(Reuters) Nearly 50 air strikes hit rebel-held areas in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday in some of the heaviest recent raids by Russian and Syrian government aircraft, residents and a monitoring group said. The group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also said an unidentified war plane had crashed in countryside south of Aleppo, in an area where Islamist rebel fighters are battling the Syrian army and Iranian-backed forces. It […]
Tag: syria
IS blasts in Syria regime heartland kill more than 148
by Rim Haddad and Maher Al Mounes DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — More than 148 people were killed Monday in bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in northwestern Syria, the deadliest attacks to date in the regime’s coastal heartland. Seven near-simultaneous explosions targeted bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in the seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus, which until now had been relatively insulated from Syria’s five-year war. The attacks on strongholds of President […]
Bombs kill nearly 150 in Syrian government-held cities – monitor
JABLEH, SYRIA (Reuters) — Bomb blasts killed nearly 150 people and wounded at least 200 in Jableh and Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast on Monday (May 23) in the government-controlled territory that hosts Russian military bases, monitors and state media said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks in the cities that have up to now escaped the worst of the violence. It said it was targeting members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority. The […]
Teen arrested over alleged Sydney terror plot
SYDNEY , Australia (AFP) — An 18-year-old man was arrested in Sydney on Tuesday over an alleged “imminent” terror plot, as police raided properties in Melbourne in a separate counter-terrorism operation, officials said. Australian Federal Police claimed the teenager was scouting possible sites in Sydney to undertake an attack while at the same time trying to acquire a firearm. In February he had been stopped at Sydney airport as he attempted to leave for Syria, […]
IS has lost nearly half the area it once claimed in Iraq: Pentagon
WASHINGTON , United States (AFP) — The Islamic State group has continued losing control over territory across Iraq and Syria, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday, including almost half of what it had once held in Iraq. The Defense Department had previously estimated that IS fighters had lost control of about 40 percent of the territory they claimed in Iraq and about 10 percent of the land they held in Syria. Those tallies had gone up […]
Australia holds five suspected of plotting sailing trip to join Islamic State
(Reuters) — Australian police have detained five men suspected of planning to sail a small boat from the far north of the country on to Indonesia and the Philippines and finally to Syria to join Islamic State, officials said on Wednesday (May 11). The men were held on Tuesday (May 10) after towing the seven-meter boat almost 3,000 km (1,865 miles) from Melbourne to Cairns in Queensland state, police said. “There have been reports that […]
Russian orchestra performs in Syria’s war-scarred Palmyra
https://youtu.be/zSd75s7KIf0 By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber PALMYRA, Syria (AFP) — Leading Russian musicians on Thursday (May 5) staged a classical concert in the ancient theatre of Syria’s ravaged Palmyra in a show by the Kremlin to herald its successes in the war-torn country. Famed conductor Valery Gergiev led Saint Petersburg’s celebrated Mariinsky orchestra through pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin in front of a crowd of Russian soldiers, government ministers and journalists. Cellist […]
In U-turn, Britain to let in more Syrian child refugees
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – by Katherine HADDON Britain will admit a limited number of child refugees who have travelled alone from Syria to Europe, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Wednesday, in a U-turn on the politically-charged issue of migration. The government’s change of heart is a victory for Alf Dubs, an 83-year-old member of Britain’s House of Lords who argued that the country should be more compassionate, citing his own story of fleeing […]
Paris to host Saudi, Qatar, UAE, Turkey FMs for Syria talks Monday
PARIS, France (AFP) — France will host talks next week with the Saudi, Qatari, Turkish and UAE foreign ministers on the breakdown in the Syrian peace process, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday. Other top diplomats from “countries that think negotiations should resume at all costs” may also attend the Monday meeting, Le Foll said, without naming them. He was speaking after a cabinet meeting in which French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was […]
UN Security Council demands protection of hospitals in war zones
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) by Carole LANDRY The UN Security Council on Tuesday demanded that hospitals and clinics be protected in war zones, in a resolution that draws attention to the rise in attacks on medical workers in conflicts worldwide. Less than a week after air strikes on a hospital in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo killed at least 30 people, the council unanimously adopted the measure that strongly condemned the targeting of […]
Kerry sees hope of extending truce to Syria’s Aleppo
(Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday talks were closer to extending a Syrian truce to Aleppo, the divided northern city where a sharp escalation of violence in recent weeks has torpedoed peace talks. Kerry was in Geneva for talks with other dignitaries to try to revive the first major ceasefire of the five-year Syrian war, which was put in place in February with U.S. and Russian backing but has since all […]
Syria truce tested as Aleppo bombardment kills 25
ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — Air strikes and shelling on Syria’s second city Aleppo and a town to its west left 25 civilians reported dead Tuesday, as a surge in violence tests a troubled ceasefire. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply concerned” by the fighting and urged both sides to stick to the two-month-old truce and troubled peace talks in Geneva. “The cessation of hostilities should go on, otherwise it will be very difficult […]





