In a first, Syrian witnesses and plaintiffs, some of whom survived torture in a Damascus prison, will see a former high-ranking Syrian official in court on charges of crimes against humanity.
The judge ruled that Colvin was killed by Syria and "targeted because of her profession, for the purpose of silencing those reporting on the growing opposition movement in the country."
U.S. troops have been in Syria since late 2015. The move is a reversal of U.S. policy: Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said troops would stay to stabilize the country.
The U.S., Britain and France carried out airstrikes against chemical research, storage and military facilities in Syria following a suspected chemical weapons attack.
"We believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place" in a military prison outside Damascus, a State Department official said Monday.
The secretary of state is meeting with G-7 diplomats, then heading to Moscow on Tuesday for some rather tough discussions. All the while, the U.S. strike on Syria is likely to be Item 1 on the agenda.
The bombing, near a revered cemetery on the border of the old city of Damascus, appears to have targeted Shiite visitors from Iraq. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
The Syrian leader is in his strongest position in years. He can claim control of the biggest cities, but the rebels are still a threat in the countryside and the Islamic State holds eastern Syria.
They are haunting images: rubble-filled streets and entire blocks of ghostly facades. The United Nations says about 250,000 civilians are trapped in rebel-held eastern Aleppo.
Turkey is currently battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Islamic State and Kurdish separatists in southeast Turkey. All the battles are draining the country, and none is going well.
Turkey is shelling Kurdish forces in Syria. Russia is waging air strikes to bolster an advance by Bashar Assad's government. Prospects for a truce aren't looking good.
Russia opposes the Islamic State, but supports Syria's Bashar Assad. Now Moscow says its military is providing weapons and supplies to Western-backed, anti-Assad forces on the frontlines against ISIS.
It is the first time the regime of Bashar Assad has accused the U.S. and its partners of attacking its forces. The U.S. denied the accusation about a strike on a Syrian army camp Sunday.
The Russian president says military assistance for Bashar Assad's government is necessary to defeat ISIS. The U.S. says it could exacerbate Syria's civil war.
Moderate Syrian rebels took up arms to topple President Bashar Assad. But the U.S. is planning to train them to fight against a different foe, the self-declared Islamic State, instead.
