CAIRO/AMMAN, EGYPT/JORDAN -   Measles and polio vaccination campaign will be launched on Saturday across northwest Syria to protect some 800,000 children under five years from the two potentially deadly but preventable diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement. The vaccination drive, supported by WHO, the Vaccine Alliance...

The two regional powers have cut ties twice since the 1987 crackdown on protesting Iranian pilgrims in Makkah. They have now pledged to work together for regional stability.

Damascus, Syria - An Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed two Syrian civilians, state media reported, the fourth such attack on government-held areas of the war-torn country in less than a week. During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its...

Sunday's attack comes amid increased Israeli air strikes on Syria. The air strike near the western Syrian city of Homs was Israel's third since early Thursday, after the capital Damascus was targeted that morning and early Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes targeted several military positions of Syrian government forces and pro-Iran groups in Homs. The NGO said explosions rocked the city and a fire broke out in a research centre, with ambulances heading to the scene of the...

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Cairo, a first since Syria's civil war broke out over a decade ago, Shoukry's office said. The meeting comes amid amplified Arab engagement with the Damascus government which has been politically isolated in the region since the...

Tehran, Iran--An officer from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards was killed in Israeli air strikes on Syria early on Friday, a website affiliated with the Guards said. During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah...

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said initial assessments in Turkey revealed "severe damage to agriculture, including crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as rural infrastructure in affected areas". It said more than one-third of the population in the hardest-hit areas relied on agriculture to survive.

Syria's foreign ministry condemned the strikes, accusing Israel in a statement of trying to "escape internal divisions", as the country faces a severe domestic crisis over controversial judicial reforms.

The two sisters of Somali origin clandestinely left Norway for Syria in late 2013, aged 16 and 19, to join a popular uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, as they would later explain in an e-mail exchange. Norwegian writer Asne Seierstad recounted their experiences in a book.

The Britain-based Observatory, which has a wide network of sources on the ground, said 19 people were killed in the first wave of US strikes: three Syrian soldiers and 16 members of Iran-backed militias. After the strikes, Biden sought to lower the temperature saying the US "does not seek conflict...

The US president sought to lower the temperature on Friday, saying the United States "does not seek conflict with Iran, but is prepared to act forcefully to protect our people". Hours after the strikes, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said 10 rockets were fired at American and coalition forces at...

Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Bin Thani Al-Thani of Qatar, who serves as a UNHCR advocate, has been the biggest contributor to the fund, providing more than $110 million to date, or more than half of total contributions.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that at the direction of President Joe Biden, he had authorised "precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." When the strikes were announced, Biden had already travelled to Canada, where he is set...

Riyadh has been hinting at a rapprochement with Syria for weeks. It sent aid to both rebel-held and government-controlled parts of the country in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, killing tens of thousands of people.

It was the second such attack in a month on the airport in Syria's second city, which has been a major conduit for relief flights since a February 6 earthquake devastated swathes of northern Syria and neighboring Turkey. The pre-dawn strike targeted "the airport compound and a weapons depot belonging to...

Washington, United States--Syria's economy is expected to contract 2.3% more than it otherwise would have due to the impact of last month's deadly earthquakes, the World Bank said on Monday. The earthquake and its aftershocks killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria, and displaced millions more. "The recent earthquake...

Brussels, Belgium--The European Investment Bank today pledged $535 million in earthquake reconstruction and recovery package for Turkey and Syria at the donors’ conference convened in Brussels by the European Commission and Swedish Presidency of the European Council. The EUR 500 million support from EIB Global, part of broader European Union...

Aid groups urged donors to step up their commitments after the UN complained of the poor level of response to a call it made in mid-February for urgent funding. The International Rescue Committee said they should at least ensure that the UN's emergency appeal for $1bn for Turkey and $397m...

Abu Dhabi, which normalized relations with Assad's government in 2018, has led aid efforts in the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing tens of thousands. A diplomatic momentum generated by aid efforts in the quake's aftermath could bolster Damascus's relations with Middle...

"Canada is committed to providing relief to those impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria," said Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

Turkey's top diplomat said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would meet to mark the end of a decade of estrangement between the two countries. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking alongside his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry during a visit to Cairo, said Ankara wanted to...

The Syrian leader, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, demanded that Turkey end its "support for terrorism" alongside a withdrawal, a reference to rebel groups that control regions of northern Syria and oppose Damascus. "This is the only way in which my meeting with Erdogan could take place," Assad was...

"Dear Mr President, I am very glad to see you in Moscow. Thank you for accepting our invitation," Putin told Assad at the start of their meeting broadcast by state TV. "We are in constant contact and our relations are developing."

Damascus, Syria--His medical studies in Syria keep Mohammed Shasho busy enough but whenever he can he also pores over German vocabulary and grammar points in hopes of a move to Europe. Like many youngsters in the war-ravaged country, he dreams of joining the almost one million Syrians already in Germany to...

Beirut, Lebanon - Syria's conflict and attacks on hospitals have had a "disproportionate impact" on the reproductive health of women and girls in the rebel-held northwest, a report said Tuesday. "Twelve years of impunity for attacks on health care have exacerbated a sexual and reproductive health crisis in Syria," said Houssam...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The world failed to act quickly enough to rush life-saving aid to Syrians in desperate need following the devastating earthquake, United Nations investigators said Monday. The quake response was characterized by failures by the government, other factions in the civil war, the international community and the UN itself,...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) president Filippo Grandi concluded a five-day visit to earthquake-devastated areas of Syria and Turkey. He visited survivors, affected people and humanitarian staff working at the ground. The earthquake has claimed 54,000 lives in the two countries and caused massive destruction...

