Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy talks with NPR's Leila Fadel about the group that now controls Syria and why it's so hard to shed the label of "terrorists." ...

Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based ... Her coverage also included stories of human smugglers in Egypt and the Syrian families desperate and willing to pay to risk their lives ...

and Syrian people were dancing in the streets. DETROW: Morning Edition host Leila Fadel is in Damascus, and she joins us on the line now. Hey, Leila. LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Hi. DETROW: What's ...

FADEL: When Syria's peaceful uprising began in 2011, it was met with violence from the regime and turned into a civil war that pitted the country's sects against each other, the Sunni Arab ...

In Syria's capital, Damascus, there are hole-in-the-wall beauty parlors on nearly every street, places for women to chat while getting blowouts and manicures. And when NPR's Diaa Hadid visited a ...

Rebel fighters who are now part of Syria's new de facto government have been destroying large shipments of Captagon, an addictive drug that was mass produced by the ousted Assad regime.

Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race. See stories by Leila Fadel The best stories from KERA sent to your inbox.

FADEL: But would the designation give political cover to a decision like that? I mean, that is what the U.S. has done in places like Yemen, Syria, Iraq. VIGIL: No, it would not give coverage to that.

FADEL: I wonder, as somebody who studied this group and studied Syria, the consequences of taking them off too early. ZELIN: I mean, I think one of the issues that many people are worried about is ...

Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy talks with NPR's Leila Fadel about the group that now controls Syria and why it's so hard to shed the label of "terrorists." KUOW is ...