The two former close allies have also ceased military cooperation, effectively ending a warm relationship that saw Tehran provide weapons, technical know-how and military training to Hamas fighters. The rupture has been caused by Hamas's refusal to toe the Iranian line by supporting...

HERMEL, Lebanon (AP) — In Shiite towns and villages near the border with Syria, residents who support Hezbollah are bearing the brunt of the militant Lebanese group's growing involvement in the Syrian civil war. Shells fired by Syria's overwhelmingly Sunni rebels regularly fall on the town,...

Lebanese Shiite movement’s decision comes as response to Hamas’ role in ongoing war against Assad regime in Syria. BEIRUT - The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah called on Hamas members and officials who are still present in Lebanon to leave the country 'immediately and within...

 Iran has opened two lines of credit totalling $4 billion to Damascus and expects to open up a third to counter the effects of an international embargo, Syria's central bank said on Monday according to AFP. "Iran continues to support Syria, by opening one line of credit worth a...

Children’s participation in the conflict has grown in frequency and in method of involvement. “Ibrahim," who says he is 18, but looks much younger, smiles as he passes me his battered cell phone, insisting that I watch yet another video. The grainy footage shows a young Syrian...

 Awakened by the sound of gunfire, Ahmad could hear the armed men knocking on his brother's door, shouting insults and calling the family "dogs". Ahmad's sister-in-law said the gunmen told her husband to "bow to your god, Bashar" -- the Syrian president. She and her husband and...

A British doctor who left his home, family and job in the UK to help civilians wounded by the conflict in  Syria  has died after the makeshift hospital he was working in was shelled. Dr Isa Abdur Rahman, 26, was working as a volunteer in the north-western city of Idlib with the...

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...

President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister  Tayyip Erdogan held a joint press conference on May 16, 2013. They discussed trade, security commitments in NATO, and the situation in Syria. Excerpt from the press conference: "Q My first question to you, Prime Minister. You...

What is the status of the situation in Syria? Syria's civil war continued unabated in early 2013 amid an international deadlock on how to mediate the conflict that has killed more than seventy thousand people and displaced millions more. Global concerns have mounted over allegations that...

Before the bloodshed of the civil war in Syria, the country’s economy was diverse. The most important sectors included agriculture (22 percent of the economy), industry and excavation (25 percent), retail (23 percent), and tourism (12 percent), according to 2009 figures quoted by the Syrian...

  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...

  The BBC has seen video and eyewitness testimony that appears to corroborate allegations of chemical weapons' use in the Syrian town of Saraqeb. So what do we know about the alleged instances of chemical weapons use in the conflict so far? Syria's chemical weapons stocks, and the...

There has been a large explosion in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, followed by heavy gunfire. Afghan Channel One TV quoted police as saying a group of assailants had entered the Directorate of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF). A guesthouse used by staff of the...

  Here we are again.  An attack . A metropolis. A sensational depiction of violence. A Western victim. These are the thematic artifacts of our current (British) understanding of the “War on Terror.” Regardless of the venue, the perpetrator, or the modus operandi...

How the U.S. should respond to Iran’s election This week, in one arbitrary swoop, Iran’s Guardian Council  shrunk the list  of presidential candidates for next month's election from 686 to eight eligible individuals.  It should come as no surprise that all of the...

The golden cupola of the Sayyida Zainab mosque glints, magnificent, against the clear sky. In the courtyard, children play amid shoes shed by their parents before they entered to pray. Only the crack of gunfire, the hissing of bullets overhead and mortar fire close by disturbs the tranquil...

 The Free Syrian Army vowed on Wednesday to punish those committing atrocities, as anger mounted at a video showing a rebel filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier. "Any act contrary to the values that the Syrian people have paid their blood and lost...