Damascus - Page 3

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.

The Islamic State group may have lost most of its territory in Syria but recent deadly attacks against pro-regime fighters are a foretaste of more to come, analysts say.

Jerusalem and Damascus rejected reports that a deal had been reached under which foreign forces, including Iran and Hezbollah, would withdraw from southern Syria near Israel’s border. “Israel denies reports that an understanding has been reached,” a diplomatic source said on Saturday.

The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad created diplomatic uproar Tuesday as it assumed the rotating presidency of the UN-backed Conference on Disarmament (CD) at a time when Damascus is widely accused of using chemical weapons against its own people.

Explosions rocked an area thought to house an Iranian facility near Damascus early Monday morning, according to a report in Sky News Arabia.

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.

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.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday that Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired at it overnight by Israel, RIA news agency reported.

TEL AVIV – Israel has thwarted several possible Iranian missile attacks over the past few days launched from the  Syrian based that was targeted in an airstrike attributed to the Israel Air Force Tuesday evening, Hebrew-language media outlets reported. 

JERUSALEM – Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported an Israeli attack targeting a military base south of Damascus about two hours after President Trump announced a decision to withdraw from the international nuclear agreement with Iran.

The Syrian army and its allies engaged in a fierce battle on Saturday with Islamic State fighters in an enclave south of Damascus held by the jihadist group.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday presented an aerial photograph of an alleged Iranian base outside Damascus that he said Tehran was using to bring in and train tens of thousands of fighters for the militias it backs in Syria.

A media unit run by the Syrian government’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah said on Wednesday an opposition enclave northeast of Damascus was now free of rebels and under state control.

TEL AVIV – If the U.S. really wants to stop the massacres in Syria, it needs to target President Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus, an article published in Saudi’s government daily said.

The Syrian regime remains able to conduct chemical attacks, though only at a limited level, the Pentagon said Thursday following last week’s international cruise missile strikes on chemical targets.

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.

TEL AVIV – The American empire is poised to crumble and the failure of the joint missile attack on Syrian chemical weapons sites is the first triumph marking the beginning of the end, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s envoy said on Sunday.

DAMASCUS, Syria — The world’s chemical weapons watchdog is set to convene Monday to discuss the suspected toxic gas assault in Syria that prompted an unprecedented wave of Western strikes, as its inspectors probe the attack near Damascus.

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump faced a decision on whether to strike Syria and risk a clash with Damascus ally Russia, after UN members failed Tuesday to agree on action to probe chemical attacks in the war-wracked country.

TEL AVIV – In comments that appeared to refer to the Syria missile strike attributed to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Jewish state will retaliate against anyone harboring aspirations to harm his country.

A senior Iranian official threatened Israel with retribution, warning its airstrike on a Syrian air base that killed seven Iranians “will not go unanswered.”

BEIRUT — Syrian activists, rescuers and medics said Sunday that a poison gas attack on a rebel-held town near the capital has killed at least 40 people, allegations denied by the Syrian government.

BEIRUT — The most powerful Syrian rebel faction on the fringes of Damascus began abandoning its stronghold in the once rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta on Monday, opening the way for government forces to secure full control of the area, after seven years of revolt.

Rockets fired on a market in a government-controlled neighborhood of Damascus on Tuesday killed 35 people and wounded more than 20 others, Syrian state-run media said, marking one of the highest death tolls in a single attack targeting the capital.

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.

BEIRUT — Syrian government and Russian airstrikes killed at least 46 people in a besieged town outside of Damascus on Friday, while Turkish shelling and attacks on a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria left at least 22 dead there, monitors and officials said.

TEL AVIV — The Islamic State has released propaganda photos showing the execution of a man south of Damascus named Moussa Badawi, who was accused of cooperating with a rival organization called Ahrar al-Sham.

A Russia-ordered “humanitarian pause” has gone into effect to allow civilians to leave a rebel-held enclave near Damascus, giving a brief respite to the residents of the besieged area that has been under intense attack by the Syrian government for weeks.

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Saturday demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria “without delay” to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

HAMOURIA, Syria — A heavy bombardment killed at least 100 civilians, 20 of them children, in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on Monday, as regime forces appeared to be preparing for an imminent ground assault.

Syria’s ruling Assad dictatorship has announced it is developing closer ties with North Korea based on based on “solid and deep-rooted foundations of friendship and cooperation.”

“France will strike” if chemical weapons are found to have been used against civilians in the Syrian conflict in violation of international treaties, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned.

The Israeli military shot down an Iranian drone that infiltrated the country early Saturday before launching a “large-scale attack” on at least a dozen Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria. Israel called it a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty” and warned of further action against the unprecedented Iranian aggression.

Syrian air defense systems intercepted an Israeli air attack on a military position near the capital Damascus early Wednesday, the Syria army said.

Syrian state media on Friday cited field commanders as saying Turkey helped anti-government rebels launch a counterattack against the Syrian army and its allies in the northwest this week, underlining recent regional tensions over the fighting.

The Israeli army overnight carried out air strikes and fired rockets at targets in Syria, causing damage near a “military position”, the Syrian army said in a statement on Tuesday.