Ruth Sherlock
Ruth Sherlock is an International Correspondent with National Public Radio. She's based in Beirut and reports on Syria and other countries around the Middle East. She was previously the United States Editor for the Daily Telegraph, covering the 2016 US election. Before moving to the US in the spring of 2015, she was the Telegraph's Middle East correspondent.
Sherlock reported from almost every revolution and war of the Arab Spring. She lived in Libya for the duration of the conflict, reporting from opposition front lines. In late 2011 she travelled to Syria, going undercover in regime held areas to document the arrest and torture of antigovernment demonstrators. As the war began in earnest, she hired smugglers to cross into rebel held parts of Syria from Turkey and Lebanon. She also developed contacts on the regime side of the conflict, and was given rare access in government held areas.
Her Libya coverage won her the Young Journalist of the Year prize at British Press Awards. In 2014, she was shortlisted at the British Journalism Awards for her investigation into the Syrian regime's continued use of chemical weapons. She has twice been a finalist for the Gaby Rado Award with Amnesty International for reporting with a focus on human rights. With NPR, in 2020, her reporting for the Embedded podcast was shortlisted for the prestigious Livingston Award.
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As Kurds strike a deal with the Syrian regime, foreign ISIS women in a panic to escape are reaching out to smugglers. This comes as ISIS circulates messages to coordinate help for escaped "sisters."
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Rock bands in Lebanon recently held a concert to protest what activists see as a shrinking space for free speech.
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Syrian government forces are advancing into a strategic town, forcing opposition fighters to leave. The province has been a refuge for many Syrian civilians, but now it's threatened.
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An important rebel city falls in Syria as the government's relentless attack on the last rebel province turns one of the last corner's in the civil war.
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An Austrian woman struggles to get her daughter out of Syria, where she went as a confused teen with her husband to live under ISIS.
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An oasis town in the country of Oman is famous for its tales of spirits and jinns — possibly a result of its history as a fortress town surrounded by dangerous desert.
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After objections by Christian leaders in Lebanon, organizers of a festival there canceled an upcoming appearance by Mashrou' Leila, a popular band with an openly gay lead singer.
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The narrow waterways of the Strait of Hormuz have recently been the scene of confrontation but they're also a highway for traders, smugglers and dolphins.
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Refugee agencies say scores of migrants have drowned off the coast of Libya, again highlighting the failure by regional leaders to address the dangerous migrant sea route.
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Oman has emerged as a quiet facilitator of dialogue, including between Iran and the U.S. "We always keep a focus not on the negative, but on the positive," says Oman's incoming U.N. ambassador.
