Syrian rebels and regime forces in Aleppo fought fierce battles near the headquarters of Air Force intelligence Monday evening on the third day of the regime’s stepped-up “barrel bomb” offensive against the northern city, prompting officials to close schools for a week in rebel-held areas. The Shamiah Front rebel alliance claimed responsibility for the second detonation of the Air Force ...

The fate of 18,000 civilians trapped in the besieged Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria – now mostly controlled by the Islamic State – remains in the balance, with the United Nations describing the situation as “catastrophic”. Those left are slowly starving to death as the fighting rages around them, with aid agencies unable to negotiate a safe passage into the ...

Islamist insurgents have released 300 Kurdish men in the country’s north who were taken captive on Sunday, a Kurdish official said on Monday. Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish PYD party in Europe, said by phone that the “men were released by the Islamist militant groups who were holding them”. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which ...

Syrian rebels fired mortar bombs into government-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo during rush hour Monday, killing 13 people and wounding dozens, state-run TV and a monitoring group said. The violence was the latest in the flare-up in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once its commercial hub. Last month, Syrian troops and pro-government militias launched an offensive in an attempt ...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has rejected calls by the US secretary of state that he should take part in talks, insisting that “declarations from outside do not concern us”. But then John Kerry himself faced criticism for “alienating” US allies. Assad’s rebuff came after Kerry declared on Sunday that the US would “have to negotiate in the end” with the Damascus ...

As many as 78 nations and 40 international organisations will attend the third donors conference aimed at raising billions of dollars for war-torn Syria, host country Kuwait said Monday. The March 31 gathering at foreign ministers level will be opened by Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a foreign ministry official told the KUNA news ...

Syria’s President Bashar Assad said Monday he was waiting for action from Washington after Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged talks with Damascus were necessary to end the country’s conflict. Kerry’s spokeswoman clarified his remarks, stating that U.S. policy was unchanged and Assad had no role in the country’s future, while several countries that back the opposition vowed they would ...

In a stunning reversal of policy, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Washington will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar Assad for a political transition in Syria and is exploring ways to pressure him into agreeing to talks. Kerry, who made the comments during an interview with CBS News in Egypt, did not repeat the standard ...

Syrian opposition figures met in Moscow Monday as part of a Russia-coordinated bid to wind down the war in Syria, although there was little hope of a breakthrough. The main opposition group, the Turkey-based National Coalition, has boycotted the talks while Syrian President Bashar Assad cast doubt on the Moscow initiative bearing any fruit. Nevertheless, members of his government were ...

At least two rockets fired from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday prompting Israeli forces to return fire, the army said. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Israeli side. Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said in a text message the Syrian fire was “intentional, not spillover from the Syrian civil war” as has sometimes been ...