They are under siege. They are under constant bombardment. Now shocking new pictures reveal the agony of life in the Damascus suburb of east Ghouta, under government blockade, where activists say 19 civilians died in a wave of attacks by Syrian forces yesterday. Rebels fired several mortars into a Damascus neighbourhood in response.
More than 400 people have been killed and thousands more injured after the deadliest earthquake this year struck on the border of Iran and Iraq. Rescue workers have been frantically trying to find hundreds of people still thought to be trapped under the rubble.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her Richard are constituents of the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq.
The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has apologised over remarks he made about the British-Iranian woman who’s been jailed in Iran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has insisted she was on holiday there when she was arrested in 2016, a claim which Mr Johnson had appeared to contradict. Pressed by Labour in the Commons today,he apologised for the “distress and anguish”…
The UN Secretary General António Guterres has said he has “great concern” about the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon and that any conflict would have “devastating consequences” in the region. The tensions follow the sudden resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Hezbollah’s leader in Lebanon today said Saudi Arabia had forced Hariri…
Alex Thomson
Middle class Syrians flee their homes and board a ferry from Lebanon to Turkey – the first stage of a dangerous journey to Europe. Are they refugees or migrants? Does it matter?
Alex Thomson
Another round of insults about who is racist and who is progressive is achieving nothing at all in the stymied, divided, impotent EU.
Alex Thomson
The pitiless Syrian engine of war grinds on. The waves of the displaced seek refuge. The only realistic escape route is Lebanon and Turkey.
Alex Thomson
What Europe has seen so far is nothing as to what is to come. That means asking some hard questions, including whether the war against Assad should be put on hold?
Alex Thomson
Ftaym, single mother of five children, gestures up at the bombed-out concrete wreck in the south of the Lebanese capital which is now “home.”
Alex Thomson
This is what a real refugee crisis looks like and the more the world turns away with its wallet, the more things fall apart, the more this real crisis will come to the EU.
Alex Thomson
The response to that photo to open doors is entirely understandable. The problem is that it might just make things worse.
Alex Thomson
A colleague in Damascus has spoken to his family, who explained how they feel he was betrayed by ‘neighbours’.
The Islamic State group returns to attack the Syrian border town of Kobani, five months after it was driven out by Kurdish forces. IS is also moving on districts of al-Hasakah, in eastern Syria.
Alex Thomson
It appears that the already severely degraded medical services available to civilians in Syria are diminishing fast under assault from barrel bombs.