Category Archives: Syria

Syria calls Israeli air strikes on Damascus a ‘dangerous escalation’

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Benjamin Netanyahu says strikes intended to deter Syria’s new leadership from any hostile move against the Druze

Syria’s new rulers have angrily denounced raids launched by Israel’s air force against unidentified targets near the presidential palace in Damascus, warning of a “dangerous escalation”.

Israeli officials said the attacks were intended to send a message to the Syrian government after days of bloody clashes near Damascus between pro-government militia forces and fighters from the Druze minority sect.

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Deadly Syria clashes continue for second day outside Damascus

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At least 16 civilians and security officials killed in Druze-majority areas around capital on Wednesday

At least 16 civilians and security officials have been killed in clashes in a town near Damascus, Syria’s interior ministry reported, the second consecutive day of fighting in Druze-majority areas around Syria’s capital.

Reports on Wednesday said fighting had started overnight in the town of Ashrafiah Sahnaya, south-west of Damascus, after unknown gunmen attacked a security checkpoint. An attack on the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana a day earlier left at least 10 people dead, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Syrian refugee says Home Office ‘breaking my heart’ by refusing dying mother entry to UK

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Home Office intervened after initial ruling allowing grandmother with terminal cancer to join family in Glasgow

A Syrian refugee says the Home Office has “broken her heart” by trying to bar her mother, who has weeks to live, from coming to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met.

Ola Al Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015. They had lost their baby after a bombing and were unable to take Al Hamwi’s mother, Soaad Al Shawa, with them.

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Erdoğan lambasts Israel for undermining stability in Syria

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Turkey’s president lashes out shortly after talks with Netanyahu’s government aimed at defusing tensions

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lambasted Israel for undermining stability in neighbouring Syria during a diplomatic forum, days after the two countries held talks aimed at defusing an escalating conflict between them on Syrian soil.

“Turkey will not allow Syria to be dragged into a new vortex of instability,” Erdoğan told attendees at the Antalya diplomacy forum on the southern Turkish coast, accusing Israel of “trying to undermine the 8 December revolution”, in reference to the insurgency that toppled the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after decades in power.

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Israeli military organises tourist tours of newly occupied Syrian territory

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Twice-daily hiking trips for civilians in Golan buffer zone recently seized by Israel sold out almost immediately

Israel’s military is organising hiking tours for civilians in newly occupied Syrian territory during the Passover holiday, local media has reported.

The twice-daily tours in the contested Golan Heights will run for a week beginning this Sunday. Tickets sold out almost immediately.

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Israel restarts ground operations in northern Gaza Strip in renewed campaign

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At least 25 killed in attack on Khan Younis in south as Israel says it is aiming to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages

Israel has restarted ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip and killed at least 25 people in airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in what it says is a renewed military campaign aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages.

At least 25 people were killed in the attack on Khan Younis early on Friday, the local Nasser hospital told AFP, as the search for survivors continued.

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Columbia graduate detained by Ice was respected British government employee

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Mahmoud Khalil described by former colleague at UK office for Syria as well liked and extensively vetted

A detained Columbia University graduate threatened with deportation after the Trump administration claimed he poses a risk to US foreign policy is a former employee of the British government who was extensively vetted before working at the embassy in Beirut.

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate from a Columbia University master’s programme, was arrested at home on 9 March as he returned with his wife from a dinner to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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Israel to occupy Syrian southern territory for ‘unlimited time’, says minister

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Israel Katz reaffirms IDF will continue holding Mount Hermon area beyond contested northern Israeli borders

Israel’s defence minister has reaffirmed the country’s intention to occupy a swath of Syrian territory beyond Israel’s contested northern borders for an “unlimited amount of time” during a visit to the strategic Mount Hermon.

“The IDF is prepared to stay in Syria for an unlimited amount of time. We will hold the security area in Hermon and make sure that all the security zone in southern Syria is demilitarised and clear of weapons and threats,” Israel Katz said on a visit to the peak on Wednesday.

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Syrian government reaches deal with Kurdish-led SDF to integrate north-east region

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Agreement recognises Kurdish rights as president Ahmed al-Sharaa seeks to achieve nationwide ceasefire

Syria’s government has reached a deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls the north-east of the country to integrate the group into the national army and achieve a nationwide ceasefire.

The agreement will place the north-east under Syrian government control for the first time since the Kurdish-led authority gained autonomy of the region in 2012 during the civil war..

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Syrian defence ministry says military operation over and forces ‘paving way for life to return to normal’ – as it happened

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Syria’s defence ministry spokesperson warns of further retribution against forces loyal to Assad. This live blog is closed

Syria’s defence ministry has announced it has completed military operations to fight remnants of former ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

China on Monday called for all warring parties in Syria to “immediately stop” violence. AFP reports foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said “China follows closely the situation in Syria and is concerned about the large number of casualties caused by these armed clashes.”

