MOSCOW — A Russian reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a Syrian missile over the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 15 people on board, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. It blamed Israel for the crash, saying the plane was caught in the crossfire as four Israeli fighters attacked targets in northwestern Syria.
Some 200 displaced Syrians approached the Israeli border on Tuesday, some of them waving white flags, in an apparent effort to reach out to the Jewish state for assistance as forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad moved into the area as part of a military operation against rebel-held areas in the country’s southwest.
Syria’s army entered rebel-held parts of Daraa city on Thursday, state media said, raising the national flag in the cradle of the uprising that sparked the country’s seven-year war.
The Israeli military attacked a Syrian position on Friday after a mortar shell exploded in the buffer zone between the two countries, in what the military said was a violation of a 1974 ceasefire agreement.
Syria’s regime and its ally Russia resumed air strikes on the south of the country on Wednesday after rebels said talks over a government takeover had “failed.”
Large explosions were heard in the Deraa district of south Syria on Tuesday in an area in which ammunition warehouses belonging to the Assad regime and pro-Assad militias are located, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Israeli military sent additional tanks and artillery cannons to the Syrian border on Sunday in light of a renewed offensive by dictator Bashar Assad and the Russian military against the remaining rebel holdouts in the country’s southwest, the army said.
At least eight battered rebel-held towns in southern Syria returned to regime control under Russian-brokered deals on Saturday as air strikes killed at least 15 civilians, a monitor said.
Israel is preparing for the possibility that an onslaught by the forces of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad could see tens of thousands of Syrian refugees heading for the Israel border. The IDF is gearing up to prevent a mass breach of the frontier, but also to provide humanitarian aid to the displaced, military sources said Thursday.
Forces loyal to the regime of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad took control of an abandoned UN post in the no-man’s land between the Israeli and Syrian areas of the Golan Heights, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported on Sunday.
The Syrian military recently deployed additional air defenses near the border with Israel amid heightened tensions over Iran’s presence in Syria, a commander in the pro-regime coalition told the Reuters news agency Tuesday.
In a ploy to try to reduce pressure from Israel, Iranian-backed forces, including from the Hezbollah terror group, have withdrawn their forces from areas in southern Syria, only to later return posing as Syrian military units, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
BEIRUT — A Syrian state-run newspaper says Damascus will keep fighting the country’s rebels — or “terrorists” as the government calls opposition fighters — despite U.S. warnings against a new offensive in southern Daraa province.
BEIRUT — A Syrian war monitoring group said Sunday a cease-fire between government forces and Islamic State militants in the southern neighborhoods of Damascus has held for 24 hours, and that some of the fighters have been allowed to leave.
BEIRUT – United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon said Friday they were keeping a close eye on the southern border with Israel, but the area was “quiet” after strikes on suspected Iranian positions in Syria.
TEL AVIV — The ongoing proxy war that Iran has been waging on Israel for years exploded into open, direct confrontation last night when Iranian forces reportedly fired a volley of about 20 rockets aimed at IDF positions in the Golan Heights.
TEL AVIV — Russian plans to possibly supply Bashar Assad’s regime with new air defense systems can only be viewed as defiance of the West and an expression of Moscow’s willingness to aid Iran in solidifying its military infrastructure in Syria.
The Syrian regime is massing troops and armored vehicles to prepare to retake from Islamic State the Yarmouk area in southern Damascus, according to local sources and media.
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Thursday put off a final decision on possible military strikes against Syria after tweeting earlier that they could happen “very soon or not so soon at all.” The White House said he would consult further with allies.
Claiming that “the rules of the games have changed,” a political and media adviser to President Bashar Assad claimed Thursday that Syria was ready for war with international forces if hostilities were to break out.
President Donald Trump blamed the ongoing Russia investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for fueling a bad relationship with the country.
President Donald Trump issued a threat on Twitter against Russia, warning them that missiles from the United States were directed at Syria.
A senior Iranian official threatened Israel with retribution, warning its airstrike on a Syrian air base that killed seven Iranians “will not go unanswered.”
US officials have reportedly confirmed that Israel carried out a predawn missile strike on an air base in central Syria that reportedly killed 14 people on Monday, while Russia protested that it had not been informed ahead of time.
Syria and its Russian ally accused Israel on Monday of carrying out a deadly dawn bombing raid on a military airbase, as global outrage mounted over an alleged poison gas attack outside Damascus.
The Bashar Assad regime is preparing an offensive to retake southern Syria and the Syrian Golan Heights from rebel groups and has reportedly placed tanks and heavy artillery inside the demilitarized buffer zone on the country’s border with Israel.
RICHFIELD, Ohio — US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that US forces would pull out of Syria “very soon” and lamented what he said was Washington’s waste of $7 trillion in Middle East wars.
The Islamic State terrorist group published photos on its Telegram account showing “child soldiers” executing Afghani soldiers who were purportedly captured by IS during fighting in the Nanajahar region in Afghanistan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Monday for the last leg of a day-long diplomatic dash, during which he ordered the partial withdrawal of Russia’s troops from the war-torn country.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian troops and their allies on Wednesday encircled the Islamic State group in Albu Kamal, state media said, edging closer to ousting the jihadists from their last urban stronghold in the country.
The home secretary has been urged to consider revoking the British passport of Asma al-Assad, the UK-born wife of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, after her social media posts in support of his regime.
Wednesday in Moscow at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was “possible the case will be made” to charge the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with war crimes for the use
Public support for Donald Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against the Syrian regime is low compared to support for previous foreign actions, according to the latest Gallup poll.
Hezbollah is “very challenged” at the moment due to its ongoing military support of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, a top IDF official told the Hebrew news site Walla in an interview published on Monday.
