Showing results by author "Louisa Loveluck" in All Categories

AURORA, Ill. - All was quiet as Rabia Haj Ali walked through this Chicago suburb last week. Pausing to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, she watched as the only other moving presence - a small black squirrel - lolloped across the neatly cut lawns. For Rabia, the silence felt unnerving. In her Syrian hometown of Daraa, a quiet street signaled danger and the need to move inside. “It’s hard to believe you’re safe when the brain is still on high alert,” she said. “This takes some getting used to.”

"Aleppo's Humanitarian Crisis Worsens While Islamic State Loses Key Syrian City" is from the August 13, 2016 World section of The Washington Post. It was written by Louisa Loveluck and Hugh Naylor and narrated by Corey M. Snow.

Syria’s army said Tuesday that it had formed a new volunteer corps to join its five-year war effort, an announcement that underscored the extent to which its once-sprawling armed forces have crumbled.

Syrian troops pulled out of the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday as Islamic State militants claimed they had regained full control of the area less than a year after being driven out.

With waves of air attacks and missile strikes, Russian forces launched a major new offensive Tuesday against rebel-held areas in Syria, as activists reported the first airstrikes in nearly a month on the battered and besieged eastern districts of Aleppo.

All was quiet as Rabia Haj Ali walked through this Chicago suburb last week. Pausing to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, she watched as the only other moving presence — a small black squirrel — lolloped across the neatly cut lawns.

Three years after the CIA began secretly shipping lethal aid to rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, battlefield losses and fears that a Donald Trump administration will abandon them have left tens of thousands of opposition fighters weighing their alternatives.

The largest hospital in eastern Aleppo was bombed Saturday for the second time in a week, killing and wounding more than a dozen patients as they recovered from earlier attacks. Doctors at the facility, known as M10, said the assault involved cluster munitions, barrel bombs and incendiary weapons, prompting mass panic and appeals for help.

"A U.S.-Russian ceasefire deal for Syria was on the brink of collapse Sunday after a week of mishaps and setbacks that exposed the fragility of the plan.The ceasefire is premised on a series of trust-building exercises that were intended to culminate on Monday in the launch of preparations between the United States and Russia for joint air strikes against terrorist groups in Syria."

Three weeks into the crisis, officials said this weekend that repairs have begun on the facility that provided most of the capital’s water before it was damaged in heavy fighting in late December. But activists reported renewed government shelling on the area Sunday that left 12 people dead and is threatening the progress of repairs.

"Frustrations Rise in Damascus as Water Pipes Run Dry " is from the January 15, 2017 World section of The Washington Post. It was written by Louisa Loveluck and Suzan Haidamous and narrated by Sam Scholl.