in Ukraine pass Syria, fueling rise in a weapon the world has tried to ban

By Abby Sewell and Omar Albam - Associated Press

FILE - A US military vehicle on a patrol in the countryside near the town of Qamishli, Syria, on Dec. 4, 2022. Syria's U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023 pushed deeper into the last stronghold of Arab tribesmen who have taken up arms against them in eastern Syria as a spokesperson said they hoped to end the dayslong clashes there in the “next 24 hours.” (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

Syria’s U.S.-backed Kurdish forces hope to end weeklong clashes with militia in the ‘next 24 hours’

By Hogir Al Abdo - Associated Press

In this photo released by Suwayda24, people hold placards during a protest in the southern city of Sweida, Syria, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The protests in the Druze-majority city have been ongoing for more then two weeks, initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiraling economy but later widening to calls for the fall of the Assad government. (Suwayda24 via AP)

Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader

Associated Press

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., speaks during a Republican Study Committee news conference on the FY2024 budget, Wednesday, June 14, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Three U.S. Congress members, including Cline, made a brief visit to opposition-held northwest Syria on Sunday, Aug. 27, the first known trip to the war-torn country by American lawmakers in six years. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

Members of U.S. Congress make a rare visit to opposition-held northwest Syria

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Abby Sewell - Associated Press

This file frame grab from video posted online March 18, 2019, by the Aamaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group, shows an IS fighter firing his weapon during clashes with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters, in Baghouz, Syria. Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Syrian soldiers early Friday, Aug. 11, 2023 in the country’s east, killing at least 20 and wounding others, opposition activists said. The attack was believed to be carried out by members of the Islamic State group whose sleeper cells in parts of Syria still carry deadly attacks despite their defeat in 2019. (Aamaq News Agency via AP, File)

I.S. claims responsibility for an attack that killed 20 Syrian soldiers, and vows to keep fighting

Associated Press

This file frame grab from video posted online on March 18, 2019, by the Aamaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group, shows an IS fighter firing his weapon during clashes with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters, in Baghouz, Syria. Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Syrian soldiers early Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in the country’s east, killing at least 20 and wounding others, opposition activists said. The attack was believed to be carried out by members of the Islamic State group whose sleeper cells in parts of Syria still carry deadly attacks despite their defeat in 2019. (Aamaq News Agency via AP, File)

Gunmen ambush bus carrying Syrian soldiers, killing 20 in country’s east

Associated Press

Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. A fire broke out Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in a sprawling camp in northeast Syria housing tens of thousands of mostly women and children linked to the Islamic State group causing material damage but no casualties, the camp's director said. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

Fire breaks out at north Syria camp housing families linked to Islamic State group fighters

By Hogir Al Abdo - Associated Press

In this photo released on the official Telegram page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Assad blasted Turkey in comments published Wednesday blaming it for the spread of "terrorism" and trying to make its military presence in the war-torn country legitimate. (Syrian Presidency Telegram page via AP)

Assad blames Erdogan for violence in Syria and insists on a pullout of Turkish troops

By Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb - Associated Press

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States ambassador to the United Nations speaks during the UN Security Council meeting to discuss the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine, Friday, July 21, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

U.S. keeping Syria’s chemical weapons program in U.N. spotlight over Russian, Chinese opposition

By Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press

Trucks loaded with United Nations humanitarian aid for Syria following a devastating earthquake are parked at Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, in Syria's Idlib province, on Feb. 10, 2023. On Tuesday, July 11, 2023, the U.N. Security Council failed to renew the Bab al-Hawa border crossing into opposition-held northwestern Syria from Turkey. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)

Syria greenlights U.N. to keep two crossings from Turkey to rebel-held northwest open for aid

By Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press

Fighters from the Islamic State group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq, June 23, 2014. The Islamic State group announced Thursday the death of its little known leader Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi who had been heading the extremist organization since November. (AP Photo, File)

Islamic State says its leader was killed by militants in Syria, names his successor

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

David Miliband, the President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. An impasse at the United Nations Security Council delaying opposition-held northwestern Syria is putting the lives of millions in "danger", the president of the International Rescue Committee said. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Aid group official warns that impasse at U.N. on border crossing puts 4.1 million Syrians at risk

By Kareem Chehayeb - Associated Press