At least 31 people have been killed by a suicide bombing in a Turkish town near the Syrian border. The explosion took place just before noon on Monday at a cultural centre in Suruc which was hosting anti-Islamic State activists. The explosion smashed the windows of the building and set off a fire. Investigators consider the blast was caused by a female suicide bomber from the Islamic State ...

Hundreds of Syrian refugees who had fled into Turkey crossed back on Monday, witnesses said, as a border gate reopened a few days after ISIS militants were ousted from the frontier town of Tel Abyad forces by Syrian Kurds. Amid tight security on the Turkish side, hundreds of refugees – mostly women and children carrying bags of belongings – crossed ...

The Syrian government has rushed reinforcements to the northeastern city of Hassakeh to stave off an attack by ISIS militants, who used a truck bomb Sunday in a failed attempt to stem the government advance. Anti-regime activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said regime forces appeared to be gaining against the campaign by ISIS militants to ...

Hundreds of Syrian refugees who had fled into Turkey crossed back on Monday, witnesses said, as a border gate reopened a few days after ISIS militants were ousted from the frontier town of Tel Abyad forces by Syrian Kurds. Amid tight security on the Turkish side, hundreds of refugees – mostly women and children carrying bags of belongings – crossed ...

Syria’s army advanced this weekend west of the ancient city of Palmyra, reopening a key supply route for oil and gas to the capital, a newspaper and monitoring group said Monday. “The infantry has made tangible progress in the area of west Biyarat,” said the Al-Watan daily, which is close to the government. It said the army had “intensified” its ...

Despite a raging four-year civil war, rebel factions and Syrian officials are working together to protect the country’s rich heritage sites from each other’s bombs — and the Islamic State. Across the country, irreplaceable artifacts have been under siege since 2011, when fighting erupted between the Syrian government and rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad. “Archaeologists from the two ...

Syrians flee battle for Tal Abyad – Al Jazeera English Thousands of Syrians have been fleeing the city of Tal Abyad on the Turkish-Syrian border since it began to be targeted by US-led coalition jets amid ground clashes between fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Syrian Kurdish units of the YPG backed by ...

Syrian Kurdish fighters say they have taken control of the Islamic State-held town of Tal Abyad, cutting off a major supply route for the jihadist group. Reinforcements are being sent by the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) to help secure the main road south to Islamic State’s headquarters at Raqqa. The fighting has prompted thousands of civilians to flee to ...

Syrian opposition factions will gather in the Egyptian capital for talks aimed at forming a new coalition as an alternative to an exiled Western-back alliance. More than 200 figures from the armed and civilian opposition factions are to attend the June 8-9 gathering and discuss a roadmap aimed at ending the four-year war in Syria. The new grouping would offer ...

When three British schoolgirls trundled across the Syrian border; when a pregnant 14-year-old ran away from her Alpine home for the second time; when a sheltered girl from the south ofFrance booked her first trip abroad – they were going to a place of no return. Only two of the some 600 Western girls and young women who have joined ...