Actor Ben Stiller speaks out on Syria as US warns of intensifying violence

Actor Ben Stiller speaks out on Syria as US warns of intensifying violence originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

In over eight years of war, the headlines of suffering and violence in Syria have, at times, faded.

Actor Ben Stiller tried to change that on Wednesday.

The goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the humanitarian impact of the war and what the U.S. should be doing about it.

It couldn’t come at a more critical time. There are rising concerns of intense fighting in the country’s northwest province Idlib — the last rebel stronghold that’s in the crosshairs of strongman Bashar al Assad and his backers Russia and Iran, but also a hub of terror groups like al-Qaeda’s affiliate.

For those areas liberated from the Islamic State, there are major questions about what comes next as the Trump administration plans to draw down its troop levels and has pulled funding and called for other countries to pay for stabilization projects critical to restoring services and keeping terror groups at bay. Read more

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