Israeli airstrikes targeting a weapons depot in Syria killed two pro-Iran fighters and wounded three soldiers, a war monitor said. "Israeli strikes targeted a weapons depot belonging to pro-Iran forces located... between Tartus and Hama provinces," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 50 boys aged 11-17, some with parents hailing from Britain, France, Germany or the United States, live at the heavily guarded Orkesh rehabilitation center near the city of Qamishli, close to the Turkish border. Opened six months ago, it is the first facility seeking to rehabilitate foreign boys in...

Iraq has scuttled a big smuggling operation of bringing into the country a large consignment of three million pills of captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant sweeping the Middle East for year, near the Syrian border. The pills had been hidden in apple crates and discovered at the Al-Qaim crossing near Iraq's...

Tunisia expelled Syria's ambassador in 2012 over the bloody repression of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad at the outset of the country's civil war. The diplomatic rupture, undertaken when former president Moncef Marzouki was still in office, was strongly criticised by the opposition at the time. In 2015, Tunisia took...

DAMASCUS, SYRIA - Syria's Aleppo airport, a key conduit for relief flights after the devastating February earthquake, reopened on Friday, an official said, following Israeli air strikes this week that hit its runway. The damage caused by Tuesday's raid forced aid deliveries and all flights to be diverted to Latakia and...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been politically isolated in the region since the start of Syria's war in 2011, triggered by the government's suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations, and was expelled from the Cairo-based Arab League. But since the quake, Arab leaders have made overtures to his government. "We welcome the...

Sham Sheikh Mohammed, who suffered severe crush injuries in a 40-hour ordeal under the rubble, has not yet been told that both her mother and sister died in the February 6 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Syria and Turkey. Sham's story captivated Syrians and others around the...

As relations thaw after more than a decade of isolation, Saudi Arabia has suggested that closer cooperation with Syria may open the road for its admission back into the Arab League, albeit it is still too early to debate this option. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al...

The World Bank estimated last week that the devastating quake, which flattened entire cities, had caused damage worth more than $34 billion in Turkey, with recovery likely to double that sum. But Louisa Vinton of the UN Development Program said the Turkish government had calculated far higher damage.

MAARET MASRIN, SYRIA - Syrian medics launched Tuesday the first cholera vaccination campaign in the rebel-held northwest since a deadly outbreak began last year, amid increased fears of contagion after last month's devastating earthquake. Health workers were going door to door to inoculate people in homes and displacement camps in the...

Israeli warplanes struck Aleppo airport before dawn, causing significant damage that halted flights to and from Syria's war- and quake-battered second city, the defense ministry said. The airport has been a major conduit for aid flights since a February 6 earthquake devastated southeastern Turkey and Syria, a transport ministry official...

Ahmed Al Khateeb, the Saudi tourism minister and board chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development, signed an agreement with Turkish central bank governor Sahap Kavcioglu "to make a significant $5 billion deposit", the Saudi government said in a statement. "This deposit is a testament to the close cooperation and...

The United States' top military officer Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley made a surprise visit to an army base in the Kurdish-held northeast, meeting with US troops stationed in area controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The visit has drawn sharp condemnation from Syria's foreign...

"Many refugees who fled to Turkey in search of safety and protection have now faced the trauma of loss and displacement once again -- losing their homes and livelihoods," the UN's International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a joint statement. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake on...

A massive earthquake and aftershocks in February caused an estimated US$5.1 billion in direct physical damage in Syria, said the World Bank. The earthquake that struck on February 6 hit Turkey and Syria, devastating scores of cities and killing over 50,000 people in both countries. Millions need help with accommodation...

In the aftermath of the quake, activists and emergency teams in the rebel-held northwest decried the UN's slow response, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports.

A total of 5,951 people were killed across Syria, while Turkey recorded 44,374 deaths after the February 6 earthquake. The new tally brings to 50,325 the total number of deaths caused by the disaster across both countries.

The World Bank warned that the continuing aftershocks are likely to increase the total amount of damage caused by the disaster. "This disaster serves as a reminder of Turkey’s high risk to earthquakes and of the need to enhance resilience in public and private infrastructure," said Humberto Lopez, the World...

Istanbul, Turkey - A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey on Monday, causing some buildings already damaged by a powerful tremor earlier this month to collapse, the government's disaster agency said. The epicenter of the tremor was the Yesilyurt district in the Malatya province, which was hit by the February 6...

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, in a rare visit to Syria and Turkey, pledged solidarity with the people of the two countries after a devastating earthquake claimed tens of thousands of lives. Shoukry met with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and the country's foreign minister Faisal Mekded. He also met Turkish...

Damascus, Syria--Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad received today a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, participating in the thirty-fourth meeting of the Arab Parliamentary Union, which concluded yesterday in Baghdad. The delegation included Saqr Ghobash, Speaker of the Federal National Council, and the speakers of parliaments in Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Libya...

For the first time in a decade, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will visit Syria and Turkey to show ""solidarity with the two countries and their brotherly peoples" after the powerful earthquake that hit the two countries earlier this month. The visit illustrates the gradual acceptance of the once-isolated Syrian...