Underfunded emergency programmes are limiting relief efforts, which could have far-reaching political consequences The tragedy unfolding in Syria has rightly stolen the international headlines. The sheer scale of the suffering cries out for coverage. The UN estimates that a third of the country has been displaced. We stopped estimating the death toll after it passed a staggering 100,000. For UNRWA...
Area has become refuge for hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds and Iraqis fleeing fighting in western region of country In a teahouse deep in the heart of Irbil bazaar, forlorn men gather around metal tables and speak animatedly. Walid, 55, and Rabiya, 60, (not their real names) are two of more than 30,000 Iraqi Arabs who have fled violence in Anbar province for Iraqi Kurdistan in the face of renewed...
Unicef warns that lack of basic services combined with mental distress and poverty could lead to irrevocable loss of potential The future of 5.5 million children living in Syria and neighbouring countries hangs in the balance as violence, collapsing health and education services, severe psychological distress and impoverishment combine to scar a generation, a UN report has warned. As the Syrian conflict...
Syrian Warda Sulaiman spent 19 months in prison. This is an edited extract of her appearance on Syrian state TV in which she is forced by Syrian authorities to confess that she committed acts of terrorism. A man identifying himself as Adhem Ahmed Burhan also appears in the segment, corroborating the kidnapping of a rich real estate agent Mona Mahmood ...
Among the more than 100,000 dead in the three years since the Syrian civil war began are at least 11,000 disappeared into the Assad regime's custody. But the true number may be much higher, the Guardian finds in interviews with released prisoners and relatives of the missing Syria's three-year civil war has left more than 100,000 dead and uprooted 9 million people from their homes. But perhaps the...
An estimated 1.2 million Syrians are living in Jordan, many in refugee camps, displaced – geographically and psychologically The old man does not give his name. He does not say anything at all. Lying under a blanket on a thin mattress in the corner of a dark, prefabricated metal container that these days serves as home, he greets a visitor with a baleful stare. Then, slowly, he turns his face to the...
Central to mooted plan is drive to provide Syria's divided moderate, secular rebel groups with more support After months of battlefield stalemate in Syria, a flurry of reports from Washington, Jerusalem, Amman and the Gulf suggests a major new clandestine effort is under way to open up a "southern front" against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Central to the mooted plan is a renewed push to provide...
Three men and one woman arrested on suspicion of travelling to or supporting fighting in war zones Police have arrested four people suspected of being involved in terrorism-related offences linked to Syria. The arrests on Tuesday are the latest in a series as concerns mount over the number of Britons travelling to the war-torn Middle East country. Officers from the north-west counter-terrorism unit...
Nuns say they were not forced to remove crosses during captivity which ended in prisoner exchange brokered by Qatar and Lebanon Thirteen Greek Orthodox nuns and their three maids, held in captivity for more than three months by a Syrian rebel group affiliated to al-Qaida, have arrived back in Damascus. They were freed as part of a deal in which 153 female prisoners of the Assad regime were also released....
Women say they were well treated by al-Qaida-affiliated kidnappers as they arrive at town near Lebanese border A group of nuns have spoken for the first time after being freed from months of captivity in a Syrian village. Jihadists seized the 13 nuns and three maids on 3 December from the Christian village of Maalula – where residents still speak the ancient Aramaic of Jesus Christ – and took them...
s affiliate in Syria. The Observatory and a rebel source in the area said the release of the nuns had been agreed as part of a swap in which the government would free scores of women prisoners. "The deal is for the release of 138 women from Assad's prisons," the rebel source said, referring to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. In December, the nuns appeared in a video obtained by al-Jazeera television,...
Giles Duley 's remarkable portraits taken at Zaatari refugee camp, located in the north of Jordan, for Save the Children ...
re lucky if they can get a minimum-wage job. We meet six refugees adjusting to a very different way of life Wahid Ahmad, 33 Was: civil engineer, Afghanistan Now: shelf stacker, north London Wahid Ahmad trained as a civil engineer in Afghanistan, where he worked in a senior role for the UN on infrastructure projects, overseeing road- and bridge-building. "I was proud of the job I was...
s royal decree in which Riyadh said it would jail any citizen guilty of fighting in conflicts overseas for up to 20 years. The authorities want to deter Saudis from joining rebels in Syria, fearing they could pose a security risk when they return. Riyadh says the Brotherhood – whose Sunni doctrines challenge the Saudi principle of dynastic rule – has tried to build support inside the kingdom since...
Scotland Yard says that the 21-year-old suspect was held after he got off a flight from Istanbul A 21-year-old man has been arrested at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of getting terrorist training abroad. Scotland Yard said that the suspect was held after he got off a flight from Istanbul at around 2pm on Thursday and is being questioned at a police station in west London. He was held on suspicion of...
s supplies of the weapon as proof that loyalist forces carried out the attack. The claim was made in a report about human rights abuses released by the global body on Tuesday, which condemned a wide array of atrocities committed throughout the three-year war. Describing the attack on the Ghouta district near Damascus , the report said: "The perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile...
Azzam, who has been granted asylum in Belgium, answers your question on his new life in Europe. Here are some highlights Maeve Shearlaw ...
s armed forces denied the Israeli claims as baseless, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to the revolutionary guards. The Panamanian registered vessel, KLOS-C, was boarded by naval special forces on Tuesday night, shortly before it entered Sudanese waters. Lerner said "scores" of Syrian-made M320 surface-to-surface rockets had been seized. With a range of over 100...
Shirley Williams raises a critical point about the importance of access for humanitarian organisations working inside Syria ( Letters , 3 March). In spite of the huge challenge we face working in a war zone, the World Food Programme successfully delivered food assistance to 3.7 million people inside Syria last month. We would like to reach many more. WFP has just completed the last of 24 humanitarian...
t immediately clear, but activists in Azaz said they had headed east, towards strongholds in the eastern part of Aleppo province and perhaps beyond to their self-styled capital of Raqqa . The move continued a steady retrenchment by the extremists since an array of rebel groups launched an offensive against them across the rebel-held north in early January. Isis has now been forced out of almost all...