WRITTEN BY KALAHAN DENG Syrian government forces (with a little help from Russia) battled for and recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from the grip of ISIS this weekend. The retaking of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site that brims with ancient artefacts dating back to the Roman Empire, is a big strategic and moral victory for Bashar al-Assad’s ...

Edited by Nelly T. On Tuesday President Vladimir Putin, in phone calls with UNESCO’s Director General Irina Bokova and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, acquired sanction to remove landmines from the ancient sites of the Syrian city of Palmyra. With monuments pre-dating the Muslim prophet Mohammed, the central Syrian city of Palmyra stands proud atop an oasis. The UNESCO World Heritage ...

Edited by Nelly Tawil A security source and the state news agency confirms that Lebanon’s northern Bekaa Valley region was disrupted on Monday as conflict between Islamic State and the al Qaeda related Nusra Front spilled into Lebanon’s territory. Casualties ranged on both sides. Both the security source and an Islamic State online statement verified that over sixteen Nusra Front ...

Edited by Nelly Tawil Allies of President Bashar al-Assad, presidents Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin have agreed on working more closely together over the Syrian conflict.   Instigated by US-Russian support, UN-arbitrated peace talks are underway between the Syrian government and Western-backed opposition as part of a diplomatic push intended to end the five-year conflict with casualties ranging up to ...

WRITTEN BY KALAHAN DENG The ends of the terrorist groups ISIL is at their doors in Syria and Iraq as the Syrian Army Forces recaptured and killed nearly 400 of the terrorist fighters in the historic city of Palmyra. Many of ISIL fighters are either killed or captured by the Syrian forces who are now in full control and as ...

The United Nations’ top humanitarian officials on Friday welcomed “fragile glimmers of hope” in Syria after a ceasefire allowed more aid deliveries, but warned this progress was “just not enough.” In a joint statement issued ahead of the fifth anniversary of the war, the heads of aid agencies said they were “extremely concerned” about the situation in northern rural Homs ...

A total of 135 people were killed in the first week of a fragile truce in Syria in areas covered by the cessation of hostilities agreement, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said. In areas held by the Islamic State and Al Nusra Front groups not covered by the ceasefire, 552 people were killed, the Britain-based Observatory said. The ...

Guns have fallen silent across Syria after a cessation of hostilities backed by the United Nations came into effect. On the stroke of midnight (2200 GMT), firing stopped in suburbs around the capital Damascus and the devastated northern city of Aleppo. Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said it was quiet in the north of Latakia province ...

A landmark United Nations-backed ceasefire has come into effect in Syria – the first major truce in a five-year civil war that has claimed more than 270,000 lives. Fighting raged right up until the ceasefire took force at midnight (8:00am AEST), but guns then fell silent in the Damascus suburbs and the devastated northern city of Aleppo, AFP correspondents said. ...

International Committee of the Red Cross chief Peter Maurer said in Damascus on Friday he had asked the Syrian authorities to allow ICRC visits to more detention centers. “For the duration of the conflict, we have been talking with the Syrian authorities to have access to detention centers, and in the past we have visited the nine main prisons,” Maurer ...