syria civil war

MOSCOW, Aug 15 – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Syrian rebels had used temporary ceasefires in and around Aleppo to regroup and rearm. Lavrov, speaking at a news conference in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said he realised that brief daily ceasefires in place now

BEIRUT, Aug 11 – Fighting persisted in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Thursday more than an hour into a three-hour ceasefire announced by Russia, two rebel groups and a witness in the city said, as government forces tried to reverse last week’s opposition gains. Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government,

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 – The United Nations Security Council must not allow civilians on both sides of the Syrian city of Aleppo to be cut off from humanitarian aid, the United States said on Monday as Russia accused Washington of politicizing a humanitarian issue. Insurgents effectively broke a month-long government siege

BEIRUT, Aug 2 – A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said on Tuesday a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter was shot down hours earlier. A spokesman for Syria Civil Defence told Reuters that 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected

GENEVA, July 28 – U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura called on Russia and the United States on Thursday to work together in reducing the fighting in Syria, saying that failure of their cooperation plan would have a very negative impact on planned peace talks. U.S. and Russian military officials were coming to Geneva to

BEIRUT, July 21 – The head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition called for a suspension of the U.S.-led air campaign against Daesh in Syria while reports of dozens of civilian deaths from air strikes around the northern city of Manbij are investigated. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 56 civilians

BEIRUT/AMMAN, July 17 – Pro-Syrian government forces reached the only main road into the rebel-held part of Aleppo on Sunday, further tightening their control around opposition areas of the main northern city. “It’s completely cut,” Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim, told Reuters. A second source from an Aleppo-based rebel group, the Levant

GENEVA, July 14 – U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura voiced hope on Thursday that a U.S.-Russian meeting would achieve progress on the Syria peace process, including a halt to indiscriminate bombing and a formula for political transition. “Let’s see what happens in Moscow in the next few hours. Let’s hope there is some type

BEIRUT, July 11 – Rebels launched an attack inside Aleppo early on Monday, shelling Syrian government-held areas and clashing with government-allied forces in the center of the divided northwestern city, a monitoring group reported. Syrian warplanes bombarded rebel-held areas in the city and north of it, days after the government side effectively cut off a

GENEVA, June 21 – United Nations war crimes investigators called on world powers on Tuesday to pressure the warring sides in Syria to return to the negotiating table to end the conflict and civilian suffering. Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the U.N. independent commission of inquiry on Syria, said that the Syrian government was conducting daily