Al-Sharaa told Iraqi TV he went to Iraq in 2003 with no affiliations and never harmed a civilian. His own past words and his group’s record say otherwise.
ISIS called it a “great victory.” After the last US troops left Iraq on September 30: the attack data, the detainee risk and what to watch next.
Syria’s Captagon economy after Assad and Lebanon’s Hezbollah-run parallel state: four dossiers on how illicit economies outlast the governments around them.
After Assad’s fall, Syria’s Captagon trade has splintered into a mobile cottage industry; the 2026 smuggling corridors into Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
A forensic baseline of the Levant: proxy network integration, autonomous strike vulnerabilities and regional stability metrics.
The covert logistics corridor, financial clearing and technology proliferation network linking HTS and Hezbollah.
The technical integration, biometric tracking and China-Russia axis behind Damascus’s Safe City surveillance system.
Syrian state-linked networks have moved amphetamine production, smuggling routes and laundering into North Africa to evade interdiction and sanctions.
Analysis of Syria’s transition into a narco-state. How the $5.5B Captagon trade fuels the regime and serves as a tool for regional diplomatic coercion.
