Israel has targeted Syria several times in the past weeks as regional tensions simmer over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out in Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to extend its footprint there.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that his country's forces carried out precision strikes on facilities in Syria used by Iran's IRGC and Iran-affiliated groups in response to continued attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria. It is the third time in three weeks that the US targeted locations...

President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran sees it as "its duty to support the resistance groups" but insisted that they act independently.

Washington, United States - Over the last three weeks, Iran-backed militia groups have attacked US bases and facilities in Iraq and Syria 41 times. The US has defended itself against those attacks and will continue to do so, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East said. Following...

Over 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is referred to by Palestinians as the "Nakba" (catastrophe in Arabic). Around 180,000 fled to Gaza, with the rest scattered across the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries, specifically Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Dubai, UAE - Middle East powers should maintain their push to de-escalate the region through trade and economic ties despite the Israel-Hamas war, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Saturday. The sudden flare-up in Gaza, after a deadly attack by Hamas, follows a period of fence-mending in the region including...

Baghdad, Iraq - An international summit in Baghdad on "regional stability" planned for late November has been postponed due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, an Iraqi official told AFP on Thursday. The third edition of the Baghdad conference "for economic integration and regional stability", co-organised by France, "is postponed until further...

United Nations - The United Nations on Monday warned that Syria was at its "most dangerous" point in a long time as violence surges and as "spillover" from the Israel-Hamas war starts to have an impact. Syria has "seen growing instability and violence, exacerbated by the lack of a meaningful...

"Dozens" of tanks entered the Zaytun district for over an hour, witnesses told AFP, saying they were "firing at any vehicle" driving along the main Salahedin Road. Warplanes also bombed the road, leaving large craters in it. More than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardments since Oct 7.

A string of attacks have been carried out against US forces in Iraq and Syria as well as increasing exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon border since the Gaza conflict began. Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it was striking "Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon".

Israeli strikes have now killed more than 6,500 people in Gaza, a rise of over 700 since Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. One doctor said he was forced to perform emergency surgery on the wounded without anesthetic. Israel has cut off impoverished Gaza's usual water, food and other supplies,...

Many states including Jordan on behalf of an Arab group of nations, Russia, Syria, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Combodia formally requested General Assembly president to schedule the meeting. The UN Security Council, regularly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, rejected a Russian draft resolution last week calling for a "humanitarian pause."

While Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the government-controlled airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, it is the second time simultaneous strikes have hit the facilities since this month's conflict between Israel and Hamas began. "At around 5:25 am (0225 GMT),...

The three countries are additional stops on his visit that included meetings with King of Jordan and Mahmud Abbas. Blinken said he raised with Israel the humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip, while pledging unwavering support to Israel.

Hamas's weekend onslaught saw hundreds of fighters cross into the Israeli border in vehicles, by air and by sea, killing 1,200 people and seizing 150 hostages under the cover of a deluge of rockets. About another 1,200 people have been killed in thousands of Israeli strikes on Gaza, while a...

"Soldiers are responding with artillery and mortar shells toward the origin of the launching in Syria," an Israeli military statement said, on the fourth day of a war with Gaza-based Hamas militants that has sent regional tensions soaring. The military said there had been "a number of launches from Syria...

Beirut, Lebanon - Shelling by government forces targeting several locations in rebel-held northwest Syria killed seven civilians including four children on Saturday, a war monitor said. The Damascus regime has been bombing opposition-held areas in apparent retaliation for an attack on a military academy graduation ceremony in Homs on Thursday...

US troops observed drones carrying out strikes early Thursday, some of them inside a "restricted operating zone" (ROZ) near Hasakeh, about a kilometer (less than a mile) from American troops, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told journalists. A few hours later, a Turkish drone returned to the ROZ and...

"I am gravely concerned by the escalating violence in Syria today," Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, said in a statement issued in Geneva. The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it began in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests,...

Turkey has also launched strikes on positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq since Sunday, when two policemen were wounded in an attack in Ankara claimed by the PKK. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan alleged the perpetrators of the attack had been trained in Syria and warned...

A branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies -- claimed responsibility for the first bombing to hit Ankara since 2016.

Al-Haddadiya, Syria - At his farm in Syria's northeast, Abdullah al-Mohammed adjusts a large solar panel, one of hundreds that have cropped up over the years as farmers seek to stave off electricity shortages in the war-ravaged region. Solar energy has offered a lifeline for the farmers amid drought and power...

Sick prisoners sent from detention facilities to the capital's Tishreen Military Hospital for treatment rarely received any medical attention, according to a report released Tuesday by the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), a Turkey-based watchdog. Instead, security forces at the hospital jail and even medical...

Peaceful protests have swept Sweida province, the heartland of the country's Druze minority, since President Bashar al-Assad's government ended fuel subsidies last month. The move dealt a heavy blow to Syrians reeling from more than a decade of war and economic woes.

Since 2020, a ceasefire deal brokered by Damascus ally Moscow and rebel-backer Ankara has largely held in the northwest, despite periodic clashes. Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, more than half a million people have been killed.

