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Maher Al-Mounes

This handout photograph received on December 9, 2025, courtesy of Syrian director Mohamad Abdul Aziz, shows Abdul Aziz (right) giving directions to actors during the filming of the TV series "The King's Family" in Damascus on August 28, 2025. (AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / MOHAMAD ABDUL AZIZ)
December 10, 2025, 3:30 pm
In Syria, feared sites from the Assad era are becoming sets for primetime TV
Shows being filmed now, for release during Ramadan in February, depict the fall of the Assad regime a year ago, and the suppression experienced under its rule
By Maher Al-Mounes
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa delivers a speech, as Syrians celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime, in Damascus on December 8, 2025. (OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
December 9, 2025, 12:52 am
Sharaa vows ‘peaceful coexistence’ as Syria marks anniversary of Assad’s fall
Past year ‘seems like a miracle,’ says reveler, as Syrians gather en masse to watch their rebel-turned-president; Alawite, Kurdish areas boycott celebration amid sectarian strife
By Maher Al-Mounes
Bullet holes deface a mural depicting the toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Adra town on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus, Syria, December 25, 2024. (Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP)
December 7, 2025, 8:27 pm
‘It’s all over’: The moment Iran abandoned Assad, days before he was deposed
In the lead-up to the fall of Damascus, the IRGC summoned the Syrian leader’s top generals and dropped a bombshell announcement: ‘From today, we are no longer responsible for you’
By Maher Al-Mounes
Members of Syria's local committees vote in the country's selection process to designate an interim parliament, in Damascus on October 5, 2025. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
October 6, 2025, 12:23 am
Syria selects members of first post-Assad parliament in vote panned as undemocratic
Assembly’s formation expected to consolidate power of al-Sharaa, who appoints a third of the new lawmakers; Jewish candidate vying for seat for first time since 1940s
By Maher Al-Mounes
The assembly hall of the parliament building is pictured in Damascus on October 1, 2025. (Louai Beshara / AFP)
October 5, 2025, 10:29 am
Syria to select parliament members in process branded undemocratic
Interim leader Sharaa will directly appoint one third of legislators, also controls process for choosing the rest
By Maher Al-Mounes
Syrian security forces stand guard as people chant and wave national flags amid celebrations on the fourteenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, at a rally in Umayyad Square in Damascus on March 15, 2025. (Bakr AlKasem/AFP)
March 16, 2025, 6:43 am
Syrians commemorate uprising anniversary for first time since Assad’s fall
Security forces in Damascus hand out flowers to demonstrators who gather in public square that was once the sole preserve of the ousted president’s supporters
By Maher Al-Mounes
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger delivers remarks during a press preview of the use of drones in humanitarian work in Avully near Geneva, on June 7, 2023. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
January 5, 2025, 2:13 pm
Red Cross says locating missing Syrians after Assad’s downfall likely to take years
Organization is currently dealing with at least 43,000 missing people in ‘massive task’ that may fail in some cases, urges de facto leaders to preserve evidence
By Maher Al-Mounes
People pray by the grave of a relative in a damaged cemetery at the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in the south of Damascus on December 14, 2024. (Aris MESSINIS / AFP)
December 17, 2024, 1:29 pm
Palestinians in Syria flock to cemetery ravaged and made off-limits under Assad
Relatives strive to locate graves amid piles of rubble and smashed tombstones left in Yarmouk burial ground outside Damascus
By Maher Al-Mounes
Rescue teams continue to search for victims and survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the border region of Turkey and Syria earlier in the week, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, February 13, 2023. (Ozan Kose/AFP)
February 14, 2023, 5:30 am
Search for survivors winds down as Turkey-Syria quake death toll hits 35,000
Rescue teams turn focus to humanitarian disaster, as international pariah Assad allows more aid to rebel-held areas and estimated 5 million Syrians left homeless
By Fulya Ozerkan, Joris FIORITI and Maher Al-Mounes
People stand on top of rubble of collapsed buildings during rescue operations after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the border region of Turkey and Syria last week, in Hatay, Turkey, February 12, 2023. (BULENT KILIC/AFP)
February 13, 2023, 11:46 am
In miracle rescues, survivors pulled from rubble a week after Turkey-Syria quake
7-year-old boy, 62-year-old woman saved from collapsed buildings, as more than 32,000 Turks, over 8,000 international workers participate in search and rescue efforts
By Fulya Ozerkan, Joris FIORITI and Maher Al-Mounes
Actors are pictured in the Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood of Damascus during the filming of "Home Operation," produced by actor Jackie Chan and inspired by real events of the emergency evacuation of Chinese and foreign nationals and diplomats during the early days of a civil war in Yemen, July 14, 2022. (Louai Beshara/AFP)
July 17, 2022, 11:41 am
Former Islamic State stronghold in Syria hosts Jackie Chan film set
‘Home Operation’ was inspired by China’s 2015 operation to evacuate its citizens and other foreigners from Yemen amid civil war, but film only mentions fictional country ‘Poman’
By Maher Al-Mounes
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma cast their votes at a polling station in Douma, near Damascus on May 26, 2021, as voting began across Syria for an election guaranteed to return Assad for a fourth term in office. (Photo LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
May 27, 2021, 6:36 am
Assad dismisses critics as Syria votes to extend his grip on power
US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy say poll ‘neither free nor fair’; fragmented opposition calls it a ‘farce’
By Maher Al-Mounes and Rouba El Husseini
Dahouk Idriss shows a page on her passport during an interview with AFP at her house in the Syrian capital Damascus on January 16, 2021. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
January 19, 2021, 11:41 am
After years of waiting to see their children, Mideast moms count days to Biden
US president-elect has vowed to overturn travel ban from Muslim-majority countries; Syrian woman: ‘I’m probably more impatient for Biden to become president than he is himself’
By Maher Al-Mounes
A Syrian policeman walks past ballot boxes, ahead of handing them over to the police to deliver them to polling stations on the eve of the parliamentary elections, in the Syrian city of Aleppo on July 18, 2020 (AFP)
July 19, 2020, 7:33 am
Syrians vote for new parliament amid war, economic turmoil
Elections postponed twice due to pandemic, with any real opposition absent, and the ruling Baath party expected to retain its hegemony
By Maher Al-Mounes
Abu Zakkour, Aleppo's so-called 'yellow man' eats a cob of corn in the central Saadallah al-Jabiri square in the northern Syrian city on February 11, 2019. (LOUAI BESHARA/AFP)
April 2, 2019, 2:54 pm
Aleppo’s mysterious ‘yellow man’
For over 30 years Abu Zakkour has only worn the same shade of clothing, but won’t tell anyone why
By Maher Al-Mounes
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