The sudden apparent take over Aleppo by Syrian opposition militias is an extraordinary development. A 12 year civil war. And then, in about two days, the Syrian regime loses control of the country’s second largest city. Some memories from Aleppo the height of the civil war —- Initially undercover, Syrian activists risked so much to show me the nascent protests at the university and on the streets. I reported for the @Telegraph on the cries for freedom, the dispersals, captures and arrests.

1/ I attended Hezbollah's military exercise at one of its bases in southern #Lebanon. It was definitely one of the more bizarre press trips by the group. It felt like all the press corps (local and foreign) were invited. Eleven buses took us south from Beirut. 2/We arrived at a military base for the group not far from the Israeli border. In case you should forget who backs Hezbollah, giant portraits of Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader and Ayatollah Khomeini were set up at either side of the entrance.

1/ The chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, finds Syria’s air force responsible for a chlorine gas attack on Douma in 2018 that killed 43 people.
I went to northern Syrian with @lalarian to hear from survivors of the attack for @NPR npr.org/2018/04/23/605… 2/ #Douma survivor Amani told us: "When you're in a chemical attack, you start suffocating. You're just dying to breathe."
Some anti-regime activists said the deaths in Douma were from a nerve agent. The testimony we gathered inside Syria suggested it was #chlorine gas.