Alice Fordham

ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly truck bombing in Iraq during the early hours of Sunday morning. The attack comes as the extremists are losing ground on the battlefield.

Iraqi and U.S. forces claim to have killed hundreds of ISIS fighters and destroyed hundreds of their vehicles in a convoy moving across the desert.

In a new outrage for the Syria war, an airsrike killed dozens in a camp for displaced people. It took place on the second day of a deal that was supposed to salvage the already nearly void ceasefire.

Two ISIS fighters captured in Syria say they joined the militant group as a way to fight an oppressive regime. But it also provided friendship, and it didn't seem much more violent than other options.

A young pediatrician killed by an airstrike on a Syrian hospital was known for his bedside manner with Aleppo's wounded children. The strike signaled the two-month ceasefire is nearly void.

President Obama announced he will send additional U.S. special operations forces to Syria. The announcement comes at a time when ISIS's foothold on the region is, reportedly, weakening.

At least 19 people died Friday in a round of Syrian government air strikes on the city of Aleppo, human rights observers said. Fighting in Syria has intensified in recent weeks.

In one corner of Syria, a town is split between Kurdish control and the Syrian regime. Residents navigate between the competing powers from street to street.

There are growing signs that a cease-fire that's largely held since the end of February is fraying. Over the weekend, there were reports of fighting around the city of Aleppo.

In northeastern Syria, Christians are mourning those killed by ISIS when the militants tore through a band of Assyrian villages a year ago. The towns were recaptured, but the community is scarred.

Iraqi forces with U.S. help are making preparations for an attempt — weeks or months away — to push ISIS out of Mosul. The tentative progress shows how tough the battle might be.

In northeastern Syria, local residents are watching the comings and goings from a rural airstrip they say is America's Syria footprint in the anti-ISIS war.

With help from U.S. special forces, Kurdish and Arab troops recently forced ISIS out of Shadadi, a key crossroads town. Now comes the challenge of running the place.

In the eastern part of Syria, forces backed by the U.S. and its allies say they are pushing ISIS back. And U.S. officials say those forces are becoming more cohesive, and it turn more successful.

The Free Syrian Army was a key player in the early days of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. But many members are now feeling lost in a war that's become a morass of factions.

The cease-fire in Syria is mostly holding, and the United Nations hopes to get more aid to people under siege.

The U.S. and Russia have brokered a partial truce in the fighting in Syria. NPR's Alice Fordham has an update on its prospects and how it's affecting people on the ground.

A whistle shrills, and a dozen boys tear across a gray schoolyard. Some are in sneakers, others have bare feet slapping the concrete. "This is a physical education class," announces Metin Yildiz, the director of education at Elbeyli refugee camp in southern Turkey.

About 24,000 Syrians have been living in ...

Perhaps the biggest question about the efforts to bring a pause in the fighting in Syria is: Have Russian air strikes emboldened the Syrian regime so much that it doesn't want to stop fighting?

Syrians making their way into Turkey say the intensification of regime and Russian airstrikes has forced them out of Syria after hanging on for years. Now they worry the regime is going to win.