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Syria Direct
@syriadirect.bsky.social
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Independent media and training organization producing in-depth, investigative reporting on Syria by our team of Syrian and international journalists.

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🧵 As Raqqa embarks on a future without the SDF, the northeastern Syrian city faces the delicate work of reintegrating former fighters and repairing social fractures left by years of shifting rule.

🔗 bit.ly/4c9inOB
Former members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Asayish line up to settle their status with the Syrian government in Raqqa city, 29/1/2026. Several of those in line wear long, traditional winter cloaks.
February 3, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Syria Direct
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Remains in the rubble: Integrating rights of the missing into Syria’s reconstruction policies

✍️ @mansouromari.bsky.social
Op-Ed: Remains in the rubble: Integrating rights of the missing into Syria’s reconstruction policies
As rubble removal, recycling and reconstruction operations continue across Syria, there is an urgent need to regulate these processes in a way that accounts for human remains and the rights of both vi...
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January 27, 2026 at 3:59 PM
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🧵 As rubble removal, recycling and reconstruction operations continue across Syria, there is an urgent need to regulate these processes in a way that accounts for human remains and the rights of victims and their families, Mansour al-Omari writes.

🔗 bit.ly/4t368Ju
A man holds a bone found in the Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus, the site of a 2013 massacre carried out by pro-Assad regime National Defense Forces (NDF) militiamen
January 27, 2026 at 3:59 PM
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🧵 Encircled by government forces and without basic services, residents of Kurdish-majority Kobani fear a return to the city’s darkest days as the end of a fragile ceasefire approaches.

🔗 bit.ly/4t4eXmz
Residents line up to buy bread in Kobani, a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-held city in the northeast of Syria’s Aleppo province, 23/1/2026. People wait standing in a muddy, slushy street besides a single-story concrete building. Two men walk past the line carrying bundles of bread wrapped in plastic.
January 23, 2026 at 8:47 PM
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🧵 The SDF’s sudden withdrawal has ushered in a new reality for Syrians in Deir e-Zor and Raqqa, where many are optimistic despite uncertainty about the days ahead.

🔗 bit.ly/49QPuUG
People sail a boat in the Euphrates River. Two figures can be seen in silhouette with the river in front of them. On the opposite bank, a line of trees is silhouetted against the sun, which is behind them. The sky is yellow and reflects on the surface of the water.
January 22, 2026 at 5:35 PM
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🧵 A four-day ceasefire marks the latest effort to integrate SDF and Syrian government forces and sidestep a dangerous military showdown, but its success hinges on each side’s willingness and ability to commit to the political process.

🔗 bit.ly/3YUyJ62
Forces affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Interior deploy in the eastern countryside of Deir e-Zor province, 19/1/2026. A man wearing a khakhi hoodie stands in the back of a white pickup track with a heavy weapon mounted in the back.
January 21, 2026 at 6:18 PM
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🧵 A financial settlement between sanctioned Syrian business tycoon Muhammad Hamsho and the country’s new government has sparked controversy given his deep ties to the Assad regime and role in profiting from the country’s destruction.

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Syrian business tycoon Muhammad Hamsho (right) signs a financial settlement with the new Syrian government in a picture posted by Hamsho to his personal Facebook page, 6/1/2026. Two men sit at a table signing documents, with a Syrian flag behind them. On the right, Muhammad Hamsho wears a gray blazer over a black sweater with short gray hair and a close-cropped beard.
January 14, 2026 at 4:08 PM
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🧵 This week’s escalation in Aleppo city comes amid a deepening political crisis between Damascus and the SDF, particularly after the latest round of negotiations to implement the March 2025 agreement stalled.

🔗 bit.ly/4jBRMLR
The Syrian Ministry of Interior’s Internal Security Forces deploy in Aleppo city’s Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood following days of clashes with SDF forces in predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo, 10/1/2026. In the foreground, one member of the security forces stands holding an assault rifle, wearing black with a khakhi helmet, bulletproof vest and boots. His face is covered by a black gaiter below the eyes. In the background, another security officer stands in the back of a white Ministry of Interior truck. Multi-level apartment buildings are in the background.
January 10, 2026 at 8:25 PM
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🧵 A year of false starts, bloodshed, shifting balances of power and foreign intervention has produced a complicated landscape in Druze-majority Suwayda, one in which the voices calling for secession and self-rule are growing louder.

