Syria civil war - Page 5

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In a ploy to try to reduce pressure from Israel, Iranian-backed forces, including from the Hezbollah terror group, have withdrawn their forces from areas in southern Syria, only to later return posing as Syrian military units, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Israel is holding “advanced talks” with Russia on a potential withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria, Hadashot TV news reported Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has extended his upcoming European tour to include a meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street.

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.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said foreign militias should leave southwestern Syria as soon as possible, state media outlet TASS reported.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman set off for Moscow on Wednesday night to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu to discuss Iran’s growing military presence in Syria.

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.

Israel and Russia have reached a secret agreement to distance Iranian forces from the border area in southern Syria, Israeli TV reported Monday, as Jerusalem and Moscow sent differing messages regarding the extent of their tolerance for Iran’s military presence in that country.

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.

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.

Israel has notified Russia of its decision to expand its “red lines”—as it pertains to operations against Iran in Syria—to the entirety of its northern neighbor’s territory rather than just the southern portion of the country as it had so far, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Saturday evening.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Five Syrian rescue workers were killed in an attack by masked assailants Saturday on one of their centers in the northern province of Aleppo, the White Helmets said.

BEIRUT – A US-led coalition air strike on Syrian army positions overnight killed at least 12 pro-regime fighters in an area where both sides have been battling holdout jihadists, a monitor said Thursday.

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.

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

BEIRUT — At least 28 pro-government fighters have been killed in a string of blasts at a regime airbase in central Syria earlier this weekend, a monitor said Sunday as it upped the death toll.

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.

The Israeli military released a series of images Friday it said showed the extent of damage to Iranian intelligence installations in Syria targeted during a massive aerial bombardment just 24 hours earlier.

TEHRAN –  Iran on Friday condemned Israel’s air raids in Syria, saying they had been launched on “invented pretexts”.

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.

During two pre-dawn hours, Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter jets evaded “dozens of missiles” and dropped “many dozens” of bombs on over 50 Iranian targets throughout Syria as the Israel air force carried out an extensive campaign, dubbed “Operation House of Cards,” to try and destroy Iran’s military presence in the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Iran had “crossed a red line” with its missile barrage directed at Israel on Wednesday night, and that the IDF “reacted accordingly” by striking over 50 Iranian targets in Syria in response.

A top official from the Arab Gulf country of Bahrain is defending what he says is Israel’s “right” to defend itself after Israel launched overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

TEL AVIV – Massive strikes in Syria that Israel said destroyed nearly all of Iran’s infrastructure saw at least 23 fighters killed early on Thursday, according to numbers released by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 

TEL AVIV – Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday morning that the IDF had destroyed “almost all of Iran’s military infrastructure sites in Syria” overnight in response to a rocket barrage in Israel’s north, and warned Tehran that attacks on Israeli territory will be met with “the strongest possible force.”

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.

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.

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.

The United States embassy in Israel on Tuesday prohibited American government employees from traveling to the Golan Heights without prior approval, amid heightened fears of an Iranian attack from neighboring Syria.

Iran is planning to retaliate for recent deadly airstrikes in Syria attributed to the Jewish state by having its proxies fire missiles at military targets in northern Israel sometime in the near future, defense officials warned on Sunday.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman sought assurances from Russia on Thursday that its advanced missile defense systems won’t be used against Israeli jets over Syria, and he called on Moscow to condemn Iran for its repeated threats against the Jewish state.

TEL AVIV – An airstrike on what is said to be an Iranian military base in Syria was carried out by the Israel Air Force using F-15 fighter jets, three American officials told NBC news on Tuesday.