Freelance journalist based in Damascus - [email protected]
Damascus
Joined February 2022
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Cian Ward retweeted
Israeli forces have detained dozens of Syrians from the country’s south, some of them teenage boys taken from farms and family homes. Their families still don’t know where they are being held or why, reports @subhash_anagha for @newlinesmag. newlinesmag.com/reportage/th…
Cian Ward retweeted
My thoughts alongside @GregoryPWaters and @NanarHawach on recent communal tensions and threats to minorities in #Syria.
From @CP__Ward for @The_NewArab.
newarab.com/analysis/protect…
Cian Ward retweeted
The #Syria fuel protests “represent an early alarm for the government about the problems in their governance and economic management,” @Issam_Alreis tells @CP__Ward @The_NewArab:
newarab.com/analysis/syrias-…
Syria's largest post-Assad protests over fuel prices come amid lingering economic collapse and, according to analysts, growing anger from much of the population at the government's failure to address their economic grievances
newarab.com/analysis/syrias-…
Cian Ward retweeted
Lithuanias foreign ministry has said it has received intelligence of upcoming Russian hybrid attacks on Europe in particular a large false flag operation under a foreign flag, Latvia mentioned a similar operation potentially using special forces.
Not good…
Cian Ward retweeted
Hundreds of Iraqi oil tankers are thundering across Syria toward the Mediterranean. Yet Syrians are waiting hours at gas stations to fill their cars. As Syria emerges as a new energy corridor to Europe, why is the country experiencing a fuel crisis? @CP__Ward for @SyriaDirect : syriadirect.org/oil-flows-fu…
Cian Ward retweeted
Around 15,000 women in #Syria have signed up to join the Interior Ministry's police forces.
Hundreds have passed through training already, with most trainers being reconciled former #Assad regime employees.
@subhash_anagha reports -- newlinesmag.com/spotlight/wh…
Cian Ward retweeted
Fascinating piece
"The great silence: why haven’t we found any aliens yet?
Given the size and age of the universe, it should be full of species with technology far more advanced than our own. So where are they?"
theguardian.com/news/2026/au…
Cian Ward retweeted
#Syria: the situation is escalating in #Hasakah-city, where a pro-SDF/Kurdish mob stormed a Security building, vandalized it and placed a Kurdish flag atop the building.
Security forces didn't intervene.
This is yet another cycle of unrest, triggered by the attacks on returning Kurdish residents in Ras Al-Ain and followed by retaliatory actions in other areas.
#Syria: return of displaced Kurdish people to Ras Al-Ain didn't go as smoothly as previous returns elsewhere.
A number of residents attacked and vandalized vehicles part of the return convoy, with claims that those targeted are "#SDF-affiliated".
This raises serious questions about the security arrangements, as return convoys are supposed to be protected by Security forces.
Cian Ward retweeted
🚨BREAKING: Footage captures the moment an Israeli settler opened fire and killed 4 young Palestinians men as they confronted a settler attack in the village of Tel, southwest Nablus, Friday morning.
🇵🇸 Four Palestinians were killed and four others wounded, three critically, after Israeli settlers attacked the town of Tell, southwest of Nablus, under the protection of Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The ministry said Israeli troops opened heavy live fire on residents who came out to defend their land and property. Those killed were Farouq Adnan Ali Ramadan, Ibrahim Hussein Ali Ramadan, Jawad Hussein Ali Ramadan, and Imran Ahmad Ali Ramadan.
Local sources said a Palestinian man seized a settler’s weapon during the clashes and opened fire near the Havat Gilad outpost, wounding four Israeli settlers and security personnel. Israeli media later reported that one Israeli died of his wounds. Israeli forces have sealed off the area and deployed reinforcements around the town, with ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir calling for collective punishment of the villages ands neighborhoods the Palestinians who resisted come from.
Source: Felesteen Online
Cian Ward retweeted
“A report by [@ETANA_Syria]… found that “the most progress on integration so far has been in the governorate's health sector, possibly because of its importance, service-based character, and apolitical nature in comparison to other files”.”
✍️ @CP__Ward @The_NewArab
newarab.com/analysis/securit…
Cian Ward retweeted
The arrest of prominent British-Syrian journalist Hassan Akkad sparked public outcry and a broader debate about the limits of free speech in Syria’s emerging political order. His subsequent release shows that public pressure still carries weight in today’s Syria.
But the broader debate over the limits of free expression - that Western democracies, too, continue to wrestle with - has only just begun.
syriaintransition.com/en/hom…
Cian Ward retweeted
Syrian President replaces intelligence chief to solve internal power struggle
thenationalnews.com/news/men…
Cian Ward retweeted
وزارة الداخلية لـ سانا:
▪️ وقع انفجاران بالقرب من وزارة السياحة في دمشق، ما أسفر عن إصابة 18 شخصاً، بينهم 4 من عناصر الشرطة.