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Entire families reportedly killed in fighting in north-west Syria, UN says

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Human rights commissioner calls for investigation into ‘extremely disturbing’ attacks in Latakia province

The UN has condemned what it called “extremely disturbing” reports of entire families being killed in north-west Syria as clashes between security forces and Assad regime loyalists resulted in the country’s highest death toll since the start of its revolution in 2011.

The UN commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called on Sunday for investigations into the killings and for perpetrators to be held accountable. “We are receiving extremely disturbing reports of entire families, including women, children and hors de combat [surrendered] fighters, being killed,” he said in a statement. “The killing of civilians in coastal areas in north-west Syria must cease, immediately.”

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More than 1,000 people killed in two days of clashes in Syria, war monitor says

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About 745 civilians among those killed in fighting in Latakia province between security forces and fighters loyal to former president Assad

More than 1,000 people, including 745 civilians, were killed in the two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and fighters loyal to the former Assad regime and ensuing revenge killings, a war monitor has said, one of the highest death tolls in Syria since 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said 745 civilians were killed mostly execution-style, while 125 Syrian security forces and 148 Assad loyalists were killed. Death tolls from the two days of fighting have varied wildly, with some estimates putting the final death toll even higher.

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Syrian security forces execute 125 civilians in battle against Assad loyalists

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Fighting in Latakia is marked escalation by Bashar al-Assad loyalists against Syria’s new Islamist-led government

About 125 civilians have been executed by government security forces in north-west Syria during a rolling two-day battle with loyalists to the ousted Assad regime, a Syrian war monitor reported on Friday.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a human rights monitor considered independent and credible, documented “large-scale field executions of men and young adults, without any clear distinction between civilians and combatants”, in north-west Syria.

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Thirteen Syrian security officers killed in clashes with Assad loyalists

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Armed men loyal to ousted dictator attack checkpoints in Latakia province in deadliest strikes so far against new government

Thirteen Syrian security officers have been killed in clashes with remnants of the Assad regime in the deadliest attack against the country’s new authorities since the dictator was toppled.

Armed men attacked checkpoints and security officers in the coastal town of Jableh and the countryside of Latakia province, as part of a “premeditated” attack on Thursday, according to the provincial head of Syria’s general security directorate, Mustafa Knefati.

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Syria vows to destroy chemical weapons stockpile left by Assad regime

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Foreign minister says country needs international help to dismantle programme and ensure Syria becomes ‘aligned with international norms’

Syria’s foreign minister has vowed to swiftly rid the country of the chemical weapons remaining after the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, and he appealed to the international community for help.

Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani spoke during closed-door meetings at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, where he became the first Syrian foreign minister to address the disarmament agency.

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Jailed Kurdish leader calls for PKK to disarm – in shift that could shake up Turkey and Middle East

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Abdullah Öcalan’s message, which follows four decades of guerrilla warfare, will have far-reaching implications

The ageing leader of a Kurdish militant group imprisoned on a remote Turkish island has called on the group to disarm and dissolve itself, opening the door to a fragile peace with Turkey after four decades of guerrilla warfare, attacks and reprisals.

Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a group long regarded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey as well as in Britain and the US, issued the message in a letter read out by allies in Istanbul.

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Israel strikes targets in southern Syria after demanding demilitarisation

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Military sites hit as Tel Aviv says it ‘will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon’

Israeli warplanes have carried out several airstrikes on military targets outside Damascus and in southern Syria, as Israeli officials warned the country’s army not to move south of the capital city.

Israeli jets struck military sites late on Tuesday in the town of Kiswah, south of Damascus, as well as in the southern province of Deraa, local Syrian media reported.

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Australia should repatriate and investigate alleged crimes of Islamic state member found in Syria, experts say

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Exclusive: Home Affairs tells the Guardian consular assistance is ‘severely limited’ in Syria, where Mustafa Hajj-Obeid remains in custody

The Australian government should repatriate, monitor and investigate any crimes committed by a member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle, according to multiple security and international law experts.

Last week, the Guardian revealed an Australian man whose fate was not publicly known was alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

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Syrian authorities arrest three men with suspected links to Tadamon massacre

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Men are accused of involvement in the execution of nearly 300 civilians by government forces in Damascus in 2013, which the perpetrators filmed

Authorities in Damascus have arrested three men they claim were involved in a notorious massacre of civilians by Syrian security forces revealed by the Guardian three years ago.

Footage posted online purported to show one of the men, Monzer al-Jazairi, with his hands bound and being led through the heavily damaged streets of Tadamon, the Damascus suburb where nearly 300 people were killed in an atrocity filmed by the perpetrators themselves and then leaked by a whistleblower to activists in Europe.

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France tries five suspected IS militants over kidnap of four journalists in Syria

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One suspect, Mehdi Nemmouche, is serving a life sentence for a 2014 attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels

Five suspected Islamist terrorists accused of kidnapping and torturing four French journalists covering the war in Syria have gone on trial in Paris.

The men include the French jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, who is serving life imprisonment for an attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014 in which four people died.

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