The children returned to France on Tuesday were at the Roj camp in northeast Syria under Kurdish administration, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Iraqi and Turkish borders. They were placed with social services and the mothers will be brought before judicial authorities, the foreign ministry said, thanking "the...

ALEPPO, SYRIA - A building collapsed Sunday in Syria's war-damaged second city of Aleppo, killing 16 people including children, authorities and media reported. Much of Aleppo was destroyed during Syria's conflict that began nearly 12 years ago and left many of the remaining structures in a decrepit state. "The number of...

Despite a Russian intervention to cool down tensions between Damascus and Ankara, a new Turkish ground offensive in Syria is "possible any time", according to a top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Russia has been trying to end more than a decade of hostility between the neighbors.

More than 100 members of Islamic State group have been arrested by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in an eight-day operation dubbed Operation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt. The sweep was launched after scuttling an IS attempt to free fellow militants from prison in Raqa, the jihadist group's former Syrian stronghold.

Erdogan's hopes for talks with Assad follow calls from Turkey's main opposition party as it is pressing Erdogan to speed up the "voluntary" return of nearly four million Syrians who fled the fighting to Turkey.

Two Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Damascus International Airport, according to the country's state news agency SANA. The missile strike put the airport out of service, the news agency reported, quoting a military source who said that the Israel attacked with "barrages of missiles, targeting...

On Twitter, UNIFIL confirmed it was assisting the Lebanese Navy "in search and rescue operation at sea between Beirut & Tripoli where a boat in distress with a large number of people on board was found."

Hundreds of Syrians in the rebel-held north protested against signs of a thaw between Ankara and Damascus after their defense ministers met in Moscow for the first time since 2011. Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Al-Bab, a town controlled by rebel factions long backed by Ankara. "We will not reconcile,...

BEIRUT, LEBANON  -  An attack in eastern Syria killed 10 oil field workers, state news agency SANA reported on Friday, a day after Syrian Kurdish-led forces announced an offensive against the Islamic State. In addition to the nearly dozen dead, "two others have been wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted...

BEIRUT, LEBANON - Six Syrian fighters from a pro-Turkish group died in clashes with regime troops that still raged Monday in northwest Syria, rebel forces and a war monitor said. A pro-Turkey rebel statement said the six were killed and three more wounded in the offensive launched by government forces backed...

A gunman opened fire at a Kurdish cultural center and a hairdressing salon in Paris on Friday, killing three Kurds. The semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria called for the Sunday protest in Hasakeh, which drew hundreds of people brandishing photos of the three victims and calling for accountability.

Ankara has been feuding with the US and European powers about their support for Kurdish fighters in the People's Protection Units (YPG), which it portrays as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.

The "Baghdad II" meeting in Jordan, which alongside regional powers also includes officials from France and the European Union, follows an August 2021 summit in Iraq's capital organized at the initiative of Macron. "There is a way that is not... a form of hegemony, imperialism, a model that would be...

The MENA region remains largely uneven, and the democracy and human rights situation looks bleak with little prospect of improvement in 2023, say experts at International IDEA.

At least two people were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Hezbollah weapons depot in the Damascus area overnight, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor. Syrian state media reported "explosions in the vicinity of Damascus" and said that some of the missiles were intercepted by...

Damascus, Syria-- Syrian student Ziad al-Ezz can no longer get to university as severe fuel shortages cripple the capital Damascus, pushing residents to seek alternatives for heating and shuttering businesses. With the country's economy battered by more than a decade of war, authorities have announced four fuel price hikes since the...

Amman, Jordan--Jordan’s judiciary on Thursday sentenced two men to long prison terms for attempting to smuggle nearly two million captagon pills into the country from Syria, a judicial source told AFP. The state security court handed a 20-year prison term and a fine of 20,000 Jordanian dinars ($28,000) to one...

Erdogan told Putin in a phone call on Sunday that is was "important to clear the (Kurdish fighters) from the border to a depth of at least 30 kilometers," his office said.

Appealing to the international community to help the country as it faces 'one of its hardest moments', UNHCR chief said that Lebanon hosts 'one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world' and that it needs support. He spoke at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut.

While acknowledging Ankara's security concerns in northeast Syria, the US has warned Turkey not to create impediments in its operations against jihadists in Syria. Turkey says it is taking military action in response to a terrorist attack in Istanbul that it blames on Kurdish groups.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two individuals and two companies for providing financial services to Hezbollah.

Tunis, Tunisia—The speaker of Tunisia's dissolved parliament appeared on Monday before a judge investigating accusations his party helped Tunisian jihadists travel to fight in Iraq and Syria. Rached Ghannouchi, an arch-rival of President Kais Saied and also head of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, arrived in the morning at the anti-terror court...

Erdogan and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi shook hands last week in Qatar, signalling a fresh beginning in their ties.

Amman, Jordan— Jordan has seized a big haul of drugs being smuggled into the kingdom from Syria in two different attempts. According to Jordan News Agency the country's security forces have foiled two attempts to smuggle large quantities of drugs from Syria in two days. Border guards at the Jaber...

Qamishli, Syria -- Thousands of Kurds protested on Sunday in the Syrian city of Qamishli against Turkish cross-border strikes targeting Kurdish groups in the country's northeast, an AFP photojournalist said. One week ago Turkey began a barrage of air strikes against the semi-autonomous Kurdish zones in north and northeastern Syria,...

