A man rides a bicycle past election campaign billboards depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a candidate for the upcoming presidential vote, in Damascus on May 23, 2021. (Photo: Louai Beshara/AFP)
In August 2014, thousands of Yezidis were trapped in the Shingal mountains as they tried to escape from the so-called Islamic State. (Photo: Anadolu Agency/Emrah Yorulmaz)
Bashar al-Assad arrived at his swearing-in ceremony in Damascus, Syria on July 17, 2021. Assad was reelected for a fourth term as president in a May election deemed neither