Syria

Beirut (AFP) – Facing Russian and regime bombardment and abandoned by international backers Jordan and the United States, rebels in southern Syria are left with few options — all of them unsavoury. – Where’s the outside support? – Syria’s south is a strategic zone bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan, and easily accessible from the […]

With Tony Gamal-Gabriel in Beirut Daraa (Syria) (AFP) – Syria’s army launched an assault on the flashpoint southern city of Daraa Tuesday, state media said, after a week of deadly bombardment on the nearby countryside caused mass displacement. Government forces have set their sights on retaking the south of the country, a strategic area that […]

Baghdad (AFP) – More than 20 fighters from an Iraqi paramilitary force key to the battle against the Islamic State group were killed in an eastern Syria air raid the United States linked to Israel. The bombing raid hit Al-Hari, a town controlled by regional militias fighting in Syria’s complex seven-year war alongside President Bashar […]

Geneva (AFP) – More than 920,000 people were displaced inside Syria during the first four months of 2018, the highest level in the seven-year conflict, the United Nations said Monday. “We are seeing a massive displacement inside Syria… From January to April, there were over 920,000 newly displaced people,” Panos Moumtzis, the UN regional humanitarian […]

Damascus (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned US-backed Kurdish forces he would not hesitate to use force to retake the third of the country they control. “The only problem left in Syria is the SDF,” Assad told Russia Today in an interview aired Thursday, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which has […]