For the past year, rebel groups that took their war to  Syria 's main cities have been unable to finish what they started. Pinned down by air power and shelling that can hit them wherever they are, opposition fighters have barely advanced in Aleppo and Damascus; their gains in some areas...

 More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighbourhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have...

,  Friday, May 24, 2013 Smoke and fire rises after explosives were dropped by a Syrian government warplane in Yabroud near Damascus, Syria, Monday May 20, 2013. The Syrian regime claims there is no civil war in the country but that the army is fighting foreign-backed terrorists...

  Human Rights Watch revealed that Regime's security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control.  Human Rights Watch researchers visited...