Syria

Of all at stake at the Trump-Putin summit, Syria is most in peril

THOSE WHO worry that President Trump will make unwarranted concessions to Vladi­mir Putin at their summit meeting Monday have plenty to fret about, including Mr. Trump’s hints that he might recognize Russia’s forcible annexation of Crimea or scale back NATO deployments in the Baltic states. But the most probable area of appeasement is Syria — which Russia aspires to dominate, at the expense of U.S. strategic interests ...

Read More »

IS jihadists retake parts of Syria town in major attack

The Islamic State group seized parts of a key town on the Syrian-Iraqi border today in a massive operation that further confirmed the jihadists remain a force on the ground. IS used at least 10 suicide bombers in its offensive on Albu Kamal, which lies in he Euphrates Valley in eastern Syria and swiftly took several neighbourhoods, the Syrian Observatory ...

Read More »

Airstrike on rebel-held village in northwest Syria kills at least 44

Airstrikes on a village in rebel-held Syria have killed at least 44 civilians and injured a further 80, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has said, in the biggest attack in the area so far this year. The UK-based war monitor as well as the Syrian Civil Defence service said the attack on Zardana in Idlib province overnight on Thursday involved a ‘double ...

Read More »

“Siege, starve, and surrender”: inside the next phase of the Syrian civil war

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s attacks on Eastern Ghouta show how he plans to consolidate power across the country. Airstrikes. Artillery fire. Cluster and barrel bombs. This is what the nearly 400,000 people in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus, have faced over the past two weeks. Syrian forces have dramatically escalated their attacks on the area, ...

Read More »

Syria: fresh fighting in eastern Ghouta despite UN-ordered ceasefire

Syrian regime forces have launched a fresh ground and air offensive against rebel positions in the besieged and battered enclave of eastern Ghouta in defiance of a nationwide ceasefire ordered by the UN security council. Witnesses said fighting erupted on several fronts on Sunday in what was seen as a possible last-ditch bid by Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, to eliminate ...

Read More »

Erdoğan accuses US of planning to form ‘terror army’ in Syria

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has accused the US of forming a “terror army”, after Washington announced plans for a 30,000-strong force inside Syria to protect territory held by its mainly Kurdish allies. On Sunday, the US-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, the mainly Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up the new border force. The ...

Read More »

Russia airlifts bridging equipment to Syria

Russia has airlifted PMM-2M self-propelled ferry to Syria in an effort to assist government troops to capture the eastern bank of the Euphrates valley from Islamic State militants. Two of the tracked PMM-2M vehicles were filmed being unloaded from a Russian Aerospace Forces Antonov An-124-100 transport aircraft at Humaymim Air Base in Syria in a video released by the pro-government ...

Read More »

Two other S’poreans in Syria with their families

Apart from Megat Shahdan Abdul Samad, two other Singaporeans are believed to still be in Syria with their familes, the Ministry of Home Affairs said yesterday. The other two were identified as Haja Fakkurudeen Usman Ali and Maimunah Abdul Kadir. Haja was named by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean in July 2014, when he provided updates to Parliament on ...

Read More »

Syria Producing More Energy After Army Recaptures Gas Fields – Ministry

Syria’s government has produced much more power in recent months as the army recaptured natural gas fields from militants, the electricity ministry said on Tuesday. Bassam Darwish, head of the electricity ministry’s planning unit, told Reuters that the amount of gas the petroleum ministry provided to fuel power plants has nearly doubled since last winter. “There had been a very ...

Read More »

Angela Merkel, North Korea, Iraq: Your Tuesday Briefing

 Germany’s election results reverberated across the country’s political spectrum. Alternative for Germany, the far-right party that is now the third-largest group in Parliament, is already mired in a leadership tussle. Frauke Petry, above, the party’s leader, announced that she would not join its caucus in Parliament, prompting calls for her to quit the party. Chancellor Angela Merkel began talks with the Greens ...

Read More »