Syria civil war - Page 8

Turkey on Saturday launched a new air and ground operation to oust Kurdish militia from a northern Syrian enclave, defying US warnings that the action risked destabilizing the area.

TEL AVIV — Sixteen jihadists from the Gaza Strip have been killed in recent days in Syria where they fought among the ranks of the Islamic State, senior jihadist Abu Abdel Rahman al-Maqdesi told Breitbart Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV – The threats posed by Iranian proxy terror group, Hezbollah, on Israel’s northern border are “extremely significant,” according to an Israeli news report aired Sunday.

The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Monday for the last leg of a day-long diplomatic dash, during which he ordered the partial withdrawal of Russia’s troops from the war-torn country.

The second-in-command of Hezbollah, Iran’s Shia proxy in Lebanon, has told an audience in Tehran that the terrorist organization vastly improved its military and fighting capabilities during its defense of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria in recent years.

Israel reportedly attacked a military scientific research center in the Jamraya area on the outskirts of Damascus late Monday night, according to media affiliated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

ROME, Italy — Saudi Arabia and Iran have exported their bitter regional tussle to Rome, accusing each other of villainous meddling in the Middle East during diplomacy talks in the Italian capital.

Amid reports of an alleged Israeli aircraft attack on an Iranian base outside of Damascus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that an Iranian presence in Syria will not become a reality.

The director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service reportedly visited Israel on Thursday to brief Israeli security officials following a meeting between the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran on reaching a political solution to the Syrian civil war.

Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida revealed on Sunday that an Israeli source disclosed a promise from Jerusalem to destroy all Iranian facilities within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of Israel’s Golan Heights.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 14 civilians including a young girl were killed by Syrian regime bombardment of the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus on Saturday, a monitor said.

In an unprecedented move, Israel on Tuesday co-sponsored a draft resolution against Syria that was submitted by Saudi Arabia at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Israel will continue to carry out strikes in Syria despite a US-Russian cease-fire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday after reports that the deal would allow Iranian troops to remain only 5 km. from Israel’s border.

Roundly rejecting Russian aspersions against the task force, Israel on Sunday endorsed a UN watchdog report on Syria’s use of chemical weapons, saying it “unequivocally” proves Assad used poison gas and must therefore be punished by the international community.

WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia are nearing an a agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, officials said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian troops and their allies on Wednesday encircled the Islamic State group in Albu Kamal, state media said, edging closer to ousting the jihadists from their last urban stronghold in the country.

MOUNT HERMON – The wounded Syrians, carried on donkeys through the pitch-black night, could be seen in the beam of a searchlight held by their unlikely saviours — Israeli soldiers.

BEIRUT: A car bombing carried out by the Islamic State group killed dozens of displaced people in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor today, a monitor said.

Israel Defense Force spokesperson Ronen Manelis said in a statement that the IDF will stand by the side of the Druze population as the fighting in Syria intensifies, after a resident of Majdal Shams was injured by gunfire on Friday that seems to be spillover from the Syrian war.

TEHRAN – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for an official visit, with talks expected to focus on Syria, the Iranian nuclear agreement and bilateral ties.

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.

Isis has killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town deep inside regime-held territory, a human rights monitor has said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday said Iranian militias stationed in Iraq need to leave the war-torn nation and give it the opportunity to stand on its own.

RAQQA, Syria — Tears streaming down her freckled face, 35-year-old Asya took in the shattered glass, gutted storefronts and crumbling cafes — all that remain of her favorite shopping street in Syria’s Raqqa.

The Haifa District Court on Thursday sentenced an Israeli Arab man to five years and ten months behind bars for joining the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq last year.

Israeli tanks struck a Syrian army mortar position near the city of Quneitra on Thursday, hours after a shell from Syria landed in the northern Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Drone footage from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa shows the extent of devastation caused by weeks of fighting between Kurdish-led forces and the Islamic State group and thousands of bombs dropped by the U.S.-led coalition.

BEIRUT — Over several nights in September, some 10,000 men, women and children fled areas under Islamic State control, hurrying through fields in northern Syria and risking fire from government troops to reach a province held by an al-Qaeda-linked group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday, saying his country will not allow Iran to “establish itself militarily in Syria”.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — US-backed Syrian forces liberated the city of Raqqa from Islamic State militants on Tuesday, a senior commander for the force said, adding that clearing operations were underway to remove land mines left behind and search for the extremist group’s sleeper cells.

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.

AIN ISSA (SYRIA) – Some foreign Islamic State group fighters have left the one-time jihadist bastion of Raqa in Syria under a deal as the city’s capture nears, a local official said Sunday.

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.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, on the first official trip to Russia by a ruler of the oil-rich Sunni powerhouse, was set to meet President Vladimir Putin to discuss energy contracts despite discord over the Syrian conflict.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog says it has found traces of sarin following an attack in northern Syria in late March, days before a deadly strike using the same nerve agent in another Syrian town.