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.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Russia bombed rebel-held parts of southern Syria late Saturday for the first time since brokering a ceasefire there nearly a year ago, a monitor group said, as allied regime troops prepare a ground assault.
Dictator Bashar Assad ramped up his assault against rebel positions in southwestern Syria on Friday, deploying his infamous “barrel bombs” despite warnings from the United States that he is violating a “deconfliction zone,” jeopardizing civilian lives, and threatening the security of neighboring Israel.
Contents: Thousands of Syrians flee into Jordan to escape bombing in Daraa; Fears grow of Syrian army advance into Quneitra province
The Turkish military announced Monday that Turkish soldiers, accompanied by American counterparts, began “independent patrols” in Manbij, Syrian Kurdistan, where Ankara spent months threatening an invasion against local Kurdish forces.
Contents: Israeli airstrike on Syria-Iraq border kills dozens of Shia militia fighters; Russia-Israel alliance grows, while Russia-Iran alliance frays in Syria
Syrian state media on Monday claimed that a U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombed a Syrian army position in al-Harra, near the Iraqi border, causing an unspecified number of deaths of injuries.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration abandoned its decision this week to suspend funding for the Syria Civil Defense, a volunteer rescue force widely known as the White Helmets, releasing millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding for the group, according to the State Department.
A report published Thursday alleges that Turkey-backed fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are seizing, looting, and destroying property in the predominantly Kurdish region of Afrin, further fueling fears that Ankara is quietly forcing a demographic change along its border with Syria.
A Syrian human rights monitoring group reported on Thursday that the Hezbollah terror group’s leadership has refused to accede to a Russian request that its forces vacate a number of locations in southwest Syria near the Lebanese border.
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday said Iran’s presence in Syria and its relations with Damascus are not negotiable and repeated the claim that Iran has no fixed bases in Syria.
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.
Syrian President Bashar Assad denied Russia coordinated or even knew in advance about reported Israeli strikes inside his country and downplayed Moscow’s role in determining Iran’s presence there, in an interview published Sunday.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah will remain in Syria as long as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants it there, the group’s leader said on Friday, defying renewed US and Israeli pressure to force Tehran and its allies to quit the country.
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.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, reportedly expressed a desire this week to negotiate the future of the swathes of territory it controls in northern Syria with the Iranian- and Russian-backed regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) recently launched a “violent attack” in Syria that killed at least 55 pro-regime troops amid friction between dictator Bashar al-Assad’s allies Russia and Iran that apparently contributed to the regime’s losses, a monitor group suggested Wednesday.
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad reaffirmed his support for the North Korean regime on Tuesday, declaring his belief that the young tyrant Kim Jong-un “will realize the reunification of Korea without fail.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plans to visit North Korea for a personal meeting with leader Kim Jong-Un, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday.
Contents: Syria’s al-Assad makes delusional threats to US military; Israel and Russia reach agreement to keep Iran out of Syria’s south
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday denied the presence in his country of any Iranian troops.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad gave an interview to Russia’s RT television on Thursday in which he said the United States is “losing its cards” on the civil war battlefield and must withdraw all forces from his country or risk a conflict with the Syrian military and Russian forces.
The Foreign Ministry of Turkey condemned Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad Wednesday for what it labeled a “clear violation” of international law in recognizing the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two Georgian breakaway regions invaded by Russia in 2008.
The US should learn the lesson of Iraq, President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday, threatening to expel American troops from Syria and retake areas from its Kurdish allies.
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.
Contents: U.S. threatens ‘firm measures’ against al-Assad’s military action in Deraa, Syria; US State Department warns the Syrian regime of ‘firm and appropriate measures’; Syria passes new ‘Law #10’ to block refugees from returning home after the war
Syrian anti-government rebels have been accused of digging up graves in a refugee camp cemetery near the capital Damascus while searching for the remains of three Israeli soldiers missing since the early-1980s.
MOSCOW – Syria’s deputy foreign minister said Wednesday Damascus did not envisage Iran and Hezbollah participating in the withdrawal of foreign forces from the war-torn country as announced last week by Russia.
Forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad this week deemed Damascus and its countryside “completely clear” of Sunni jihadists, including the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), an alleged victory that puts the territory in and around the Syrian regime’s seat of power under its full control for the first time since the civil war erupted in 2011.
Contents: Stage is set for a new humanitarian catastrophe in Syria’s Idlib province; Turkey warns Syria’s Bashar al-Assad not to attack Idlib 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.
TEL AVIV — A series of blasts were reported on Friday in the vicinity of a military airbase that is reportedly controlled in part by Iran in Hama in northwestern Syria.
MOSCOW — The Kremlin said Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Tuesday that it is “completely inconceivable to return Afrin back to the control of the Syrian regime” after Turkey invaded the northern border region in January.
In an extensive interview published Thursday covering his ties to Iran, accusations of chemical weapons use, and a potential meeting with President Donald Trump, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad referred to the U.S. military as “terrorists,” alongside the Turkish and Saudi armies.
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad said in an interview Thursday with Greek newspaper Kathimerini that he is not interested in meeting President Donald Trump to discuss an end to the civil war in his country because Trump has no real power in the United States.
Contents: Turkey tightens grip on Syria’s Afrin, and continues to threaten Manbij; Israel-Iran missile barrages in Syria take a pause on Thursday
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.
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, hours after US President Donald Trump announced he would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
