Hundreds of Syrians on Monday gathered in the central Omayyad Square in Damascus to show support for the country’s armed forces after the United States and its Western allies targeted Syria with retaliatory airstrikes over the weekend. The United States, Britain, and France, struck sites linked to Syria’s chemical weapons program after reports of a chemical attack April 7 in the Syrian town of Douma. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his chief ally, Russia, both denied the chemical attack took place.

The latest grim scenes from Syria come in a grim month. April marks the anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the ethnic and religious cleansing by the Ottoman Turks beginning in 1915. It saw the killing of 1.5 million Armenians and 250,000 Assyrian Christians, forever changing the complexion of Turkey and neighbors Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Long-timers contend, rightly, Islamic extremism gained ground in that soil as religious and ideological diversity nearly was obliterated.

With the snap of a camera, a photojournalist immortalized the most agonizing moment of Kim Phuc Phan Thi’s life: The 9-year-old girl was running from air raids on the Vietnamese village of Trang Bang, naked, arms spread, screaming in pain from the napalm burning her neck, back, and arms.

The Syrian government has gained control of the town of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave, the Russian military said Thursday. If confirmed, it would signal a victory for President Bashir al-Assad’s troops and their Syrian allies after staging a Russian-backed offensive in the region. “The raised state flag over a building in the town of Douma has heralded the control over this location and therefore over the whole of Eastern Ghouta,” said Maj. Gen.

Many readers expressed interest in the provocative comments of strategic forecaster George Friedman, founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, that we published in the March 31 issue of WORLD. Here are more edited excerpts of our recent interview.

Several missiles struck a Syrian air base on Monday as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces faced accusations of attacking a rebel-held town near Damascus with poison gas. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 14 people died when the missiles hit the air base in Homs province. Three of the dead were Iranian, Fars news agency reported. Russia and Syria both blamed Israel for the attack, saying Syria shot down five missiles while three others landed on the western section of the base. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the accusation.

Militants with the mostly Christian anti-Balaka group in the Central African Republic killed one United Nations peacekeeper and injured 11 others during an attack on a UN base, the organization confirmed. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the militants attacked the temporary base in Tagbara, and peacekeepers engaged them in a gun battle that lasted several hours. The peacekeeping mission reported that more than 22 militants died in the fighting. The Central African Republic fell into chaos in 2013 after the Muslim Seleka rebel group overthrew the Christian government.