Ahmed al-Sharaa

Force in Play

Leading Syria's transitional government after toppling Assad

A lone ISIS gunman killed two Iowa National Guardsmen and a civilian interpreter in Palmyra, Syria, on December 13, 2025—the first American combat deaths since Bashar al-Assad fled the country a year earlier. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded with Operation Hawkeye Strike.

Updated 1 hour ago

Force in Play

Leading Syria's post-Assad government, cooperating with US on ISIS

On December 13, 2025, a Syrian security officer allegedly affiliated with ISIS opened fire on US troops near Palmyra, killing two Iowa National Guard members (Staff Sgts. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar and William Nathaniel Howard) and interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat. The US responded six days later with Operation Hawkeye Strike: 100 precision munitions against 70 ISIS targets in central Syria via fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery, plus Jordanian F-16s, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called 'a declaration of vengeance.'

Updated 14 hours ago

Force in Play

Cooperating with U.S.-led counter-ISIS efforts while rebuilding a fractured state.

In the first post-strike readout of

Updated Yesterday

Rule Changes

Leading a fragile transition under intense scrutiny after coastal killings

Britain just named names in Syria's ugliest post-Assad story: who helped kill civilians, and who paid for the machinery of abuse. The UK's new package freezes assets, bans travel, and blocks them from UK business.

Updated Yesterday

Rule Changes

Heading post-Assad administration

On April 26, 2026, a brigadier general in a brown prison uniform stepped into an iron cage at Damascus's Palace of Justice. Atef Najib — Bashar al-Assad's cousin and the man whose 2011 detention of graffiti-scrawling teenagers in Deraa lit the fuse of Syria's civil war — became the first official of the fallen regime to face a public trial. Above him, prosecutors displayed a photograph of Hamza al-Khatib, the 13-year-old whose tortured body became the war's first martyr image. The judge who opened the session — Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan — was himself once condemned by the regime he now sits in judgment of: he defected from Idlib's Civil Court of Appeal in March 2013, was sentenced to death in absentia by Assad's government for that act, and returned to Syria's judiciary only after Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024.

Updated Apr 29

Force in Play

Leading transitional government since January 2025

The United States began bombing ISIS targets in Syria in September 2014. Eleven years later, Washington announced it will withdraw all remaining troops within two months—ending a ground presence that once numbered over 2,000 soldiers. The withdrawal follows a cascade of changes: Assad's fall in December 2024, a new HTS-led government taking control, and an agreement integrating America's Kurdish allies into the Syrian national army.

Updated Feb 18

Force in Play

Secured SDF capitulation through military offensive and political settlement

Syria's 13-month standoff over Kurdish autonomy ended on January 18, 2026, when Damascus and the SDF signed a 14-point agreement dissolving the Kurdish autonomous administration. After capturing the al-Omar oilfield, Tabqa dam, and Raqqa city in a lightning offensive, Syrian forces secured SDF capitulation: complete withdrawal east of the Euphrates, handover of all three northeastern provinces, and integration of Kurdish fighters into the Syrian army on an individual basis.

Updated Jan 22

Force in Play

Leading integration negotiations with SDF

The SDF has guarded roughly 9,000 ISIS fighters and 38,000 of their family members since the caliphate collapsed in 2019. That custodial arrangement just cracked. When Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters traded control of Al-Shaddadi prison on January 20, 2026, the handover gap let local residents break out between 120 and 200 detainees—most recaptured by day's end, but the incident exposed what happens when the world's largest ISIS detention system changes hands. Twenty-four hours later, the U.S. military transferred the first 150 detainees from Hasakah to Iraq, launching a mission that could relocate up to 7,000 fighters as Syria's government assumes control of the northeast.

Updated Jan 22

Force in Play

Met Mazloum Abdi January 20 for 5-hour talks that collapsed after demanding full Hasakah control; received Trump call pledging not to advance on Hasakah; announced 4-day ceasefire through Jan 24

The five-hour meeting collapsed. On January 20, Syrian President al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi met in Damascus with the defense and foreign ministers present—the highest-level direct talks since the January 18 ceasefire. Al-Sharaa offered Mazloum the position of Deputy Defense Minister and asked him to nominate Hasakah's governor in exchange for cutting PKK ties and accepting Syrian forces into the province. Mazloum requested that Hasakah remain under full SDF administration. Al-Sharaa refused, conditioning the agreement on Interior Ministry forces entering Hasakah. The talks collapsed entirely. Within hours, Damascus announced a four-day ceasefire through January 24 and Syrian forces began deploying toward Hasakah—the last major SDF-held city. Trump called al-Sharaa the same day, securing a pledge not to advance on Hasakah while affirming Kurdish rights 'within the framework of the Syrian state.' But by January 21, Syrian forces controlled Raqqa city, al-Hol ISIS detention camp, and were positioned outside Hasakah. The question shifted from whether the SDF survives to whether it surrenders or fights.

Updated Jan 21

Force in Play

Leading Syria's transition since January 2025, formerly designated terrorist

On December 8, 2024, Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed after a lightning 11-day offensive by rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The 53-year Assad family dynasty ended not with a prolonged siege but with regime forces simply melting away. Assad fled to Moscow. On January 7, 2025, a Qatar Airways flight landed in Damascus—the first international arrival in 13 years—as the new transitional government began the monumental task of rebuilding a shattered nation.

Updated Jan 7