Zakaria Zakaria

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Articles

Syrian leader faces challenge of foreign militants who helped him win power

1 week ago | washingtonpost.com | Louisa Loveluck |Zakaria Zakaria

Zakaria ZakariaDAMASCUS, Syria — When Syrian insurgents rode victorious into Damascus late last year, their rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was relying, in part, on thousands of foreign fighters to help overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. Six months on, Sharaa is president, and the continued presence of those same Islamist militants, who came from as far afield as Europe and Central Asia to join the revolution, could now pose a profound challenge to his political survival.
The fall of Assad’s informant state leaves Syria riven by betrayals

2 weeks ago | washingtonpost.com | Louisa Loveluck |Zakaria Zakaria |Salwan Georges

The fall of Assad’s informant state leaves Syria riven by betrayals (washingtonpost.com) The fall of Assad’s informant state leaves Syria riven by betrayals By Louisa Loveluck; Zakaria Zakaria; Salwan Georges 2025051908004600 DAMASCUS, Syria — The Assad regime made Syria an informant state, with surveillance that turned the country on itself.
As Syria’s Druze minority reels from violence, Israel pursues an opening

4 weeks ago | washingtonpost.com | Louisa Loveluck |Zakaria Zakaria |Gerry Shih

As Syria’s Druze minority reels from violence, Israel pursues an opening (washingtonpost.com) As Syria’s Druze minority reels from violence, Israel pursues an opening By Louisa Loveluck; Zakaria Zakaria; Gerry Shih 2025051006003100 SWEIDA, Syria — Nervous Druze militiamen at checkpoints in southern Syria craned their necks in recent days to look inside stopped vehicles, sizing up drivers and bracing for new threats.
Israel launches strikes, intervenes in sectarian clashes near Damascus

1 month ago | seattletimes.com | Louisa Loveluck |Zakaria Zakaria

DAMASCUS, Syria — The Israeli military intervened in deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus on Wednesday, launching strikes in support of Syria’s Druze minority as its members battled Sunni Muslim fighters, but also threatening to unravel further the country’s fragile security situation. The capital was already on edge: In recent days, worsening violence between the Druze and Sunni gunmen resulted in dozens of people killed in two southern suburbs and scores more sent to local emergency rooms.
Israel launches strikes, intervenes in sectarian clashes near Damascus

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Louisa Loveluck |Zakaria Zakaria

Israel launches strikes, intervenes in sectarian clashes near Damascus (washingtonpost.com) Israel launches strikes, intervenes in sectarian clashes near Damascus By Louisa Loveluck; Zakaria Zakaria 2025043021314000 DAMASCUS, Syria — The Israeli military intervened in deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus on Wednesday, launching strikes in support of Syria's Druze minority as its members battled Sunni Muslim fighters, but also threatening to unravel further the country's fragile security...
Killings in Syrian village foreshadowed flare-up of sectarian violence

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Zakaria Zakaria |Salwan Georges

FAHIL, Syria — As the pickup truck carrying the body of the dead general wound through this mountainside village, residents lined the roadside. No one dared lift a phone to record. Officials from Syria’s new government had decreed no videos, residents said. The deceased, an officer from the ousted regime of President Bashar al-Assad, had been killed along with 15 others as government forces swept through the community hunting for weapons and “remnants” of the old regime.
Syrian rescue teams unearth bodies dumped in basements by Assad forces

Mar 4, 2025 | washingtonpost.com | Louisa Loveluck |Zakaria Zakaria

DAMASCUS, Syria — In the days after the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, rescue workers began to receive calls about the trail of bodies that his loyalists had left in people’s homes. For years, Syrians had stayed quiet about what they found upon returning to houses they had fled during the civil war’s worst years. So vengeful were the government security forces that residents worried they might meet the same fate as the abandoned skeletons if they reported them.