Russia and the United States have agreed to work towards holding an international conference to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry announced it would follow on from an Action Group for Syria meeting in Geneva last June. John Kerry said they would [...]
Syrian state television has reported that Israeli rockets have hit Jamraya army research centre near Damascus. Witnesses heard huge explosions near the Jamraya facility, and residents said nearby military positions were also hit. The Jamraya site was the target of an Israeli strike in January. Earlier, unnamed Israeli officials said that on Friday Israeli aircraft [...]
Syria may have used chemical weapons against rebels, the White House has said. US intelligence agencies believe “with varying degrees of confidence” that the nerve agent sarin had been deployed on a “small scale”, and did not say where or when it had been used. The White House has warned chemical weapons use would be [...]
The minaret of Umayyad Mosque, one of Syria’s most famous, has been destroyed during clashes in the northern city of Aleppo. The state news agency Sana accused rebels of blowing up the 11th-Century minaret of the Umayyad Mosque. However, activists say the minaret was hit by Syrian army tank fire. The mosque, which is a [...]
A Save the Children report has revealed that an increasing number of children in Syria are being recruited by armed groups on both sides of the conflict. Children are being used as porters, guards, informers and fighters and, in some cases, as human shields, the charity said in Childhood Under Fire. Some two million children [...]
More than fifty people have been killed by two blasts in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, activists and officials say. The explosions reportedly struck an area between the University of Aleppo’s halls of residence and the architecture faculty on the first day of exams. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll [...]
According to the UN, 1 million Syrians are going hungry and helpless due to the 22-month civil conflict in the country. The World Food Program (WFP) says it is helping 1.5 million Syrians, but continued fighting and an inability to use the port of Tartus to deliver food mean many people are not receiving aid. [...]
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General, has underlined President Barack Obama’s warning to the Syrian government not to use chemical weapons against its own people. At a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said their use would be “completely unacceptable”. The foreign ministers are expected to approve the deployment of Patriot anti-missile [...]
At least 34 people have been killed and many injured by two car bomb explosions in Jaramana, a south-eastern district of Damascus, Syrian state media report. State television said “terrorists” were behind the blasts in Jaramana and broadcast pictures showing several charred vehicles and damaged buildings. The district is predominantly Druze and Christian, two communities [...]
Syrian rebels say they have launched a major offensive to capture key airbase at Taftanaz, in the north of the country. Video posted on the internet showed fighters attacking the Taftanaz base in an attempt to control a strategic zone between Syria’s two biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus. The attack comes a day before a [...]
Turkey has contacted the UN and NATO after Syrian shells killed five people in Turkish town Akcakale near the border between the two countries. The shells exploded after being fired into Akcakale from Tall al-Abyad in Syria, where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are trying to put down an 18-month-old insurgency. The dead are [...]
A blaze has swept though ancient markets in Aleppo, activists say, as rebels and government forces seek to gain control of Syria’s largest city. Reports say hundreds of shops in the souk, one of the best preserved in the Middle East, have been destroyed. Unesco, which recognizes Aleppo’s Old City as a world heritage site, [...]
UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, has warned that as many as 700,000 people could have fled Syria by the end of the year, a huge increase on its previous estimate. Some 294,000 refugees have already left Syria, and the UNHCR is appealing for money to help deal with the crisis. Most of the refugees are [...]
A warplane has attacked a petrol station in the north-east of Syria, killing at least 30 people, opposition activists say. A rebel group said people had been queuing for petrol and diesel near Ain Issa at the time. The village is some 20 miles (32 km) from the Tal al-Abyad border post, seized by rebels [...]
Key Syrian defector General Manaf Tlas has hinted that French secret agents helped him flee Syria in early July. Manaf Tlas said French “services” had helped him escape but refused to be drawn on how, only thanking the French government. He warned that if the Damascus regime was subjected to more pressure, it could resort [...]
Egypt’s President Mohammed Mursi has told a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Iran that the Syrian uprising is a “revolution against an oppressive regime”. Mohammed Mursi, who is making the first visit to Iran by an Egyptian leader since 1979, said the movement had an “ethical duty” to support the uprising. His comments [...]
Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Farid Hijab has defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Jordanian government says. Riyad farid Hijab was appointed less than two months ago and his departure is the highest-profile defection since the uprising began in March 2011. His family is reported to have fled Syria with him. A Sunni Muslim, Riyad [...]
Kofi Annan is quitting as UN-Arab League envoy, the UN has announced. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Kofi Annan had decided not to renew his mandate when it expires at the end of August. Kofi Annan authored a six-point peace plan for Syria which was intended to bring an end to the fighting. But [...]
Syria’s defense minister Daoud Rajiha and his deputy Assef Shawkat, President Assad’s brother-in-law, have died in a suspected suicide bombing at security headquarters in Damascus, state TV says. Daoud Rajiha and Assef Shawkat were attending a meeting of senior officials at the time. The national security chief and interior minister are said to be critically [...]
Manaf Tlas, a Syrian general from a powerful family close to President Bashar al-Assad, has defected and is on his way to Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said. Laurent Fabius described it as a “hard blow for the regime” that showed Bashar al-Assad’s entourage was beginning to realise the regime was unsustainable. Brig. [...]
Turkey begins rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns deployment along its border with Syria after last week’s downing of a fighter jet. Columns of military vehicles have been seen moving from military bases to the border, close to where the jet crashed. The F-4 Phantom went down in the sea after entering Syrian airspace and being [...]
High-ranking Syrian military figures have defected to Turkey, reports in Turkish media say. A general, two colonels, two majors and about 30 other soldiers are said to have crossed into Hatay province on Sunday night. They were part of a group of some 200 people who crossed the border overnight into Monday, Anatolia news agency [...]
Syria has decided to expel the ambassadors of several Western states, a week after governments around the world expelled its top diplomats. The envoys of the US, UK, France and Turkey were among 17 diplomats designated “personae non gratae”. President Bashar al-Assad blamed “foreign meddling” for Syria’s divisions in a speech on Sunday. The move [...]
Turkish journalists held in Syria for two months are on their way home after being released following Iranian mediation. Reporter Adem Ozkose and cameraman Hamit Coskun have arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran. They are said to be in good health. Adem Ozkose and Hamit Coskun were reported to be missing at the end of [...]
Syrian activists say at least 70 people have been killed in an attack on a house in Hama. They said several houses in the Mashaa at-Tayyar district in southern Hama were destroyed by a big explosion. State media said 16 people died in the blast in a house used as a bomb factory by “armed terrorist [...]
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