🔗 bit.ly/4pOn9VX
Syrian Druze religious leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri (with a long beard and white turban) meets with leaders of the Suwayda National Guard militia and its affiliated Internal Security Forces at the headquarters of the Druze spiritual presidency in the Suwayda countryside town of Qanawat, 17/12/2025.
December 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM
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🧵 Once scattered and safeguarded abroad, Syria’s native seeds are taking root once more, part of an organic revival aimed at restoring the country’s agricultural heritage.

🔗 bit.ly/49iU7HZ
Ibrahim al-Youssef, an organic seed farmer from Zarbah, in the southern Aleppo countryside, examines his crops, 25/6/2025. Al-Youssef, a man with close-cropped white hair, sits on the ground among rows of plants. Looking into the distance, he is seen in profile with a few taller plants behind him, giving the impression of a halo or green shadow.
December 18, 2025 at 1:59 PM
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🧵 The first year of the “new Syria” brought relative economic stability and a marked improvement in the exchange rate of the pound, but economic burdens still weigh on Syrians. Has the cost of living crisis improved, or is it deepening?

🔗 bit.ly/453Kiex
Syrians attend the Made in Syria shopping festival, organized by the Damascus and Reef Dimashq Chambers of Commerce, at Jasmine Sports City in Damascus, 5/12/2025. Rows of vendor booths offer various products for sale.
December 16, 2025 at 5:53 PM
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🧵 As dozens of mass graves come to light, Syrians face the daunting task of identifying the dead and bringing closure to the families of some of the country’s more than 160,000 missing people.

🔗 bit.ly/4p6K3H2
Dust from a recent examination spots a table inside the Syrian Identification Center’s preliminary analysis room in Damascus, 27/11/2025 . Reference books sit on the table, while an anatomical model of the human skeleton stands beside the table.
December 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Syria Direct
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شهد العام الأول لـ"سوريا الجديدة" استقراراً نسبياً وتحسناً ملحوظاً في سعر صرف الليرة، إلا أن الأعباء الاقتصادية ما تزال تثقل كاهل السوريين، وسط سؤال لا إجابة حاسمة له حتى الآن: هل أصبحت الحياة المعيشية أفضل من العام الماضي أم أن الأزمة المعيشية تتفاقم؟
bit.ly/3YhOnIg
@syriadirect.bsky.social
عام على سقوط الأسد: كيف تغير الاقتصاد السوري؟
شهد العام الأول لـ"سوريا الجديدة" استقراراً نسبياً وتحسناً ملحوظاً في سعر صرف الليرة، إلا أن الأعباء الاقتصادية ما تزال تثقل كاهل السوريين، وسط سؤال لا إجابة حاسمة له حتى الآن: هل أصبحت الحياة المعيشي...
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December 9, 2025 at 5:07 PM
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Families of detainees killed under torture in regime prisons mark the first anniversary of Assad’s fall with mixed emotions, a joy that remains incomplete without justice and accountability.
Detainees’ families mark Assad’s fall: Joy incomplete without justice
Families of detainees killed under torture in regime prisons mark the first anniversary of Assad’s fall with mixed emotions, a joy that remains incomplete without justice and accountability.
bit.ly
December 8, 2025 at 8:03 PM
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🧵 As Syrians mark the first anniversary of the fall of Assad on December 8, 2024, women who survived regime detention warn their ordeal did not end when they were released. For many, society remains a second prison.

🔗 bit.ly/3XGDdfW
A Syrian woman carries a child as she inspects Saydnaya prison, north of Damascus, in the days after the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024. She can only be seen in silhouette, inside the doorway of a cell illuminated by a flashlight. On the left of the image part of a metal door can be seen, and on the right a scuffed yellow wall with two smears of what appears to be black paint.
December 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM
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🧵 In the weeks after Assad fell on December 8, 2024, Khalid al-Ahmad* traveled from Raqqa to Damascus for the first time in his life. There, he was caught on video participating in celebrations. When he returned home he was arrested, held for three months without charge.

