BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) – Numerous doctors and nurses and medical facilities have been hit or targeted by missiles or air strikes since the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011. The latest case came when an air strike and artillery fire hit the two largest hospitals in rebel-held parts of Syria’s Aleppo overnight, in what rights groups said was a deliberate strategy of targeting civilian infrastructure. “Let us be clear. Those using ever […]
Tag: syria
US threatens to end cooperation unless Russia stops Aleppo assault
ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) – by Karam al-Masri with Maya Gebeily in Beirut The United States threatened Wednesday to suspend its engagement with Russia over the conflict in Syria following escalating attacks on rebel-held parts of Aleppo city, including strikes on two hospitals. UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced the attacks — which saw the two largest hospitals in Aleppo’s opposition-controlled east hit with air strikes and artillery fire — as “war crimes”. President Bashar al-Assad’s forces […]
Syria meeting breaks up without plan to restore truce
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A high-level international meeting on the crisis in Syria broke up Thursday without agreement on a way to revive a collapsed US and Russian-brokered truce. US Secretary of State John Kerry said his Russian counterpart had not been able to promise to ground Syria’s bombers and to halt the bombardment of its cities. “The question now is whether there remains any real chance of moving forward, because it is […]
Syria’s Aleppo set ablaze ahead of fresh diplomatic efforts
ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) – by Karam al-Masri with Maya Gebeily in Beirut Huge blazes erupted in Syria’s Aleppo as the city was rocked by fighting and air strikes Thursday, ahead of last-ditch efforts by world powers to salvage a failed ceasefire. Key players in the Syrian peace process were to meet in New York later Thursday, with the clock ticking down as the UN warned undelivered aid for desperate civilians in Aleppo would expire in […]
UN’s Ban makes final appeal for action on Syria, climate
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – by Carole LANDRY UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used his farewell address to the General Assembly on Tuesday to urge world leaders to end the war in Syria and bring the Paris climate deal into force this year. With just three months to go before he steps down as UN chief, Ban also made a final plea to end the “madness” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and gave world leaders advice on […]
Aid convoy attacked as Syria ceasefire collapses
by Karam al-Masri ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — A convoy delivering aid to Syrians in Aleppo province was hit by an air strike, leaving 12 dead hours after the Syrian military declared an end to a week-long ceasefire, monitors and the UN said. At least 18 trucks were destroyed as the convoy travelled to the hard-to-reach town of Orum al-Kubra in Aleppo province, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying 12 Red Crescent volunteers and […]
Air strikes hit aid convoy as Syria says ceasefire over
(REUTERS) An aid convoy was hit in Aleppo province, the United Nations said on Monday, as the Syrian military declared that a week-long ceasefire was over. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the attacks were carried out by either Syrian or Russian aircraft, adding that there had been 35 strikes in and around Aleppo since the truce ended. Fourteen Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers were killed, Elhadj As Sy, secretary general […]
Canada security agencies helped Syria in torture cases: documents
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) – Canada’s spy agency and federal police quietly cooperated with Syrian military intelligence in the post-9/11 torture of three Canadians, documents revealed by public broadcaster CBC showed Monday. The three men were arrested by Syrian military intelligence during trips abroad from 2001 to 2004, suspected of Al-Qaeda links. Each claimed upon return to Canada that he had been tortured, and that Canadian security officials had supplied their captors with intelligence and questions […]
Bombs rain down as Syria declares truce over
ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) – by Karam al-Masri Shells and bombs rained down on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Monday less than two hours after Syria’s army declared an end to a week-long ceasefire agreed between Russia and the US. Damascus and its ally Moscow blamed rebels for the failure of the truce, but Washington said the terms had not been met for a key aspect of the deal — US-Russia cooperation against jihadists. The US, Russia […]
Truce teeters after raids on Aleppo, Syria troops
by Rouba El Husseini BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Syria’s ceasefire was on the brink of collapsing Sunday, after a US-led coalition strike killed dozens of regime soldiers and Aleppo city was hit by its first air raids in nearly a week. The barrage of strikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo risks reigniting battlefronts in the city and could be the most serious threat to the ceasefire so far. A halt to fighting around Aleppo […]
U.S.-led forces strike Syrian troops, prompting emergency U.N. meeting
(REUTERS) U.S.-led coalition air strikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers on Saturday, endangering a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire and prompting an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting as tensions between Moscow and Washington escalated. The United States military said the coalition stopped the attacks against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions in northeast Syria after Russia informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit. The United States relayed […]
‘Last chance’ Syria ceasefire takes effect
by Karam al-Masri and Maher al-Mounes ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — A US- and Russia-brokered ceasefire dubbed by Washington as maybe the “last chance to save Syria” took effect at sundown on Monday, amid scepticism over how long it would hold. An initial 48-hour truce came into force at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) across Syria except in areas held by jihadists such as the Islamic State group. AFP correspondents in Syria’s devastated second city […]
