A Syrian American man has filed a civil lawsuit in the US against the government of Syria for allegedly detaining and torturing him in 2012. Obada Mzaik was 22 years old when he was arrested at the Damascus airport.
While stories of near-miraculous rescues have flooded the airwaves in recent days, tens of thousands of dead have also been found during the same period.
This corner of the globe sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates, including the Arabian Plate that’s moving northward into Europe. Pressure along the fault has been building, and when it finally released, it appears that an area nearly 120 miles long and 15 miles wide got displaced, unleashing the earthquake.
The earthquakes that hit southern Turkey and war-ravaged northern Syria on Monday have killed over 12,000 people, with the death toll expected to rise as rescue crews race against time to save people trapped beneath rubble.
Entire neighborhoods have been leveled in northwestern Syria, where an earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday morning. This region of Syria is home to millions of people displaced by years of civil war. Even before the quake, they had been living in already dire conditions.
The death toll has surpassed 5,000, with thousands of others injured after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck large parts of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday. Rescue teams are trying to find people buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Rescue workers and residents in multiple cities are searching for survivors, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and Syria early on Monday.
A court in Canada has ordered the government to repatriate 23 of its citizens who have been detained in camps for suspected ISIS members and their families in northeastern Syria. If not challenged, this would be the largest repatriation of Canadians from Syria so far.
Many Syrian families in Turkey face school enrollment challenges due to a Turkish law that says no more than 30% of schoolchildren in a single class can be foreigners. Families in border cities like Gaziantep say their children are being turned away with few alternatives.
Human rights groups warn that a Turkish invasion could trigger a new exodus of refugees, and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis in northern Syria.
Protesters in the southern Syrian city of Suweida stormed a government building and torched pictures of President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend. They called for overthrowing the president, whom they blame for the worsening economic conditions.