▪️ قوى الأمن الداخلي رصدت خلال عملياتها الميدانية العبوتين الناسفتين، وباشرت الوحدات المختصة اتخاذ الإجراءات اللازمة لتفكيكهما، إلا أنهما انفجرتا أثناء التجهيز لعملية التفكيك.
▪️ قوى الأمن الداخلي فرضت طوقاً أمنياً في محيط الموقع حفاظاً على سلامة المواطنين، فيما باشرت الوحدات المختصة عمليات المسح والتأمين في المنطقة.
▪️ أظهرت المعاينة الأولية أن العبوتين صُنعتا بطريقة بدائية، وُضعت الأولى داخل سيارة مركونة على جانب الطريق، فيما وُضعت الثانية داخل حاوية مهملات، ولا تزال التحقيقات مستمرة لكشف ملابسات الاعتداء وتحديد هوية المتورطين.
▪️ نؤكد أن موقع الانفجار يقع خارج النطاق الأمني المخصص لمقر إقامة الرئيس الفرنسي، ولم يشكّل أي تهديد مباشر لمقر الإقامة أو لبرنامج الزيارة الرسمية، التي تتواصل وفق الخطة المقررة.
#سانا
Cian Ward retweeted
British foreign correspondents could be at risk of prosecution if they use sources within state-backed groups in countries such as Iran under national security legislation being rushed through parliament this week.
David Anderson, a former UK independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has warned that unless the bill is amended it could accidentally pull journalists working in danger-zone countries into prosecutions for terrorism.
Details here 👇
theguardian.com/uk-news/2026…
Cian Ward retweeted
These @akmckeever reports from Syria’s ex-SDF areas are great. Full of historical and local detail. Recommended if you follow Syria.
• Raqqa: akmckeever.substack.com/p/ra…
• Efrin: substack.com/home/post/p-191…
• Sheikh Maqsoud: akmckeever.substack.com/p/sh…
Cian Ward retweeted
Today, Syria commences the first transitional justice trials of the Assad regime, including Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad (in absentia), and Atef Najib. Najib notoriously oversaw the torture of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib in 2011.
Cian Ward retweeted
Mine for @TheAtlantic on being snatched off a Baghdad street on March 31, beaten, blindfolded and ziptied, and spending over a week as a hostage in handcuffs and in pain from multiple rib fractures sustained the first day.
Alhamdullilah I am out now and healing. And I still love Iraq, dearly.
theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
Cian Ward retweeted
Amjad Youssef, one of the main perpetrators of the Tadamon Massacre, which was discovered almost a decade after it was committed by the Assad regime, has been arrested.
An estimated 300 civilians were killed during the massacre.
Cian Ward retweeted
I am and will always be incredibly grateful to those who worked for my release when I was held hostage by an armed faction in Iraq earlier this month.
So many people – including but not limited to government officials, press freedom organisations, and my wonderful community of fellow journalists and friends - put an immense amount of effort into ensuring that the level of attention to my case remained high.
Thank you all so very, very much.
Cian Ward retweeted
The #IDF claimed that a hospital in southern #Lebanon was being used by #Hezbollah.
Then, the IDF admitted to me that a photo they shared, ostensibly as evidence, was not taken at the hospital.
There is, as yet, no hard evidence to back these claims.
#عاجل هكذا تحول مستشفى بنت جبيل الحكومي إلى معقل إرهابي لحزب الله!!!
🔸رصدت قوات لواء غفعاتي العاملة بجنوب لبنان في وقت سابق من هذا الأسبوع نشاطًا عسكريًا لعناصر حزب الله من داخل المستشفى الحكومي في بنت جبيل جنوب لبنان حيث قام عدد من العناصر الأرهابية بإطلاق النار من نافذة المستشفى باتجاه القوات. قواتنا اغلقت الدائرة سريعًا حول هؤلاء الارهابيين وقضت على 20 منهم بشكل دقيق.
🔸بعد ذلك ونظرًا لاستخدامه لاغراض ارهابية داهمت القوات مجمع المستشفى وعثرت داخله على مخزون من الوسائل القتالية!
🔸استخدم حزب الله الإرهابي مجمع مستشفى بنت جبيل الحكومي ومحيطه القريب بشكل منهجي ومتواصل لأغراض عسكرية، في خرق جسيم للقانون الدولي حيث قام بنقل وسائل قتالية عبر مجمع المستشفى وقام بتخزين وسائل قتالية داخل مجمع المستشفى واستخدم مرافق المستشفى كنقاط مراقبة وأماكن اختباء للعناصر الارهابية.
🔸يستخدم حزب الله بشكل منهجي المرافق الصحية وسيارات الإسعاف لأغراض عسكرية، ما يشكل خرقًا للقانون الدولي ويعرض السكان المدنيين للخطر وقد حذرت شخصيًا من ذلك اكثر من مرة.
🔸ايها اللبنانيون، هذا وجه حزب الله الجبان. استخدام المستشفيات للارهاب خشية المواجهة المباشرة لأنهم منتصرين في ميادين الشعارات وفيديوهات الشوفوني ليس إلا.