🔗 bit.ly/3XywyVb
A man walks past a mural depicting supporters and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria’s northeastern Qamishli city, 16/12/2024. In the mural, figures wearing military uniforms wave the yellow flags of the SDF and the YPG.
December 5, 2025 at 3:34 PM
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🧵 In northeastern Syria, a growing community of artists—dancers, musicians, filmmakers—is fighting to preserve the region’s diverse heritage and sustain more than a decade of cultural revival.

🔗 bit.ly/4pcn3XE
Dancers practice at Welat Art House in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, 23/5/2025. The four women extend their left arms forward, as if in the moment after releasing an invisible bowstring. Their faces are determined, their gazes fixed on a point in the distance. Thin fabric curtains hang over the windows of the practice space, which has a hardwood floor, whitewashed mudbrick walls and a wooden ceiling.
December 2, 2025 at 6:10 PM
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🧵 Olive yields fell across Syria this year amid the worst drought in 60 years. In southern Daraa province, the harvest was 68% percent lower than in 2024, and 86% percent lower than in 2011.

🔗 bit.ly/4io97ax
Olive trees on a farm in the western Daraa town of al-Yadouda are watered by drip irrigation, 28/8/2025. Two drip irrigation tubes run down parallel rows of olive trees with silvery green leaves. A circular pool of water has collected in a groove dug around each trunk. The earth below the trees is bare and tinged with red, and the sky is a pale blue.
November 27, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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🧵 The first trial of hundreds of suspects accused of involvement in killings on Syria’s Alawite-majority coast began on Tuesday, marking the start of a closely watched and unprecedented accountability process.

🔗 bit.ly/47MsF4P
People watch as the trial of 14 suspects accused of participating in violence and massacres on Syria’s Alawite-majority coast earlier this year begins at the Palace of Justice in Aleppo city, 18/11/2025. Judge Zakariya Bakkar, a man with gray hair, speaks into a microphone. A Syrian flag appears at the left of the picture, while the foreground shows cameras and the spectators' backs.
November 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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🧵 More than 11 months on, Israel’s occupation of parts of Syria’s southwestern Quneitra province seemingly has no end in sight.

🔗 bit.ly/4nXwPvx
A newly constructed Israeli outpost sits on a hill in Syria’s southwestern Quneitra province, 14/10/2025
November 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
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🧵 As Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa visits the White House, one of the topics on the table is the possibility of Syria joining the US-led international coalition against IS. What would that mean?

🔗 bit.ly/4qRFTVp
A security operation conducted by Syria’s General Intelligence and Internal Security Command against an Islamic State (IS) cell in Reef Dimashq province. The operation resulted in the dismantling of the cell, the arrest of one member and the death of two others. The picture shows military vehicles parked outside a building.
November 10, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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🧵 More than a month into the academic year in northeastern Syria, students enrolled in a number of schools remain locked out of their classrooms as a years-long struggle continues over what and how students learn in areas held by the SDF.

🔗 bit.ly/4i5AzKh
The Nasaim al-Bar private school in Hasakah city, which has been closed since the AANES banned Syrian government curriculum in September 2025. The school is a single-story stone building, with a wall and gate in front.
November 6, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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🧵 The Trump administration’s abrupt termination of Syrians’ Temporary Protected Status has left thousands scrambling for solutions before a November 21 deadline to self-deport or become undocumented.

🔗 bit.ly/4ogHqCE
People watch as the sun sets behind the Statue of Liberty—historically a symbol of immigration to the United States—in New York, 3/7/2025. Rays of light peek through the cloudy sky, which is a deep orange color that is also reflected on the surface of the water between two figures in silhouette and the statue in the distance, also in silhouette.
November 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
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🧵 When the regime fell last December, Abu Muhammad’s fight was over. He laid down his gun and went back to farming in Syria’s southern Daraa province. But the former fighter has not found peace of mind: friends are being killed, and he fears he may be next.
October 31, 2025 at 2:06 PM
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Nearly 11 months since the fall of the regime, simmering insecurity and uncontrolled weapons continue to destabilize communities and claim lives in Syria’s southern Daraa province.

✍️ @walid-alnofal.bsky.social
In post-regime Daraa, insecurity overshadows the state
Nearly 11 months since the fall of the regime, simmering insecurity and uncontrolled weapons continue to destabilize communities and claim lives in Syria’s southern Daraa province.
syriadirect.org
October 30, 2025 at 7:50 PM