Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whose members make up one of Syria's biggest religious minorities. Alawites controlled power in the predominantly Sunni Muslim country for the 50 years of the Assad family's rule,

The Middle Eastern country had been ruled by outside powers and dictators for centuries before its revolution was realized.

It is at night that the past comes back to haunt Don McCullin, 90 next year, one of Britain’s greatest living photographers. Inside his head are the ghosts of two decades of war, and what he calls a lifetime of shame after growing up among the violent,

Will he walk the walk and not just talk the talk? And if he doesn’t win in the elections, will he peacefully stand aside for whoever does win?” one analyst said.

As those in the lucrative Captagon network move aside, how will the new leaders stop any criminals waiting in the wings to replace them?

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 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.

When his Russian bosses and the mercenaries protecting them finally left, Homam Kasouha walked into the plant’s head office and did something he had yearned to do for years.

A Pentagon spokesman said the increase was unrelated to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad to rebel forces in early December.

Years of strife ruined the energy sector, battered the currency and strangled growth. The West must ease financial controls to help the economy, experts say.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has more than doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight the Islamic State group — a dramatic increase that the Pentagon revealed Thursday, acknowledging that the added troops have been there for months or even more than a year.