JERUSALEM Israeli soldiers patrolling the disputed Golan Heights along the border with Syria fired back after coming under fire overnight, an Israeli Defence Forces statement said Tuesday."Overnight, shots were fired at an IDF patrol on the border in the central Golan Heights, damaging a military ...

DAMASCUS Syrian troops backed by fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah attacked and entered the strategic rebel stronghold of Qusayr on Sunday, a day after President Bashar al-Assad insisted he would not quit.The advance came as opponents warned the Assad regime’s “barbaric and ...

MOSCOW UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Russia agreed Friday that a peace conference on Syria should be held "as soon as possible", even as Moscow defied growing global pressure over its arms supplies to the Damascus regime.Ban met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before starting talks with Russian President ...

UNITED NATIONS - Pakistan voted for an Arab-backed resolution on Wednesday under which the UN General Assembly called on the involved parties to work together for a political transition in Syria to end the 2-year-old conflict. The Qatari-drafted resolution was adopted by a vote of 107 countries in ...

DAMASCUS The rebel Free Syrian Army pledged Wednesday to punish atrocities amid outrage over a video showing the mutilation of a corpse, as the regime ruled out discussing President Bashar al-Assad’s departure in negotiations.Syria’s Internet, meanwhile, was down for the second time in ...

BEIRUT Human Rights Watch and the Syrian opposition National Coalition have condemned a gruesome video apparently showing a Syrian rebel fighter cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it.“International news agencies and social media websites have been circulating a video clip in ...

WASHINGTONThe United States and Britain on Monday pledged to forge ahead with diplomatic efforts to end the civil war in Syria, saying they had found common ground with Russia on how to proceed.US President Barack Obama and British PM David Cameron vowed to increase pressure on the regime of ...

REYHANLI  - Turkey on Sunday said it has arrested nine people over the twin car bombings that left at least 46 people dead in a Turkish town near the Syrian border, as Damascus rejected allegations that it was behind the attack.Cranes were seen lifting debris from buildings destroyed by ...

WASHINGTON - Former US defense secretary Robert Gates warned Sunday that deepening US military involvement in Syria's civil war would be a "mistake," warning the outcome would be unpredictable and messy.In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation," Gates also said he saw "no good outcomes" in ...

MOSCOW/BEIRUT - Russia said on Saturday there was disagreement over who should represent the opposition in a Syrian peace process, only days after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference.The dispute bodes ill for a civil war in ...

MOSCOW British PM David Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday sought to forge a joint approach to the crisis in Syria, as a row over Moscow’s weapons deliveries to Damascus showed up the divisions between the Kremlin and the West.Cameron’s rare call on Putin at his ...

DAMASCUSSyria on Thursday welcomed a US-Russian initiative to find a political solution to its conflict, counting on ally Moscow to stand firm, even as Washington said President Bashar al-Assad would have to step down.US Secretary John Kerry, who announced the initiative earlier this week, said the ...

moscowUS Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday sought to narrow differences over the conflict in Syria with President Vladimir Putin, urging the Russian strongman to find common ground to help end the bloodshed.Kerry is making his first trip to Russia since taking over as the chief US diplomat ...

As Syria continues its descent into an anarchic civil war and Iraq is increasingly ravaged by sectarian infighting, a terrifying vision of the future of the Middle East is increasingly coming into view. In his 2008 book “Israel and the Clash of Civilizations”, the veteran British ...

DAMASCUS Israeli air raids on Syria at the weekend killed at least 42 soldiers, a watchdog said Monday, fuelling international concern over a spillover of the conflict, as Damascus warned it would strike back.UN human rights investigator Carla del Ponte, meanwhile, said that rebels have used the ...

DAMASCUS Israeli strikes hit a military target outside Damascus on Sunday, the Jewish state's second reported raid on Syria this week, with residents saying the attack felt like an earthquake and turned the sky red.A senior Israeli source said the aerial assault hit Iranian weapons destined for the ...

  DAMASCUS   Israeli warplanes hit a weapons shipment inSyriaheaded forLebanon's Hezbollah, media quoted US officials as saying, with a diplomatic source reporting Saturday that the strikes targeted arms stored atDamascusairport. The news came as US President Barack Obama appeared to all ...

DAMASCUSSyrian troops Friday bombarded areas of the Mediterranean city of Banias, a monitoring group said, warning of a new “massacre,” as Washington said for the first time it was looking at arming rebels.The opposition National Coalition earlier denounced a “large-scale ...

    damascus   Syria's President Bashar al-Assad made a rare public visit on Wednesday to an electrical plant in centralDamascusto mark Labour Day, the presidency's official Facebook page said. "President Assad is now visiting the Umayyad electrical plant ...

DAMASCUS   (AFP/Reuters) - A bombing in the heart of Damascus killed at least 13 people Tuesday, as Russia banned its civilian planes from Syrian airspace after the crew of one reported coming under threat over the war-hit country.US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, expressed concerns ...

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday renewed his appeal for unfettered access to Syria for the United Nations team probing the alleged use of chemical weapons during the conflict, as he met in New York with the head of the investigation. “A credible and comprehensive ...

WASHINGTON Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge that Syria’s use of chemical weapons is a “game changer” for the United States, he is unlikely to turn to military options quickly and would want allies joining him in any intervention.Possible military choices range from ...

MOSCOW Syria dismissed as a “barefaced lie” on Saturday American and British claims it may have used chemical arms, as staunch ally Russia warned against using such fears to launch a military intervention in the strife-torn country.“First of all, I want to confirm that statements ...

BAGHDAD:  Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pointed a finger on Saturday at the civil war in neighbouringSyriafor the return of sectarian strife toIraq, as a five-day wave of violence has killed 215 people. And the head of the Sahwa anti-Qaeda militia forces threatened war on militants if ...

  Most objective observers of the Syrian conflict now realise that neither President Bashar Al Assad nor his enemies can hope to win an outright victory. By continuing to fight, they are simply exhausting themselves and ruining their country. The war has tornSyriaapart, caused vast loss of ...

WASHINGTON/LONDON - The White House disclosure that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons still leaves the Obama administration stuck with a limited choice of military options to help the rebels oust President Bashar Assad.Arming the rebels runs smack into the reality that a ...

ABU DHABI - The United States is not on the brink of military action despite an assessment from US spy agencies that the Syrian regime likely used chemical agents, a US Defence official said Thursday.The US military has prepared contingency plans for the Syrian conflict, but officials traveling ...

Syria hopes to clinch more financial aid from its allies Russia and Iran soon, but still has enough foreign reserves to pursue its war on rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, the central bank governor said.Speaking at the bank's headquarters, hit by a car bomb on April 8, Adeeb Mayaleh ...

BRUSSELS Fears resurfaced Tuesday of President Bashar al-Assad resorting to chemical weapons as rebels battled regime and Hezbollah forces in fierce fighting in Homs province, a watchdog said.In Brussels, US Secretary of State John Kerry told foreign ministers from the 28 Nato nations that the ...

  BEIRUT   Syria's opposition warned on Monday that Hezbollah's role in fighting in Homs province amounts to a "declaration of war," but the militant group said it is merely protecting Lebanese people. The comments came as a watchdog said the Lebanese Shiite group was leading the battle ...