"Now, miles away from that most brutal prison, we are huddling around screens, our hearts suspended between hope and despair," Hiba Abdulhakim Qasawaad, a 24-year-old from the city of Homs ...

While hope survives in the hearts of many Syrians, despair is emerging as radical Islamist militias, armed by neighbouring Turkey and formerly associated with terrorist groups Al-Qaeda and the ...