Syria

Syria Jihadist-Regime Clashes Leave 41 Fighters Dead

An Al-Qaeda offshoot led an offensive Monday against regime forces in northwest Syria, sparking clashes that left 19 pro-government fighters and 22 jihadists dead, a war monitor said.

Read More »

Pompeo Presses Nations to Fund IS Fight Despite Budget Crunch

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday urged allies to make up a shortfall in funding to defeat the Islamic State movement despite a budget crunch after the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and Italy led a meeting of 31 nations on fighting the extremists, held virtually due to precautions to stop the virus. A US raid last year killed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, shortly after President Donald Trump declared the group that once ruled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq had been defeated on the battlefield. “That said, our fight against ISIS continues, and will for the foreseeable future. We cannot rest,” Pompeo told the conference. “We must continue to root out ISIS cells and networks and provide stabilization assistance to liberated areas in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “It’s true that the pandemic is putting enormous pressure on all of our budgets, but we urge your nations to pledge toward our goal of more than $700 million for 2020.” The funding drive by the coalition, which seeks to bring stability to Iraq and Syria, has raised only $200 million this year as of May 26, a State Department spokesperson said. The United States has pledged …

Read More »

First Russian Strikes in 3 Months Hit NW Syria: Monitor

Russian air strikes have hit Syria’s last major rebel bastion for the first time since a March ceasefire came into force, a war monitor said on Wednesday. The Russian strikes on Tuesday evening and at dawn on Wednesday hit an area of the northwest where the boundaries of Hama, Idlib, and Latakia provinces meet, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance (HTS), led by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and its hardline allies enjoy a significant presence in the area, the Britain-based monitoring group added. Home to some three million people, the Idlib region of the northwest is controlled by HTS and affiliated rebel groups. A Russian-backed government offensive between December and March displaced nearly a million people in the region. Some 840,000 of the nearly one million remain displaced, while some 120,000 have returned to their home communities since the ceasefire went into force, according to the United Nations. The truce, which coincided with the coronavirus crisis, had put a stop to the relentless air strikes by government forces and their Russian allies that killed at least 500 civilians in four months. The Observatory said the latest strikes were intended to push jihadists away from the …

Read More »

Turkish Soldier Killed in Syria’s Idlib

One Turkish soldier was killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday while on patrol in Syria’s Idlib region, the defense ministry said. The soldier “succumbed to his injuries after being taken to hospital,” the ministry said. The private DHA news agency said a bomb exploded on the key M4 highway in Idlib as a Turkish military convoy passed by. It is an area where Turkish-Russian joint patrols take place but it was not immediately clear if the Russian military were present at the time of the blast. In March, Russia and Turkey launched their first joint military patrol along the M4 highway following a ceasefire agreement. The deal raised hopes of an end to one of the bloodiest phases in the 9-year conflict in Syria. A Russian-backed government offensive on the last rebel bastion in the country has killed hundreds of civilians since December and displaced close to a million people.

Read More »

Amid condemnation, Syria’s YPG disavows deadly car bomb in Efrin

Syria's Kurdish-led YPG denied responsibility for a truck bomb in the Turkey-occupied city of Efrin that killed at least 40 people

Read More »

Syria says air defenses intercept missiles near Damascus

Syrian air defense intercepted several missiles fired during an "Israeli" airstrike against targets near the capital Damascus

Read More »

First Syrian state torture trial begins in Germany

Two alleged former Syrian intelligence officers go on trial in Germany, accused of crimes against humanity in the first court case over state-sponsored torture

Read More »

Defectors quit last US-backed rebel group in Syria, head for regime territory

A suspected drug smuggler and other former member of Maghawir al-Thawra, the last US-backed rebel group in Syri,a defected to the regime

Read More »

Israeli drone strike targets Hezbollah members in Syria near Lebanon border

An Israeli drone targeted a car of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement just inside Syria near the border with Lebanon without casualties

Read More »

OPCW team blames Syrian government for chemical weapons attacks

The global chemical weapons watchdog on for the first time explicitly blamed the Syrian government for sarin and chlorine gas attacks

Read More »