Thousands of women rallied in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on Monday to demand the new Islamist rulers in Damascus respect women's rights and to condemn Turkish-backed military campaigns in Kurdish-led regions of the north.

Syrian church leaders are advising Christians to scale back Christmas celebrations this year, despite assurances from the Islamists who have just taken power that they are free to practise their religion.

And so, during the war, the Mediterranean became a graveyard, and Syrians who had already lived through bombardment watched as their family, their friends and their neighbors drowned. A photo of a little boy, Aylan Kurdi, emerged, his body lying face down on the shores of Turkey. The conscience of the world was briefly stirred.

The Pentagon announced the US currently has “approximately 2,000” troops in Syria, more than double the previously disclosed number of 900, a Defense Department spokesperson said at a press briefing on Thursday.

U.S. diplomats visiting Damascus held Washington's first in-person official meetings with Syria's new de facto rulers led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Friday and discussed with the former al Qaeda affiliate the future of Syria's political transition.

The Assad regime’s abrupt collapse has thrust America’s long-standing military mission in Syria into uncertainty, as the Pentagon’s chief battlefield partner fights for survival and a U.S. leader skeptical of foreign military commitments prepares to retake power.

The Syrian regime’s collapse came more quickly than the rebels had dreamed — the circumstances were both serendipitous and part of a larger global realignment.

The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule.

The high-level delegation arrived to engage in talks with Syria's interim leadership, the State Department confirmed early Friday.

Behind the coils of razor wire and concrete walls, glimpses of the horror emerge from the warren of dank, airless corridors of what has been dubbed “The Slaughterhouse.”

A Syrian Air flight from Damascus landed in Aleppo on Wednesday, as the transitional government tries to demonstrate its ability to run the war-shattered country.