Alice Fordham

The Iraqi Cabinet has approved the measure and sent it to Parliament for a vote. Opponents say it would be a major setback for a country that has mostly secular laws.

Syrian rebels have pulled out the central city of Homs, which was known as the birthplace of the uprising against the government. Forces backing President Assad have retaken the town.

Syrian rebels have surrendered Homs, the city known as the birthplace of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. It marks the end of a long siege and a huge blow to the rebels.

The beginning of the end of the two-year siege of Old Homs came as green buses full of fighters bounced down uneven streets Wednesday — a scene that was captured in a photo that was retweeted hundreds of times.

More than 1,000 rebels were left of those who clung onto ...

The Syrian regime may be on the verge of an important gain in its civil war. Rebels say they have agreed to a conditional retreat from areas they hold in the city of Homs.

Opposition negotiators there, reached by Skype, say that under the deal they would leave battle-broken ...

A deal is in the works to draw the long battle at Homs to a close. The deal would let the rebel fighters evacuate their stronghold in the Syrian city, at which point the Syrian government would enter.

Iraqis are voting for Parliament Wednesday for the first time since American soldiers withdrew more than two years ago. Without their support, and amid intense violence, the poll will test Iraq's fragile democracy to its limits.

The election is for the 328-seat Parliament and offers more than 9,000 candidates on ...

On Wednesday, Iraq will hold the first national election since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011. The front-runner is the party of current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

In the first national election since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is the frontrunner for a third term in office. Despite criticism for mistreatin...

Low to the dusty ground, by a reed-fringed river and a lush date palm orchard, is the farmhouse where Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, grew up.

The place is Junaja, one of hundreds of poor, Shiite Muslim farming towns in southern Iraq. Donkey carts jog alongside battered buses. No monument, ...

Alice Fordham has covered the Arab world for more than five years. Her work has taken her from the bookshops of Baghdad to the sand dunes of Algeria - and back again. Now settling into her new posting for NPR as a correspondent in Beirut, she reflects on ...

Sunday is the deadline for Syrian President Bashar Assad to hand over his government's chemical weapons stockpile, and he will have surrendered the vast majority of his declared arsenal.

Some call this a triumph. Others say Assad used the deal to buy time for brutal offensives in the civil war ...

Syria will likely meet an upcoming deadline to hand over its declared chemical weapons. But the agreement seems to have emboldened the Syrian regime to use other brutal tactics, including a chemical not covered by the deal.

The U.S. is providing more arms and training to the moderate rebels in Syria, under a growing secret program run by the CIA in Jordan. Sources tell NPR that secret program could be supplemented by a more public effort in the coming months involving American military trainers.

The change in ...

The renegade Islamist group known as ISIS now controls swaths of Syria and Iraq, and it's partly because the fighters are so rich. ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is known for having the biggest guns and paying the highest salaries.

While kidnapping, oil smuggling ...

Fed up with what they say is years of discrimination by the Shiite-led government, ordinary Sunnis have joined Islamist fighters. There are echoes of past conflicts, with a few important distinctions.

With Syria in chaos, minority Kurds there hope they can realize long-standing ambitions for autonomy. Kurds who fled to northern Iraq from Syria will press those demands when they finally go home.

At least a million Syrian refugees are now in Lebanon. The influx is straining the balance in the fragile country of only four million people.

A flashy hotel just opened in Iraqi Kurdistan, reflecting the region's ambitions. But the Arab-led government in Baghdad has given the region an economic jolt, putting its outsized dreams in doubt.