The navy, with support from the civil defense, "was able to rescue 27 illegal migrants aboard a rubber boat that was sinking off the Chekka coast"

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the 19th Asian Games in a colourful ceremony in Hangzhou, launching a two-week sporting extravaganza that boasts more athletes than the Olympics. After being delayed by a year because of China's now-abandoned zero-Covid policy, over 12,000 competitors from 45 nations and territories will battle it...

Assad is on his first official trip to China in almost two decades as he seeks financial support to rebuild his devastated country, as well as rehabilitation for his regime from years of isolation over Syria's civil war. He will attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in...

Modified Iranian drones used by Moscow in its war in Ukraine could feed back to Iran, which in turn may employ them in its campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich told a briefing in Abu Dhabi. Washington accuses Iran of supplying Moscow with drones...

China becomes one of only a handful of countries outside the Middle East that Assad has visited since the 2011 start of a civil war that has since killed more than half a million people, displaced millions more, and battered Syria's infrastructure and industry. Assad also becomes the latest in...

Damascus, Syria - Syrian President Bashar Assad is set to make his first visit to China this week, highlighting China's continued support throughout Syria's 12-year conflict.  China has been expanding its presence in the Middle East, mediating between Saudi Arabia and Iran earlier this year and aiding Assad's regime, which...

Turkish military action has principally targeted the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and its Syrian Kurdish ally, the People's Defence Units (YPG). A Turkish drone strike on Sunday killed a senior PKK official and three fighters in the Sinjar Mountains of northwestern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdish authorities said.

During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions. Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on targets in Syria, but it has repeatedly said it would not allow Iran...

Beijing, China - Angry China fans turned on their team and applauded the visiting Syrians off the pitch after what Chinese state media called "another embarrassing defeat". China's Serbian coach Aleksandar Jankovic blamed bad luck for the 1-0 friendly loss in Chengdu on Tuesday, which came days after they were held...

An AFP correspondent in Sidon reported the sound of intermittent automatic weapon fire and rocket launchers emanating from within the camp on Friday morning.

Millions of Syrians have fled abroad since their country's civil war broke out in 2011 following the government's repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests.

"Village Umm Amuda Kabira in Aleppo once had 3,000 to 3,500 residents and some 200 mud houses," said Mahmud al-Mheilej, standing beside deserted homes with weeds growing out of the roofs. "Everyone left" after the region saw heavy fighting and was overrun by Islamic State group jihadists.

The clashes broke out after pro-Ankara rebels tried to infiltrate Kurdish-held northeast Syria, killing 23 people, a war monitor said. The spike in violence comes amid days of separate clashes in Kurdish-held parts of neighboring Deir Ezzor province after US-backed, Kurdish-led fighters detained the head of a local military body...

Tehran, Iran -- Iran and Turkey target $30 billion in annual trade in their endeavor to broaden political and economic relations, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Sunday. Speaking at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, held in Tehran on Sunday, Amirabdollahian said they have held...

Tehran, Iran-- Iran and Syria have signed an agreement to connect the rail network between the two countries through Iraq. Mehrdad Bazrpash, Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development, made the announcement at the inauguration ceremony of the construction of the Shalamcheh-Basra railway on Saturday.  "The construction of the Shalamcheh...

BEIRUT, LEBANON - Sporadic clashes took place on Saturday in a Kurdish-held area of eastern Syria, a monitor said, after a curfew was imposed following the arrest of an Arab armed group's leader. Fighting erupted in the Kurdish-controlled areas of Deir Ezzor province on Monday after the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces...

War-scarred Iraq, originally mainly a drug transit country, has faced an explosion in narcotics use in recent years, mainly of captagon and crystal meth.

Kyrgyzstan has already twice taken back its citizens from Syria or Iraq. In March 2021, 79 children were repatriated while in February this year another 59 women and children were returned. Thousands of people from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia -- Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan --...

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in the last 12 years of civil war in Syria, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions. "The Israeli enemy undertook an aerial aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International...

The Republican delegation comprising French Hill, Ben Cline and Scott Fitzgerald entered Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Salama border crossing, where they were welcomed by a banner reading "Welcome to Free Syria" and revolutionary flags. The delegation visited a hospital in Aleppo province and met orphans of the Syrian...

The rebels "detonated tunnels they had dug beneath army positions and simultaneously launched an assault from other tunnels", said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Observatory. The attack, which also wounded 20 soldiers, came as Syria and its main military ally Russia bombarded the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area of...

Both the Syrian army and Russian air force "carried out several air and artillery strikes targeting terrorist headquarters in the countryside of Aleppo, Latakia and Hama," a statement said, after "repeated attacks" on regime-held areas in the provinces. The strikes left dozens of fighters "dead or wounded", the defence ministry...

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said the strikes near Ain Shib had targeted "military bases belonging to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)", the jihadist group that controls the bastion. Other late-night Russian strikes targeted the town of Ariha, south of Idlib city, AFP's correspondent and the Observatory...

Israel, during more than a decade of civil war in Syria, has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions. Israel rarely comments on the strikes, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its...

Beirut, Lebanon - Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets again on Monday in Syria's southern city of Sweida, local media and an activist reported, as dire living conditions stoke discontent in regime-held areas. Days of rare protests have erupted in the south after the government lifted fuel subsidies last week,...