Syrian civil defence teams on Tuesday extinguished a huge fire that swept a number of oil tankers loading crude oil from an installation near the country’s main Homs refinery after a blast that hit the depot area, state media said. An explosion had earlier hit a government-owned crude oil transportation …
Read More »Trump Idlib comments fall on deaf Kremlin ears
The Kremlin on Monday rebuffed criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump of Russian and Syrian government military action in Syria’s Idlib province, saying it was justified. Trump on Sunday urged Russia and Syrian government forces to stop bombing Idlib, following a Friday Kremlin statement that signaled Moscow would continue to …
Read More »Saudi-coalition corner rebels in Hodeidah as famine looms
Yemeni forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition inched closer to the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Sunday as they battled Iranian-aligned Houthi fighters entrenched there, local military sources and residents said on Sunday. The coalition has deployed thousands of troops to retake Hodeidah, a vital entry point for …
Read More »Syria’s Assad Reaches ‘Understanding’ With Arab States
President Bashar al-Assad told a little-known Kuwaiti newspaper that Syria had reached a “major understanding” with Arab states after years of hostility over the country’s civil war. The interview in the Al-Shahed newspaper, published Wednesday, was Assad’s first with a Gulf newspaper since the war began in 2011. Assad didn’t …
Read More »U.S. backed in corner as Syria, Russia plan bloody assault in Idlib with chemical weapons in arsenal
With Bashar Assad and his Russian allies on the verge of victory in Syria’s civil war, the Trump administration is facing new pressure to respond forcefully and prevent a bloodbath of historic proportions — but analysts say the U.S. has virtually no good options, as seven years of muddy American …
Read More »Exclusive: Turkey boosts arms to Syrian rebels as Idlib attack looms – rebel sources
Turkey has stepped up arms supplies to Syrian rebels to help them stave off an expected offensive by the Syrian army and its Russian and Iran-backed allies in the northwest near the Turkish frontier, rebel sources told Reuters. Senior rebel officials said Turkey had sent more military aid to rebels …
Read More »Russia masses huge force off Syrian coast for final assault on rebels in Idlib
Russia has deployed at least a dozen vessels to waters off Syria ahead of the final regime offensive against rebels, in what is believed to be the largest Russian naval buildup in the Mediterranean since the nation entered the conflict in 2015. Russian media reported at least two submarines and 10 …
Read More »Syrian rebels build an army with Turkish help, face challenges
A “National Army” being set up by Syrian rebels with Turkey’s help could become a long-term obstacle to President Bashar al-Assad’s recovery of the northwest – if they can end factional rivalries that have long blighted the opposition. The effort is at the heart of plans by the Turkish-backed opposition …
Read More »Head of alleged Syrian chemical weapons facility dies in bombing
The head of a Syrian research facility that western countries say was part of a chemical weapons programme has been killed in a car bombing, the pro-government Syrian newspaper al-Watan has said. Aziz Asber was the director of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre in Masyaf, near Hama, which …
Read More »Venezuelan Officials Say President Nicolás Maduro Is Unharmed After Drone ‘Attack’
Updated at 11:03 p.m. ET Venezuelan officials say that President Nicolás Maduro has escaped an assassination attempt unharmed. Maduro was giving a live televised speech in the capital city of Caracas on Saturday when, a government spokesman said, explosive-carrying drones went off near the president. Communications Minister Jorge RodrĂguez called …
Read More »Assad eyes victory as Syrian rebels poised to leave Golan Heights
Defeated Syrian rebels near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are preparing to evacuate the region and cede control of the frontier to Bashar al-Assad, securing a key victory for the Syrian president, whose forces are on the verge of concluding a swift campaign to reclaim control of southern …
Read More »The Latest: Syria says it expelled IS from eastern desert
The Latest on the situation in Syria (all times local): 4:45 p.m. Syria’s military says it has expelled the Islamic State group from the country’s vast eastern desert. The military says it’s cleared about 5,800 square kilometers — or 2,200 square miles — of the expanse linking its heartland to …
Read More »Airstrike on rebel-held northwestern Syrian village kills 35
A rebel-held village in northwestern Syria on Thursday was attacked in an airstrike shortly after Muslims broke their Ramadan fast after sunset, according to a human rights group in the country. The attack killed at least 35 and wounded dozens, including children, reports said. Such airstrikes have been relatively uncommon …
Read More »Syria war: Russians killed in militant raid in Deir al-Zour
At least four Russian combatants have been killed by militants in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour. Two military advisers died when the Syrian army battery they were directing was attacked. Five other Russians were injured and two died later of their wounds, the defence ministry said. Syria’s army …
Read More »Syrian Observatory: Israeli Raid in Syria Killed Iranians
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday an Israeli attack on Iranian military facilities south of Damascus had killed at least 15 people, including eight Iranians. The reports of an Israeli attack in Kisweh late on Tuesday emerged after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of the …
Read More »Syria Reportedly Regains Control Over Key Highway for First Time in 6 Years
