The historic Baron Hotel in Syria’s Aleppo is dilapidated and damaged by years of war but still standing and ready for a revival, much like the

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.

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.

Rebel fighters who took control of Aleppo about two weeks ago have promised security and continuity. Prices have skyrocketed, but residents express some hope for the future.

In Syria, Archbishop Joseph Tobjie of Aleppo says Christians must play a role in building an inclusive and democratic society after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Can Syria forge a path out of chaos without the need for an extreme ideology to hold it together? “Chaos,” wrote Albert Camus, constitutes “a form of servitude.” That is why true freedom must be a search for order.

After public protests and then rebellion erupted in Syria in 2011, Assad’s regime clung to power through systemic torture and relentless military campaigns with support from Iran, Russia, and an array of allied militias.

Bashar al-Assad became a client of Iran and Russia and fled the country when they stopped supporting him. The US is in the north-east, to hunt remnants of Islamic State and to protect its Kurdish allies. Turkey controls much of the north-west and has its own Arab-led militia.

In churches across long-stifled Syria, Christians have marked the first Sunday services since Bashar Assad’s ouster in an air of transformation.

Syrians who remained loyal to him through years of civil war fume that he left without a word. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Sharaa, the militant leader of the main group driving the Syrian armed opposition, met with the leaders of the armed groups and discussed with them the new format of the Syrian army