A group of powerful rebel brigades in northern Syria is struggling to defuse an armed standoff pitting insurgents against an affiliate of Al Qaeda for control of a strategic town near the Turkish border.   The conflict over the town, Azaz, has shuttered a Turkish...

 International inspectors racing to meet a mid-2014 deadline to eliminate Syria's chemical stockpile said Thursday they have made "encouraging initial progress" in their mission, and hope to start onsite inspections and begin disabling equipment within the next week. An advance team of...

   The Syrian government is unlawfully holding tens of thousands of political detainees solely on the basis of their peaceful activity, Human Rights Watch said today in opening a campaign to cast light on their fate. Many have been held for long periods and tortured....

Six Syrian rebel groups called on al-Qaida and its rival Western-backed rebels to end their infighting in northern Syria as international inspectors tasked with overseeing the destruction of the government's chemical arsenal pressed on with their second full day of work in the...

    Syria's opposition Ambassador to Doha expressed his sorrow for the collective resignation by 4 employees including the consul last week. Mr. Nizar al-Heraki described the resignation of Consul Omar Idlebi with other three employees as “ a surprising act", as...

 A medical source from the embattled Ghouta towns revealed death of 6 children at least because of famine and lack of food, "we are not in Somalia,'' the source said to Zaman Alwasl. '' People are dying under severe siege by Bassar al-Assad forces to rebel-held areas....

    Rebels in Damascus countryside have downed a reconnaissance aircraft  (portable by a parachute) for the first time, according to footage has surfaced on the internet .   Analysts assured that Assad's air force take into account the...

A Muslim man who had a sudden brain aneurysm that left him in a coma has converted to Christianity following a near-miraculous recovery. Karim Shamsi-Basha was in a coma for a month in 1992 but when he woke up, he began a 20-year journey that lead to him becoming a Christian.  His...

Azerbaijan on Wednesday accused Armenia of resettling Syrian refugees in a disputed territory the two have been fighting over for decades. Azerbaijan's UN ambassador said the rival neighbor had started a "very dangerous process" by moving Syrian Armenians into Nagorny Karabakh. Armenia...

The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) , Ban Ki- moon urged Kuwait to host the second donors' conference for Syrian humanitarian relief, KUNA news agency reported.   Ban expressed hope "for Kuwait to host the second donors' conference to support the humanitarian situation...

Aoun says he doesn't object Hezbollah engagement in Syria in the absence of political solution, stresses he won't run for presidency Change and Reform parliamentary bloc leader, MP Michel Aoun, said the solution for the Syrian refugees influx does not lie in bringing donations...

Fighters loyal to al Qaida have opened up a new offensive against a U.S.-backed rebel group that once escorted U.S. Sen. John McCain into northern Syria, according to Internet postings and news accounts. The Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, an al Qaida affiliate whose fighters come from a...

    Where delegations weighed how to respond to charges that the Assad regime had just committed the deadliest chemical weapons attack in August 21st in the country’s two-year civil war, new testimonies by field doctors to Zaman alwasl assured a dirty game was played-...

Deadly clashes raged on the edge of Damascus on Wednesday and rival rebel factions battled each other in northern Syria as international chemical weapons inspectors began to secure the sites will they will work. The fighting underscored the immense security challenge...

 Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)  Spokesman denounced the fierce negative media campaign of the Western infidel world against the state. In a recording released on Monday,  Zaman Alwasl  published important parts of it,  Abo Mohammed al-Adnani...

Alarmed by the rise of al Qaeda in Syria, Saudi Arabia is trying to strengthen rival Islamists with ties to Riyadh and this week helped engineer a consolidation of rebel groups around Damascus under a Saudi-backed leader. That might bolster the opposition militarily as President Bashar...

More than 115,000 people have died in Syria’s ongoing civil war, a monitoring group said Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 41,000 civilians — including 6,000 children and 4,000 women — have been killed during the two-and-a-half-year conflict,  Reuters...

The  United Nations  is shifting its aid effort for  Syria  to prepare for long-term help to neighbouring countries to cope with the humanitarian crisis, the head of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday. More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's...

  If we confine our choices to leaders with broad appeal in the Arab and Islamist mainstream — excluding both al-Qaida and Kurdish leaders — we get the following five, listed in order. Hassan Abboud 1. Hassan Abboud,  the general...

Many activists have chosen to stay and work in the liberated areas in Syria refusing to leave the country, despite the risk and harassment they face from some extremist battalions, especially in the countryside of Damascus. The most recent and prominent incidence was the insult...