Damascus - Page 4

Dozens of Syrian rebels and their families departed aboard buses from an area besieged by government forces bordering the Israeli Golan Heights early Saturday in part of a deal to clear yet another district of anti-regime insurgents.

IRGC-Quds Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani, in a recent video, told a group of Iranian soldiers in Al-Bukamal, Syria, that the United States forces are “cowards” and that their soldiers wore diapers in the battlefield so they could urinate when scared.

Iranian state-run television has broadcast a report showcasing a 13-year-old sent to Syria to fight on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad, allegedly under the guidance of Iran’s terror chief, General Qasem Soleimani.

TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader has praised his country’s contribution to the fight against the Islamic State group, saying it had helped destroy a “tumor” created by the United States and its allies.

Iran is building a permanent military base in Syria just south of Damascus, the BBC reported Friday, citing a Western intelligence official. The British broadcaster commissioned a series of satellite pictures that indicate widespread construction at the site.

Islamic State militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria’s remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation.

UNITED NATIONS — Russia vetoed Tuesday a US-drafted resolution that would have extended by a year an investigation of who is behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned Syria that Israel would continue to carry out airstrikes “as needed” after the Israeli Air Force destroyed a Syrian anti-aircraft battery in response to the firing of an interceptor missile at Israeli reconnaissance planes.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said on Monday that it struck and destroyed an anti-aircraft battery deep in Syria after it had opened fire on Israeli jets flying over Lebanon — the first such incident of Syrian forces targeting Israeli planes since the civil war began in 2011.

American intelligence reports suggesting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime was cremating the bodies of hundreds of prisoners in a facility near Damascus prompted Israel to examine the possibility of bombing the area, but the plan was eventually shelved over the defense establishment’s concerns that the move would lead to a rapid security escalation on the northern border.

Ynetnews reports: Two rockets hit near Damascus airport at dawn on Friday, Lebanese TV station al-Mayadeen reported, in an attack it said had probably been carried out by Israeli warplanes from outside Syria’s borders.

Russia on Thursday clashed with the European Union over Syria, accusing the bloc of politicizing aid by linking reconstruction funds to a political transition that would end the war.

Israeli strikes hit a weapons depot by Damascus airport overnight, targeting a warehouse belonging to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is allied with the Syrian government, a monitor said Friday.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman vowed to prevent Iran from establishing a “Shi’a corridor” in the Middle East. He made the statement just hours after Israel purportedly struck a Syrian military center believed to be producing chemical weapons and precision missiles.

United Nations war crimes investigators on Wednesday said they had evidence that Syrian government forces were behind the chemical attack that killed dozens of people in Khan Sheikhun in April.

A senior Israeli official warned the Russian government that if Iran continues to extend its reach in Syria, Israel will bomb Syrian President Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus, according to reports in Arab media.

TEL AVIV – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday thanked allies Iran, Hezbollah and Russia for helping him overcome Western attempts for his ouster and added that he would not be restoring diplomatic ties with countries that support “terrorist” opposition groups in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday refused any security cooperation with Western nations or the reopening of their embassies, until they cut ties with opposition and insurgent groups.

TEL AVIV – In recent weeks, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have advanced in critical pockets of territory directly adjacent to ceasefire zones agreed upon in a number of areas, an Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV — Amidst what appears to be the death throes of the Islamic State, the group’s propagandists have released undated photos purportedly from the district of Damascus in Syria showing everyday life in the caliphate.

Several people were killed and others wounded on Sunday when a suicide bombing struck an eastern district of Damascus, Syrian state television reported.

US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron agreed during a telephone call Tuesday on the need for a “joint response” in the event of another chemical attack in Syria, the French presidency said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad led Eid al-Fitr prayers in the central city of Hama on Sunday, appearing in public outside the capital for the first time in a year.

A huge explosion hit near Damascus International Airport early Thursday setting off large fires, with Syrian regime ally Hezbollah saying it was “probably” the result of an Israeli air strike.

TEL AVIV – The United States issued a warning to Israel two hours ahead of its strike on Syria, a senior IDF official said on Wednesday.

Contents: Deadly explosion in Syria targets buses carrying 5,000 al-Assad supporters; Evidence of Bashar al-Assad’s war crimes and atrocities continues to grow

The administration of US President Donald Trump thanked Israel on Friday for its support for Washington’s overnight strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians earlier this week attributed to Syrian military forces.

The Times of Israel reports: BEIRUT, Lebanon — Dozens of Syrian students on Saturday gathered outside the offices of the United Nations in Damascus to protest a US missile attack on an air base. The protesters held banners and chanted

The chief of Israel’s armed forces said on Tuesday the death last year of the top Hezbollah military commander was an assassination by the Iranian-backed Lebanese group itself.

Troops loyal to the Iran- and Russia-backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad have reconquered areas in and around the Syrian capital of Damascus that they lost over the weekend after a surprise attack launched by al-Qaeda-linked jihadi rebels and other opposition groups.

Contents: Terrorist bombings in Damascus, airstrikes in Idlib, break Syria’s ceasefire; Russian troops join Americans, Kurds, Sunni rebels in Manbij, Syria; Syria’s Bashar al-Assad says that the Americans are invaders.

At least 25 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a court house in Damascus on Wednesday, state media reported, the second bomb attack in the Syrian capital in five days.

Contents: Al-Nusra descendant claims credit for massive terror attack in Damascus, Syria; Al-Nusra becomes Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) and gains at expense of ISIS

Twin bombs killed at least 44 people in the Old City of Damascus on Saturday, a monitoring group said, in one of the bloodiest attacks in the heart of the Syrian capital.

The Israel Air Force allegedly attacked Syrian army outposts in al-Katif in the suburbs of Damascus early Wednesday, according to reports in Lebanon.

Weighing in on one of the most contentious issues in American politics — the danger posed to host countries by the 4.8 million people who have fled from Syria’s civil war — Syrian President Bashar Assad told Yahoo News that some of the refugees are “definitely” terrorists.