The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the Middle East and North Africa risk becoming uninhabitable in a few decades, with water reserves falling dramatically.
The US air-lifts Kurdish fighters into ISIS territory in preparation for a final assault on Raqqa—while bombing the city, deepening the growing enmity between Kurds and Arabs.
The Kurdish YPG militia says it has agreed to establishment of a Russian military base in its territory, although Moscow calls it a "reconciliation center."
The US is denying reports that it bombed a mosque in northwestern Syria during evening prayers, killing at least 50—despite mounting evidence from survivors and witnesses.
Killings, forced recruitment and other grave violations against children in Syria were the highest on record in 2016, said UNICEF in a grim assessment as the war reaches six years.
A new Qaeda affiliate in Syria has claimed responsibility for a double bomb attack targeting Shi'ite pilgrims near a shrine in Damascus that killed at least 40 Iraqis.
The Pentagon is dispatching some 2,500 combat troops to back up forces fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as the US-led anti-ISIS coalition continues to fracture.
Amid shifting alliances in the scramble for northern Syria, Kurdish-led forces are accused of handing over territory to the Assad regime, in a deal brokered by Russia.
Syrian cinematographer Khaled Khatib was barred by Homeland Security from traveling to the US for the Oscars, where a documentary he worked on was awarded.
A US drone strike killed a supposed al-Qaeda leader in Syria fighting in an ex-Nusra Front cell that had just carried out a deadly suicide attack on a regime intelligence complex.
US, Iraqi, Kurdish, Turkish and Syrian rebel forces are closing the ring around ISIS—but in an uneasy alliance, with little plan for the future of seized territories.
Politicians wielding a dehumanizing rhetoric are creating a more divided and dangerous world, warns Amnesty International in its new annual report.
