Syrian Democratic Forces
Hope and Hazard
A journey from Damascus into eastern Syria — along a busy smuggling route — shows that the desire for a united country remains strong, despite the efforts of factions and external actors to sow discord and fuel sectarian fears.
The Changeling of Deir ez-Zor
He was not a jihadist, although he’d been called one when convenient. When he joined “the Kurds,” he automatically became a “fighter for women’s empowerment and the rights of the dispossessed Kurds.” He was neither. And neither are so many other Syrian Arabs from the eastern part of the country.