A suspected US-led coalition strike on a site used by Uyghur militants in Syria's Idlib province on June 21 has renewed debate over the future of foreign fighters under the country's post-Assad government. Sources told The New Arab on that an aircraft targeted a compound used by a faction formerly known as the Turkistan Islamic Party, in al-Zainiya area near Jisr al-Shughour in western Idlib. While no confirmed information has emerged regarding casualties from the strike, Syria TV reported that the site was largely empty. Preliminary reports suggested that a leader of Hurras al-Din, a former al-Qaeda affiliate which formally dissolved in January, may have been killed. 

US President Donald Trump suggested June 16 that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa could wipe out Hezbollah if Israel was unable to do so without causing heavy civilian casualties. The comment came in spite of repeated statements from Damascus ruling out any military intervention in neighboring Lebanon.

Amnesty International called June 4 on Egyptian authorities to immediately release jailed activists and uphold international law, following the arrest of a group involved in organizing a peaceful protest.

Riot police erected steel barriers and used water cannon to prevent crowds from gathering to hear a speech by the deposed leader of Turkey's main opposition party in Izmir's central Cumhuriyet Square on May 26. Özgür Özel and the core leadership of the Republican People's Party (CHP) were removed from their posts five days earlier by a court order that they charged was politically motivated. Following issuance of the order, Özel and his supporters barricaded themselves inside the CHP headquarters in Ankara. Police stormed the building on May 24, firing rubber bullets and tear-gas in a violent end to the standoff.

Polling stations opened May 24 in Syria's northeast as the region held its first elections for the national People's Assembly in areas formerly controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The vote marks a significant step in the country's transitional process, and integrating the previously autonomous region into national institutions.

Syria's Interior Ministry announced May 8 the arrest of deposed regime brigadier Khardal Ahmad Dayyub (Dioub), a former head of Air Force Intelligence in Daraa, for his involvement in systematic human rights violations committed against civilians. Dayyub is accused of running an "assassination committee" in Daraa, as well as involvement in the chemical attacks on Eastern Ghouta during his later service in the Damascus regional branch. He is also said to have had a key role in coordination with Hezbollah and Iranian forces in Syria that were introduced to back up the Bashar Assad dictatorship. (SANA)

Clashes broke out May 4 in Syria's southern as-Suwayda (Suweida) province between the central government's Internal Security Forces and Druze armed groups affiliated with the region's self-declared "National Guard." Fighters from the Guard's "501 Knights of Hamza" battalion attempted to advance toward government lines in the governorate's western countryside under heavy cover fire, including from truck-mounted machine-guns and rocket-launchers. Government forces responded with mortar fire. (TNA)

Syria's Internal Security Forces on April 24 arrested Amjad Youssef, principal suspect in a massacre of civilians in the Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus in April 2013. Footage emerged in 2022 showing Syrian soldiers leading captives, bound and blindfolded, to a pit before shooting them. The video became one of the most direct pieces of visual evidence of extrajudicial killings by forces of the Bashar Assad dictatorship, which was finally overthrown in December 2024. The leaked footage was released as part of an investigative report prepared by researchers from the Institute for War, Holocaust & Genocide Studies (NIOD) at the University of Amsterdam. Apprehended in a rural area of Hama province following a manhunt, Youssef appeared in the footage, and is believed to have been a member of the notorious Branch 227 of the Assad-era Military Intelligence Directorate. Estimates by the Syrian Network for Human Rights indicate that the death toll in the Tadamon massacre may exceed 450 people. (SNHR, BBC News)