Syrian war

By Lisa Barrington and John Davison BEIRUT, March 3 – Syrian rebels said on Wednesday they were under fierce government attack near the Turkish border despite a cessation of hostilities agreement and a representative cast doubt on whether U.N.-backed peace talks would go ahead on March 9 as planned. The agreement drawn up by the

BEIRUT, Feb 26 – Heavy air strikes were reported to have hit rebel-held areas to the east of Damascus as fighting continued across much of western Syria on Friday, hours before a U.S.-Russian plan aimed at halting the fighting is due to take effect. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organisation reported at least

BEIRUT, Feb 21  -The death toll from two bomb blasts in the Syrian city of Homs on Sunday reached 46 including at least 28 civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, with state media confirming the deadly attacks. At least 100 others were wounded by the explosions in the city centre’s Zahra district, the

By John Irish PARIS, Jan 29 – The Syrian people must be left to decide their own future, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, adding that defeating terrorism was Syria’s main problem and not who is running the country. On the first official visit to France by an Iranian president since 1999, Rouhani also

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Tom Perry and Tom Miles AMMAN/BEIRUT/GENEVA, Jan 27  – The United Nations invited Syria’s government and opposition to peace talks in Geneva on Friday, but Saudi-backed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have yet to decide whether to drop their objections to taking part. The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura,

Syria’s White Helmets live (and often die) by the motto ‘to save one life is to save humanity’ By Janine di Giovanni Photographs by Nicole Tung On a warm morning in December, a few dozen Syrians from Aleppo and Idlib— former students, teachers, vegetable sellers and farmers— gather in an abandoned firefighting training center near the Syrian-Turkish border.

BEIRUT, Jan 25 – Syria’s opposition will meet on Tuesday to discuss U.N.-led efforts to convene delayed peace talks, an opposition spokesman said, repeating a call for goodwill steps from the government including a halt to bombardments before any talks happen. The United Nations is trying to convene the first talks in two years to

By Tom Miles GENEVA, Dec 22 – The number of refugees and migrants arriving by land and sea in the European Union has passed 1 million this year, while a further 3,600 died or went missing, the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday. Half of those arriving were Syrians