Category: Syria

Russian airstrike kills 3 Turkish soldiers in Syria

A Russian warplane “accidentally” hit a building on Thursday in northern Syria with Turkish soldiers inside, killing at least three troops and wounding 11, Turkey’s military said. President Vladimir Putin promptly called his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to express regrets over the friendly fire incident.

Amnesty says at least 13,000 people hanged at Syrian prison

Syrian authorities have killed at least 13,000 people since the start of the 2011 uprising in mass hangings at a prison north of Damascus known to detainees as “the slaughterhouse,” Amnesty International said in a report Tuesday. It covers the period from 2011 to 2015, when Amnesty said 20-50 people were hanged each week at Saydnaya Prison in killings authorized by senior Syrian officials, including deputies of President Bashar Assad, and carried out by military police.

I.S. militants besieged in Syria’s Al-Bab

Syria’s army and its allies have severed a main road linking Al-Bab, held by Islamic State, with the militants’ strongholds further east. It comes after weeks of advances, and as power-brokers Russia, Iran and Turkey discuss how to shore up a brittle ceasefire.

UN refugee chief opposes ‘safe zones’ in Syria

The U.N.’s top official on refugees pushed back against a proposed initiative that has gained recent traction to create “safe zones” in Syria for refugees, saying the country was “not the right place” for the initiative. “Let’s not waste time planning safe zones that will not be set up because they will not be safe for people to go back,” said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees.

Trump’s immigration curbs no surprise, those affected say

Many citizens of Muslim-majority countries affected by President Donald Trump’s curbs on travel to the United States say they were hardly surprised the restrictions rank among his first orders of business. The new commander-in-chief had, after all, once called for a “complete and total shutdown” of Muslim arrivals, and in his inaugural speech vowed to eradicate “radical Islamic terrorism” from the face of the earth.

As Syrian Peace Talks Begin in Kazakhstan, Russia Takes Center Stage

The Syrian peace talks arranged by Russia, Turkey and Iran that opened today in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, show that President Bashar al-Assad is winning the six-year-old war, but his final victory may be a long way off. Several participants in the conference have good reasons to fight on and Isis has recently made important advances.

Talks on Syria’s civil war off to a rocky start

Talks between the Syrian government and representatives of rebel factions got off to a rocky start Monday after their first face-to-face meeting in Kazakhstan that marked a major shift in the war’s dynamics and confirmed Russia’s role as regional heavyweight. The gathering in Astana, the Kazakh capital, is the latest in a long line of diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending the nearly 6-year-old civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced half of Syria’s population.

Talks on Syria’s civil war off to a rocky start

Talks between the Syrian government and representatives of rebel factions got off to a rocky start Monday after their first face-to-face meeting in Kazakhstan that marked a major shift in the war’s dynamics and confirmed Russia’s role as regional heavyweight. The gathering in Astana, the Kazakh capital, is the latest in a long line of diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending the nearly 6-year-old civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced half of Syria’s population.

Rivals at Astana talks agree on call for a ceasefire in Syria but differ on their political agendas

Syrian government and rebel delegates at the opening session of talks in the Kazakh capital Astana both called for a shaky ceasefire to be bolstered , but differed starkly on what purpose the truce would serve. The talks, sponsored by government allies Russia and Iran and opposition backer Turkey, should consolidate the ceasefire for a limited period, the head of the government delegation said in an opening statement reported by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Syria talks may signal shift in conflict dynamics

During the presidential inauguration Friday, which should be a day of celebration, three things happened – two that should have and one that shouldn’t have. On Jan. 7, the FBI released another 300 emails and the Hillary Clinton unauthorized server “saga” continued.

Syria: IS destroys part of Roman theater in Palmyra

By SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press BEIRUT – Islamic State group militants destroyed the landmark ancient Tetrapylon and parts of the 2nd century Roman theater in Syria’s historic town of Palmyra, the government and opposition monitoring groups said Friday. Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of Syria’s antiquities department, said the militants destroyed the facade of the second-century theater along with the Tetrapylon, a cubic-shaped ancient Roman monument that sits in the middle of the colonnade road that leads to the theater.

Syrians pay tribute to childhood artist and Russian ‘soldier’ on Ukrainian TV sparks online storm

The death of a Syrian cartoonist famous for his school text book drawings has brought Syrians together, albeit online, for a rare moment of unity amid the ongoing war within the country. Syrians might now be pointing their rifles at one another, but many of them share childhood memories of a different Syria in which characters illustrated by Mumtaz Bahra had a special place.

UN agency chiefs urge access for aid to civilians in Syria-Image1

This file frame grab from video provided on Sunday, Dec. 25, 2016 by Step News Agency, a Syrian opposition media outlet that is consistent with independent AP reporting, shows smoke rise from the government forces shelling on Wadi Barada, northwest of Damascus, Syria. Opposition activists and Syria’s state TV said on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017 that maintenance workers have arrived in the rebel-held valley near Damascus to fix the water facility there, ending a violent standoff that has dried out the capital for weeks.

IS launches new assault on besieged eastern city in Syria

Islamic State militants launched their biggest assault in a year on government-held areas of the contested city of Deir el-Zour Saturday, attacking from several fronts and triggering intense fighting in the eastern region bordering Iraq, the Syrian government and opposition activists said. Syrian state TV said three people were killed and nine were wounded in IS rocket attacks on several neighbourhoods of the city.

Maintenance stems clashes over Syrian capital water source

Maintenance workers arrived in Syria’s rebel-held valley near Damascus Friday to fix the water facility there, signalling an end to the violent standoff that has dried out the capital for weeks and threatened a fragile cease-fire, activists and the government said. For days, negotiations stalled, failing to restore the water flow to the capital restricted since Dec. 22 and to end a government offensive there to uproot rebels in control of the area for years.

Syria says Israeli missiles struck near military airport

Syria accused Israel of firing missiles early on Friday that struck near a major military airport west of Damascus, sparking a fire, and warned Israel of repercussions without specifying whether it would retaliate for the attack. In a statement carried on the official news agency SANA, the Syrian military said several missiles were launched just after midnight from an area near Lake Tiberias.

Syrian troops capture rebel-held village near Damascus

The Syrian army and an opposition activist group say government forces have captured a village near the capital Damascus that has witnessed intense clashes for weeks. The Syrian army’s Military Media says troops are now in full control of Basima after gunmen fled to two nearby villages in the Barada Valley region.

US imposes sanctions on Syrian military, tech company

The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on 18 Syrian government officials, Syria’s military and a tech company in response to the use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad’s government. The State Department slapped sanctions on the Organization for Technological Industries, which it accused of helping Syria’s ballistic missile program.

Starry nights and empty streets in Syria

The stars fill the night sky over the eerily quiet streets of rebel-held Idlib, Syria, but the calm might not last much longer – now that Syrian government forces have recaptured Aleppo in a crushing offensive, they are likely to turn their attentions to Idlib. (Reuters)

Russia says it is scaling back its Syria military presence

Russia said Friday it is withdrawing its aircraft carrier and other warships from the waters off Syria, following orders from President Vladimir Putin to scale back his forces as he casts himself as a peacemaker for the Middle Eastern country. of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, bolstering his forces with long-range missile attacks and precise airstrikes, military advisers and a beefed-up naval base on the Mediterranean coast.

Turkey says truce violations put Syria talks in jeopardy

Turkey warned on Wednesday that repeated cease-fire violations by Syrian government forces threaten to derail peace talks scheduled for later this month. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the talks in Kazakhstan, due Jan. 23, are to be preceded by preparatory meetings between Turkish and Russian experts in Turkey.