Almost half the remaining inmates are Yemeni, but I have to say that I don’t remember many Yemenis in Osama bin Laden’s camps – and I met the man twice in Afghanistan

The biggest military defeat that Isis has suffered in more than two years. The recapture of Palmyra

Five years ago, we were high on Arab revolutions, and journalists were growing used to ‘liberating’ Arab capitals

As Stalingrad-size casualties mount in civil war Syria today, it’s worth remembering how the French and British thought they could create a ‘modern’ Syria in 1941

As a witness to the massacre of 1982, I went back often to this place of memories and ghosts, to talk to the survivors

Can Syria be put back together again?

What is happening in al-Qadam tells you a lot about the Syrian war

I have long nursed the suspicion that many of these groups, including some Taliban units and even Isis – let alone the government militias – are not fighting about religion or government at all, more about mafia power

History teaches us that for 100 years now, the people of this magnificent, dangerous region have sought justice and received only injustice

After losing up to 60,000 soldiers in five years of fighting, the Syrian army has suddenly scored its greatest victory of the…