Beirut, Lebanon—Two rockets targeted a US patrol base in northeastern Syria late Friday, the third such attack in nine days, US Central Command said. Centcom did not indicate who fired the rockets but said, in a statement, that they aimed at "coalition forces at the US patrol base in Al-Shaddadi, Syria"....

Earlier Tuesday, three Syrian government soldiers were killed and others wounded in Turkish bombardments of an air base several kilometres south of Azaz, said the Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Russia has for months ... done everything possible to prevent any large-scale ground operation, Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy on Syria, said in the Kazakh capital, which is hosting a tripartite meeting between Russia, Turkey and Iran on Syria. The three countries are major players in the...

Overnight, Turkey hit dozens of targets in northern Syria as well as northern Iraq, a week after a bomb attack in Istanbul killed six people and left 81 wounded, which Ankara blamed on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Idlib, Syria— More than 300 children in rebel-held northwest Syria kicked off their own football World Cup on Saturday, with organizers hoping to shine a light on communities battered by 11 years of war. The excited children took part in the opening ceremony at the municipal stadium in Idlib, some wearing...

Lebanese security officials and politicians have made several visits to Syria in recent years, but almost exclusively in their personal capacity or on behalf of political parties that support President Bashar al-Assad, including the powerful Hezbollah movement, supported by the Iran.

According to the Observatory, the rocket fire came the day after five Syrian forces members died in shelling by a group affiliated with HTS.

Scuttling an "international trafficking attempt" to West Africa, Morocco has made a large seizure of more than two million amphetamine-type captagon pills on the kingdom's northern coast. The drugs were hidden inside a goods container onboard a maritime transport ship headed from Lebanon to West Africa.

AMMAN, JORDAN - Jordan's King Abdullah received Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Amman on Thursday and stressed the importance of stabilizing Syria, especially the southern part. King Abdullah noted the need to activate efforts to reach a political solution to the crisis in Syria, safeguarding its unity and territorial...

Continuing with its belligerence toward Syria, Israel attacked many positions near Damascus in the early hours of Thursday, in the third such attack in less than a week. According to the Syrian defense ministry, Israel attacked from the direction of the occupied Palestinian territories targeting several positions in the vicinity...

Tensions escalated again in the Middle East, when Syria shot down missiles over Damascus fired by Israel, the first such attack in more than a month. Syria's official news agency SANA said that Syrian air defenses had intercepted Israeli missiles over Damascus and the southern region.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was one of Assad's closest allies but left Syria in 2012 after condemning his government's brutal suppression of peaceful protests in March 2011, which triggered the country's descent into civil war. "The Hamas delegation arrived in Damascus on a two-day visit," during which Palestinian...

Beirut, Lebanon— Thirteen people, mostly fighters, have been killed in two days of ongoing clashes between rival factions competing for power in northwest Syria, a war monitor said Wednesday. Fighting between two pro-Turkish Syrian rebel groups began in the town of Al-Bab in northern Aleppo province before spreading to other areas...

The exchange rate reached more than 5,000 Syrian pounds to the US dollar for the first time since the start of the conflict more than a decade ago. Syria's official exchange rate has stood at around 3,015 pounds to the greenback since Sept-- compared to 47 pounds to the dollar...

Jordan Prime Minister Dr. Bisher Khasawneh has a joint meeting with the agriculture ministers of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The toll has repeatedly ratcheted higher since the first bodies were found on Thursday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, described the shipwreck as a "heart-wrenching tragedy".

The UAE delegation attended the fifth day of high-level meetings on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

At least 61 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, a Lebanese minister said, the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years.

Ennahdha categorically denies the claims that its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, and Tunisia's former prime minister Ali Laarayedh were involved in sending jihadist militants to Syria and Iraq. The accusations have resurfaced after President Kais Saied tightened his grip on the judiciary, following the suspension of the Ennahdha-dominated parliament last year.

Turkey struck back in northern Syria after its forces were shelled from near Kobane in the latest deadly escalation that killed three people wearing Syrian army uniform and wounded several other fighters. The raids by Turkish army hit outposts operated by the Syrian army and Kurdish-led forces.

Five Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli airstrike near Damascus airport, according to Syrian state media. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the strikes also killed two Iran-backed fighters. Israeli airstrikes in June put Damascus airport out of service for nearly two weeks.

Continuing with what it called "unwavering support for the Syrian people, US State Department said that will send $756 million in new humanitarian aid to Syria, where need remains "dire" after more than a decade of war. The funds were in addition to a trance of $808 million announced earlier...

More than thirty people attempted the crossing on the vessel, with many of the survivors in an "extremely serious" state of health according to UNHCR.

It is the second reported Israeli strike on the airport in northern Syria in less than a week. "At around 8:16 pm (1716 GMT), the Israeli enemy fired missiles from the Mediterranean Sea... targeting Aleppo International Airport, damaging the runway and rendering it out of service," it said.

Syria has impounded 24 kilograms of captagon crushed and made to look like hummus bowls in one of the bizarre cases of the thwarted trafficking attempt. The drug had been crushed and the resulting paste was used to make “pottery-like dishes coated with a brown adhesive”, the interior ministry said.