UN suspends all Syria aid after convoy bombed
The United Nations has suspended all aid convoys to Syria in the wake of an attack on aid trucks that could amount to a “war crime”, according to a top UN official. Air raids rocked northern Syria’s Aleppo province on Tuesday, hours after 18 trucks in a UN humanitarian aid convoy were hit an area […]
UN to meet after airstrike that killed dozens of Syrian troops
New York/Beirut (dpa) – The UN Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting on Syria Saturday after reports that an airstrike by forces taking part in the US-led coalition to fight Islamic State might have inadvertantly hit a Syrian government position, killing dozens. The council announced late Saturday that it would meet at 7:30 pm […]
IDF chief to Druze leaders: Israel has no ties to extremist Syria rebels
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot on Friday told leaders of the Druze community in Israel that the country is not in any kind of contact with extremist rebel groups involved in the Syrian civil war, rejecting a recent claim by a Druze member of the Knesset. Eisenkot said there has been no change in […]
Russia blasts US over ceasefire violations
Russian President Vladimir Putin has questioned the US commitment to a shaky ceasefire in Syria suggesting that Washington wasn’t prepared to break with “terrorist elements” battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. The truce came into effect on Monday but both sides have alleged dozens of violations, and aid convoys have been unable to enter rebel-held […]
Syria’s civil war: Ceasefire strained by fresh fighting
Air raids and fighting tested a fragile ceasefire in Syria into Saturday as civilians waited for aid and tensions mounted between Russia and the United States, who brokered the truce. In New York, the UN Security Council cancelled an urgent meeting on Friday that had been called to discuss whether to endorse the deal, billed […]
Netflix now has some of the only footage you’ll see from inside Syria
Some cities in Syria are battered by hundreds of airstrikes every day. And when those bombs hit — at least when they fall in opposition areas — unarmed volunteers known as the White Helmets are the first on the scene digging through rubble and searching for survivors. Officially called the Syrian Civil Defense, the group […]
Photographer who took Omran’s picture in Aleppo: ‘I hope all photos of children and attacks in Syria go viral’
The photographer who captured the haunting image of an injured 5-year-old Syrian boy that are shocking the world says he was in tears when he took the photo. His video footage and pictures show young Omran Daqneesh, sitting covered in dust with a streak of blood on one side of his face following an airstrike […]
US-backed Syrian forces gave defeated ISIS militants safe passage
Islamic State fighters surrounded during the key battle for Manbij, Syria, last week agreed to surrender their weapons to US-backed Syrian forces in return for safe passage out of the embattled city, a senior defence official said Tuesday. It was the first such agreement with the terror group. The exhausted and demoralised militants were using […]
Syria’s White Helmets nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
An all-volunteer Syrian rescue and humanitarian group in Syria – credited with saving tens of thousands of people subject of bombardments by Syrian government and Russian fighter jets since 2013 – have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More than 130 organisations from across the world have backed the Syrian Civil Defence, also known […]
Appalling accounts of death and abuse in Syria’s prisons
Prison conditions in Syria have been laid bare in a new report by a leading human rights group. Amnesty International estimates that 17,723 people have died in custody in Syria since the country’s crisis began in March 2011. That is an average of 300 deaths per month. “I saw the blood, it was like a […]