The militants, who blocked the road, left their positions and handed over their weapons to government forces. According to the newspaper Al-Watan, the Syrian Arab Army has regained control over the stretch of the M5 highway between the cities of Homs and Hama due to the implementation of a reconciliation agreement in a militant-held enclave north of Homs (165 km from Damascus). …
Read More »The Latest: Syrian rebels surrender north of Homs
The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local): 10 p.m. Syrian state media say rebels have agreed to surrender an enclave near Syria’s third largest city to the government. Al-Ikhbariya TV says rebels have agreed to allow government forces into the countryside north of Homs and re-establish state institutions. Rebels will have the …
Read More »Russia says deal expected with more rebels in Syria’s Ghouta
Russia troops said Monday they expect to reach an agreement with a major Syrian rebel group to arrange its exit from the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta in another key victory for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces as they push to gain control of the region on the edge …
Read More »Syrian rebels agree to evacuation from desperately besieged enclaveÂ
Syrian rebel groups said Friday that a deal had been struck to evacuate thousands of people from the besieged and Âbroken Syrian enclave of Eastern ÂGhouta amid growing reports that men who crossed to government territory are being forcibly conscripted. Friday’s agreement, which was expected to take force in the …
Read More »Activists: 98 dead in assault on rebel-held Damascus suburb
Intense Syrian government shelling and airstrikes of rebel-held Damascus suburbs killed at least 98 people in what was the deadliest day in the area in three years, a monitoring group and paramedics said Tuesday. A day after Monday’s government barrage, retaliatory shells rained down on the capital Damascus, killing at …
Read More »Russia Orders Warplanes in Syria to Fly Higher After Jet Shot Down
Russia has ordered its warplanes in Syria to fly higher to avoid being shot down by shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles after one of its jets was shot out of the sky at the weekend, the Izvestia daily reported on Monday. Syrian rebels downed the Russian SU-25 plane on Saturday in Idlib …
Read More »Russian fighter jet shot down in Syria’s Idlib province
A Russian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet has been shot down in a rebel-held area in Syria’s north-western province of Idlib. The Russian defence ministry said the pilot had ejected but was killed in a ground fight. Video posted on social media appeared to show the plane being hit, while other video …
Read More »Russia says it killed rebels behind swarm drone attack in Syria, but experts see more such strikes ahead
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty Images An officer takes pictures of drones allegedly used during recent attacks on Russia’s bases in Syria, at a briefing in the Russian Defence Ministry headquarters in Moscow on January 11, 2018. Russia‘s defense ministry said Friday it tracked down and killed the group …
Read More »Evacuated anti-Assad fighters arrive in Syria’s Idlib
Some of the anti-regime fighters who had evacuated from Western Ghouta under a deal with the Assad regime began arriving in Idlib and Daraa provinces, according to local sources. The first group of evacuees comprising 108 group members, including 21 women and 29 children werebrought to a camp early Saturday in …
Read More »Yemen’s rebel alliance appears to fracture as clashes leave dozens dead
Days of fierce clashes here in Yemen’s capital have opened a violent new front in the country’s multisided civil war, with an alliance of Yemeni forces battling a Saudi-led military coalition fracturing — a potentially major shift in the conflict. The latest clashes have pitted a Yemeni rebel group known …
Read More »Over 2,000 rebels, families evacuate Damascus district
The Levant News — More than 2,000 rebels and their family members have left the devastated district of Qaboun on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus after more than two months of aerial strikes and artillery shelling, state media said on Sunday. The rebels had agreed overnight to a …
Read More »Syrian Monitor: 75 U.S. Trained Syrian Rebels Enter SyriaÂ
The Levant – –Â Seventy five Syrian rebels trained by the United States and its allies to fight ISIS have entered northern Syria since Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory, said the rebels had crossed into Syria from Turkey with 12 …
Read More »Syria troops threaten rebel supply route to Aleppo
THE LEVANT Â – Syrian troops have seized a village just north of Aleppo that could allow them to cut off a supply line to rebel-held districts of the country’s second city, a monitoring group said Friday. Soldiers, backed by fighters from Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, took Handarat, four kilometres (2.5 …
Read More »Ukraine claims more territory as fight intensifies with rebels
Source:Â Reuters – Ukraine said on Monday its troops had wrested more territory from pro-Russian rebels, advancing towards the site where Malaysian flight MH17 was brought down, which international investigators said they could not reach because of the fighting. Troops recaptured two rebel-held towns near the crash site and were trying …
Read More »Fierce clashes break out East of Damascus
THE LEVANT – Eastern Damascus was hit Tuesday by its fiercest fighting in months, a monitor said, as rebels stepped up a bid to break a siege and pro-regime forces tried to stop them. The air force pounded the rebel-held eastern neighbourhood of Jobar, as opposition fighters launched mortars into …
Read More »Syrian Army claims to kill number of rebels in Aleppo, Daraa and Homs
According to the Syrian official news agency, SANA, the Syrian army units have killed and wounded a number of rebels and “terrorists” and destroyed their vehicles in Aleppo and its countryside. A Syrian military source told SANA that the army units killed and wounded “terrorists” in Bani Zaid and …
Read More »