Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - Page 3

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart in Switzerland on Saturday to discuss Syria, officials said on Wednesday, as a devastating bombing campaign of the city of Aleppo intensified.

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.

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.

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.

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 and their allies attacked the opposition-held sector of Aleppo on several fronts on Tuesday, the biggest ground assault yet in a massive new campaign that has destroyed a U.S.-backed ceasefire.

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.

U.S.-led coalition air strikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers on Saturday, endangering a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire and prompting an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting as tensions between Moscow and Washington escalated.

Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels expelled the Islamic State group from the last strip of territory it controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border on Sunday, effectively sealing the extremists’ self-styled caliphate off from the outside world, Turkey’s prime minister and a Syrian opposition group reported.

Syrian government forces advanced on Sunday south of Aleppo city, a military source and state media said, as they pushed to once again encircle rebel neighbourhoods and reimpose a siege.

JAFFA, Israel – The Islamic State terrorist organization this past Saturday reportedly executed four men, including two of its own, on suspicion of homosexuality.

Contents: People of Aleppo burn tires to create a smoky ‘no-fly zone’; Syrian regime apparently suffers major setback in Aleppo

Syrian insurgent groups launched a fresh offensive Saturday seeking to break a government siege on rebel-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo, opposition activists and state media said. The militants claimed they had achieved their goal while state media denied that the blockade has been breached.

Rebels in Syria shot down a Russian combat helicopter Monday amid fierce fighting around Aleppo, killing all five people on board in the deadliest single incident for the Russian military since it became embroiled in Syria’s civil war 10 months ago.

Advancing Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by US-led air strikes now control 40 percent of the Islamic State stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, a monitor said Sunday.

Air strikes and barrel bomb attacks killed 16 civilians in rebel-held parts of Aleppo province on Monday, with rebel rocket fire onto government areas killing three more, a monitor said.

Nearly 40 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime fighters were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel under a government position in Aleppo city, a monitor said Friday.

At least 43 civilians, including 11 children, were killed in bombardment of several rebel-held areas across Syria on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

A video circulated on social media Tuesday depicts rebel fighters beheading a boy after capturing him north of Syria’s second city Aleppo, a monitor said.

A U.S- led coalition in Syria has killed more than 100 civilians since June and wounded dozens more in airstrikes in and around the ISIS-controlled city of Manbij, according to several human rights groups.

Opposition-controlled parts of Syria’s battered northern city of Aleppo are now completely besieged, a monitor said Sunday, after government forces cut the last rebel supply route.

Abu Omar al-Shishani, who the Pentagon described as Islamic State’s “minister of war”, was killed in combat in the Iraqi city of Shirqat, south of Mosul, a news agency that supports the militant group said on Wednesday.

Fierce clashes erupted between rebels and pro-government forces around Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, Saturday despite a proclamation from the Syrian military that it would extend its own cease-fire through Monday.

A Syrian rebel alliance agreed to a three-day nationwide ceasefire announced by the Syrian army on Wednesday and the United States voiced hope a more significant truce could be achieved, though fighting and air attacks continued.

Islamic State militants on Saturday pushed back U.S.-backed forces trying to advance into their stronghold of Manbij for the first time since a major offensive to capture the city and cut off the militants’ main strategic access route to Turkey, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said.

When the Islamic State declares a “media war,” it means the kind of war that comes with a body count. Upset by news coverage of its war effort in Syria, ISIS executed a number of captive journalists by packing their cameras and laptops with explosives, in addition to the usual throat-cuttings.

Air strikes carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed dozens of people in eastern Syria on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.

U.S.-backed Syrian forces edged closer to an Islamic State stronghold on the border with Turkey on Saturday while Russia’s defense minister visited President Bashar al Assad to discuss military operations.

JAFFA, Israel – The Syrian army reportedly reached the edge of the Raqqa region on Saturday, coming within the vicinity of the self-styled capital of the Islamic State’s “caliphate” for the first time since 2014.

BEIRUT (AFP) – At least 42 civilians including five children were killed in regime, Russian and US-led coalition air strikes in northern Syria on Wednesday, a monitor said.

A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias is widening an offensive against Islamic State near its de facto capital of Raqqa, targeting an area where the group controls a disused air base, a monitoring group and a Kurdish official said on Monday.

A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias launched a new offensive against Islamic State fighters near their de facto capital of Raqqa city on Tuesday, a monitoring group and an official said.

Bomb blasts killed scores of people in Jableh and Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast on Monday and wounded many others in the government-controlled territory that hosts Russian military bases, monitors and state media said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the

BEIRUT – At least 60,000 people have died in Syrian government prisons over the past five years due to either torture or dire humanitarian conditions such as lack of food, a monitor said Saturday.

Air strikes and shelling pounded Aleppo for a third straight day on Sunday, killing two young siblings and at least 24 others in Syria’s largest city and former commercial capital. The northern city has been bitterly contested between insurgents and

Government air strikes hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Saturday as rockets fired by insurgents pounded neighborhoods under state control, part of escalating violence in northern Syria that has undermined a truce agreement. Fatalities were reported on both sides of