When Israeli missiles destroyed entire homes in my neighborhood in southern Lebanon's city of Tyre, we decided it was time to save our lives again. More than 227,549 people had crossed the three official border points from Lebanon into Syria, according to the latest numbers from the United Nation's International Organization for Migration (IOM).
"I'm struggling a lot. I'm really scared for my situation, for my son's situation as well. I'm just very desperate to get out of here." Hoda Muthana, one of three American women in the camp, highlights the dire conditions and her fears.
Due to clashes between Syrian interim government forces and the Syrian Kurdish militias that controlled much of the northeast, the prisons and detention camps holding "Islamic State," or IS, members changed hands. In the ensuing chaos, some IS members and their relatives escaped from detention camps. Others were moved to Iraqi prisons. Between January 21 and February 12, the US military helped transport more than 5,700 prisoners out of Syria.
Rafighdoost explained with a chuckle that he had additionally ordered the murder of Shapour Bakhtiar, the final prime minister under the Shah, who was killed in his Parisian home in 1991; and the stabbing to death a year later of Fereydoun Farrokhzad, a dissident Iranian artist.
The Houthis, a Zaydi Shiite Islamist rebel group, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, are among Iran's most powerful and resilient allies. They are a key part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, an informal Iran-led military coalition in the Middle East. During his speech, al-Houthi suggested that the Houthis were ready to lend military support to Iran: 'We are fully prepared for any necessary developments,' he said.
OPINION - The global terrorism landscape in 2026 - the 25 th anniversary year of the 9/11 terrorism attacks - is more uncertain, hybridized, and combustible than at any point since 9/11. Framing a sound U.S. counterterrorism strategy - especially in the second year of a Trump administration - will require more than isolated strikes against ISIS in Nigeria, punitive counterterrorism operations in Syria, or a tougher rhetorical posture.
All of a sudden, two major provinces that were under the Kurdish forces' control fell in a number of hours and Syrian government forces swept in, he tells Annie Kelly. Soon the forces were at al-Hawl camp, the largest camp holding suspected Islamic State militants and then they were taking it over. In the chaos of the handover, more than 100 prisoners escaped and not all were found again.
More than 5,000 ISIL-linked (ISIS) detainees have been transferred from Syrian jails to a prison in neighbouring Iraq so far, according to Iraq's Ministry of Justice. In comments to the Iraqi News Agency on Friday, ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi said the transfers and ongoing detention of the prisoners had been carried out at the request of an international coalition led by the United States to combat ISIL, of which Iraq is a key member.