by Maya Gebeily Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — UN security experts have said they were negotiating with Syrian and Russian authorities for international chemical inspectors to deploy to the site of an alleged toxic gas attack near Damascus, after a reconnaissance mission came under fire. The team from the world’s chemical arms watchdog has not yet been able to begin its field work in Douma, where dozens were killed in a suspected […]
Tag: Douma
Chemical inspectors await all-clear to begin work in Syria’s Douma
by Rim Haddad with Maya Gebeily in Beirut © Agence France-Presse DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — International investigators on Tuesday were awaiting the green light from a UN security team to begin work in a Syrian town hit by an alleged chemical attack, after delays and warnings by Western powers that crucial evidence had likely been removed. The suspected April 7 gas attack on Douma, near Damascus, reportedly left more than 40 people dead and was […]
Thousands leave Syria’s Douma as evacuations wrapping up
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Thousands of Islamist fighters and their relatives left the Syrian town of Douma they once controlled as the last evacuations from Eastern Ghouta continued Friday, a monitor said. The fighters from the Jaish al-Islam group left overnight and thousands of civilians onboard 85 buses that took them to areas of northern Syria still held by rebels. The evacuations are part of a deal brokered by Damascus’s Russian ally to re-establish regime control […]
Trump warns Russia may pay for Syria attack on civilians
by Dave Clark / with Carole Landry at the United Nations Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States – President Donald Trump warned on Monday that Moscow, Tehran and Damascus may be forced to pay a “big price” after the latest alleged chemical weapons atrocity of the Syrian civil war. The American leader met with his cabinet and promised that “major decisions” would be made within the next 24 to 48 hours, amid mounting speculation about a […]
Regime forces advance in Syria’s battered Ghouta
by Hasan Mohammed © Agence France-Presse DOUMA, Syria (AFP) — Government forces seized territory inside Syria’s rebel Eastern Ghouta Saturday, intensifying fighting as tens of thousands of civilians in the besieged enclave near Damascus awaited urgently needed aid. On another front in Syria’s seven-year civil war, Turkish air strikes killed 36 pro-regime fighters in a Kurdish enclave near the Turkish border. Syria’s war has killed more than 340,000 people and spiralled into a complex conflict involving […]





