Syria civil war - Page 16

Syrian rebels dealt a major symbolic blow to the Islamic State group on Sunday by capturing the town of Dabiq where the jihadists had promised an apocalyptic battle.

Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Friday, a monitor said, as world powers prepared for new talks on a ceasefire.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday that the Syrian army’s capture of Aleppo, which has come under renewed bombardment in an effort to seize its rebel-held sector, would be “a very important springboard” to pushing “terrorists” back to Turkey.

The Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah vowed to maintain its “jihad” in neighboring Syria at a huge rally in Beirut on Wednesday, a day after its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the war was in a phase of escalation.

Islamic State militants in northern Syria are putting up “stiff resistance” to attacks by Turkish-backed rebel fighters, Turkey’s military said on Wednesday, almost two months after it launched an incursion to drive them away from its border.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Tuesday the Middle East was in a phase of escalating tension and there appeared to be no prospect of a political solution to the war in Syria.

At least eight civilians were killed on Tuesday in the heaviest Russian bombardment in days of rebel-held areas of Syria’s second city Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

Jordan is willing to allow regular aid drops by crane from its territory to tens of thousands of Syrians stranded on its sealed desert border, the government spokesman said on Monday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that Russia had the means to protect its assets in Syria if the United States decided to carpet bomb the Syrian government’s military air fields.

Russia on Saturday vetoed a United Nations draft resolution demanding an end to the bombing of Syria’s war-battered city of Aleppo.

The United States shows no sign of preparing to get involved in the fighting in Syria, an Arab intelligence official told Breitbart Jerusalem. Despite evidence that the Syrian civil war is tilting in the favor of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura offered on Thursday to go to eastern Aleppo and escort up to 1,000 Islamist fighters out of the city for the sake of a halt to the bombardment by Russian and Syrian forces.

Moscow’s year-long bombing campaign in Syria has showcased the “reliability” of Russian weaponry, as the Kremlin has helped stabilise the war-ravaged country, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday.

Syria’s military on Wednesday announced a surprise reduction in its bombardment of rebel groups in Aleppo, nearly two weeks after declaring an all-out assault to capture the near-devastated city.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart resumed discussions on Syria on Wednesday despite a US decision earlier this week to suspend direct talks with Moscow on trying to end the conflict.

The UN has released satellite images showing most recent destruction of Syria’s embattled northern city of Aleppo.

Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday that it had sent an S-300 missile system to its naval facility in the Syrian city of Tartus, a measure it says is meant to bolster its security.

Rebels said on Tuesday they repelled a Syrian army offensive in southern Aleppo as Russian and Syrian warplanes continued to pound residential areas in besieged parts of the city where thousands of civilians are trapped.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel urged the Iranian government during his two-day visit to the Islamic Republic to do what it can to push for a ceasefire in Syria.

Fighting in northern Syria between Turkey-backed Syrian rebels and ISIS militants killed at least 15 rebels as the opposition pressed toward a town of symbolic importance for the extremists, an activist group and Turkish officials said Monday.

Already testy, relations between the United States and Russia plummeted Monday as Washington suspended diplomatic contacts with Moscow over failed efforts to end the war in Syria and President Vladimir Putin put on hold a deal with the US on disposing weapons-grade plutonium.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Syrian government-held city of Hama on Monday, killing a number of people, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

Syrian government and allied forces have advanced toward Aleppo, pursuing their week-old offensive to take the rebel-held part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes.

Syria’s Ministry of Tourism has released a video highlighting the possibility of holidays in war-torn Aleppo. Set to the Game of Thrones theme music, the one minute-long clip boasts lush parks and greenery, clear blue skies, and towering minarets.

Civilians under bombardment in Syria’s rebel-held east Aleppo are facing “a level of savagery that no human should have to endure,” the UN aid chief said Sunday.

Syrian government forces and rebels fought battles north of Aleppo and in the city centre on Friday, a week into a Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian army to take the entire city, a war monitor and sources on both sides said.

Syrian government forces continued their push into rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Thursday as international officials issued dire warnings of an ongoing humanitarian disaster in Syria’s largest city.

Secretary of State John Kerry is threatening to cut off all contacts with Moscow over Syria, unless Russian and Syrian government attacks on Aleppo end.

A top Syrian opposition official has expressed hope that the next US administration will show more resolve than Obama’s.

A medical group has warned that the health system in Aleppo is on the verge of collapse, as Syrian Government forces backed by Russia continue an intensive bombing campaign.

At least 23 civilians have been killed in renewed government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as France and Britain’s Foreign Ministers raised the prospect of investigating Russia for war crimes, ahead of an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting about the spiraling violence in Syria’s civil war.

John Kerry had heard enough. After last week’s bombing of a U.N. aid convoy in Syria dealt a death blow to a ceasefire deal in which he had invested all his diplomatic capital with Russia, the U.S. Secretary of State tossed aside a page of notes and looked at Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov across the horseshoe-shaped table in the U.N. Security Council.

Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held east Aleppo on Sunday ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the worst surge in violence to hit the devastated city in years.

Syrian troops captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo on Saturday, tightening their siege on opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city after what residents described as the heaviest air bombardment of the 5 ½-year civil war.

Warplanes launched some of the heaviest air strikes yet on rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Friday after the Russian-backed Syrian army declared an offensive to fully capture Syria’s biggest city, killing off any hope of reviving a ceasefire.

The United States and Russia ended any pretenses Thursday of their cease-fire for Syria remaining in force after days of increased violence and the Syrian military’s announcement of a new offensive in Aleppo.