By Raed Khalil* (Tal Abyad, Syria) - Clashes between rival militias have become the norm in the town of Tal Abyad and neighbouring villages. The battles usually pit the Kurdish faction, called the Force for the Protection of the People, against an alliance of Arab militias, composed of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist militia, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria […]

By Vyan Mohammad (Qamishli, Syria) - In early June, 16-year-old-Ahmad was killed when his five-year-old brother fired their father’s nine millimetre Star handgun. Ahmad used to live with his family in the Muwathafin neighbourhood in the city of Qamishli in the northeast of Syria. With his father at work, his mother had asked him to keep an eye on his […]

By Hazaa al-Adnan (Kfar Nabl, Syria) - In June, a Syrian Army helicopter dropped an explosive barrel on a residential neighborhood in the Syrian city of Kfar Nabl. Four people died immediately in the resulting explosion, while seven were wounded. One of the wounded was eight-year-old Khaled al-Qasem. Khaled’s father, Mohammad, a 40-year-old construction worker, picked up his wounded son […]

By Abdallah Kleido (Kfar Nabl, Syria) – School openings this fall in this town of 30,000 people began with a deep divide between the parents: some in favour of re-opening the schools and others opposed to the idea. The hesitation about reopening schools comes from fear about the security situation and the fate of the kids, who attend school in […]

(Hamouriyeh, Eastern Ghouta) – Fear of another chemical attack is still present here in this town of approximately 25,000 people outside Damascus. More than 300 people were brought to the medical centre here when the Eastern Ghouta region was subjected to a chemical weapons attack on August 21. 27 peopled died in Hamouriyeh’s medical center, just a few of the […]

By Zaina Erhaim* (Raqqa, Syria) - Suad stands alone for hours outside the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in the city of Raqqa in northern Syria, holding up a sign bearing the brightly-coloured inscription, “No to kidnapping, no to detention, no to theft in the name of religion.”

By Razan Zaitouneh Why does the West insist on dealing with our dead and injured as if they were less valuable than a Westerner – and as if our casualties don’t even deserve respect or compassion? After the chemical massacre in Syria’s two Ghoutas, we believed that the world would, at last, take our interests into account in one way […]

The school year started in Syria in mid-September. Several schools in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo have been partially or completely destroyed. Charity organizations have started to rebuild some of the damaged schools, or tried to provide makeshift schools for Aleppo’s students. Photography by Zaid Mohammad

Families that were displaced from the Salaheddine neighbourhood in Aleppo took advantage of a lull in fighting in early September to visit their homes under the supervision of the Free Syrian Army. Those who returned had the chance to meet the neighbours they had not seen since they left their homes. They also collected whatever personal items and furniture they […]

Sleiman al-Hayess is a physiotherapist who defected from the Syrian Army and returned to his native city of Deir El-Zor a year ago. He has rehabilitated an abandoned physiotherapy centre in the Sheikh Yassine neighbourhood, where he has treated more than 70 patients, who are both civilians and opposition fighters, suffering from muscular atrophy due to war injuries. Photography by […]