Published: August 30, 2013
A Broader Look at the War Across Syria
Andrea Bruce for The New York Times
Suicide blasts, kidnappings and mortar attacks have plagued the capital. Above, the wall of an apartment destroyed by a car bomb in downtown Damascus in April.
Damascus area
The Capital Has Been Largely Spared, but the War Is Creeping Closer
Fighting has raged in the suburbs south and east of Damascus, an area known as the Ghouta. Damascus itself has seen only sporadic violence. Earlier this year, rebels made gains in Jobar, a neighborhood between the city and the Ghouta, but both sides have mostly held their ground since.
A video posted on YouTube in early August shows a bedroom in Babbila that is now a sniper’s nest. At right, rebels rip posters of Bashar al-Assad in Qaboun.
Idlib and Aleppo
A Stalemate and Rising Tensions Among Rebel Ranks
Aleppo, once a city of two million, is divided and largely destroyed. Meanwhile, tensions within the rebel ranks have intensified. Islamist fighters, many of them foreigners, and rebels affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, the loose-knit umbrella group backed by the West, have clashed sporadically.
Javier Manzano/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images/Oct. 2012
The presence of extremists and the lack of a unified military leadership have made the United States and its allies reluctant to arm the opposition.
In video posted in June, a religious court in Aleppo executes two rebels.
Al Qaeda distributes Ramadan gifts to children in Dana, Idlib.
Homs and Lebanon
Sectarian Tensions Are Spilling Into Lebanon as Hezbollah Sides With Assad
In June, fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant organization Hezbollah helped pro-government forces to retake the town of Qusayr. The involvement of Hezbollah in Syria has contributed to an increasing polarization in Lebanon and led to a series of sectarian attacks in recent months.
Omar Ibrahim/Reuters
On August 23, dozens were killed by car bombs near two Sunni mosques in Tripoli. A week earlier, a bomb attack in Beirut had targeted the Shiite group Hezbollah.
These videos show a giant smoke cloud from an explosion in Homs and injured people fleeing Qusayr, after the town was retaken by government forces in June. Thousands of refugees from this area have poured into Lebanon.