Dana Ballout - profile from The Wall Street Journal. News, articles, biography and photos.

Dana, near Sarmada in Idlib province, is less than 40km east of second city Aleppo, but had been cut off from the rest of the country until the fall of president Bashar al-Assad less than a week ago.

Crowds of visitors wander brilliantly lit shopping aisles, stunned by the abundance of goods on offer in the heart of the former rebel stronghold in northwest Syria. Dana, near Sarmada in Idlib ...

In 2012, Barack Obama declared a "red line," warning that the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s regime would prompt direct US intervention in Syria’s then-year-old civil war.

Crowds of visitors wander brilliantly lit shopping aisles, stunned by the abundance of goods on offer in the heart of the former rebel stronghold in northwest Syria.

Crowds of visitors wander brilliantly lit shopping aisles, stunned by the abundance of goods on offer in the heart of the former rebel stronghold in northwest Syria. Dana, near Sarmada in Idlib ...