Recent articles by Chris Ray
6 August 2025
Syria’s minorities under siege
The drive by Syria’s Sunni Islamist rulers to stamp their authority over religious and ethnic minorities has hit a stumbling block in the southern province of Suweida.
17 March 2025
A massacre in Sharifa
The residents of the Syrian village of Sharifa lay in puddles and rivulets of blood. Some died with arms outstretched; others seemed to clutch protectively at their chests. Most had been executed with shots to the head and two women had their faces blown apart.
8 January 2025
An Islamist regime takes shape in Damascus
On a winter night in 2014 I stood by the side of a highway outside Damascus as a Syrian army officer shone a torch over the contents of my suitcase he had ordered me to empty onto the grey dirt.