The United Nations said on Monday it would not issue invitations to peace talks between Syria's government and opposition set to begin on Jan. 25 until major powers pushing the peace process reach agreement on which rebel representatives should attend. "At this stage the U.N....

A third round of aid was delivered to besieged Syrian towns on Monday, although armed groups postponed one humanitarian team's access saying they needed more time to make security arrangements, the United Nations said in a joint statement. The U.N., the International Committee of...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime has freed 8 people, including 4 women and 3 children, over prisoner swap deal with rebels in Damascus late on Monday, rebel commander told Zaman al Wasl. Abu Nafea al-Dimashqi, commander of Dhuha al-Islam Brigade said the prisoner swap has included a Hezbollah...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A new snowstorm in two weeks is sweeping Syrian refugee camps in Lebanese Bekaa valley and border town of Arsal, forecasts said Monday. More than 1 million Syrians are enduring another winter as refugees in Lebanon. For some, it is their fifth in a row, displaced by...

Germany needs to raise spending on police, education and daycare by at least 5 billion euros ($5.45 billion) to successfully integrate a record number of asylum seekers and avoid social tensions, its deputy government leader said Monday. Europe's most populous country and largest...

(Zaman Al Wasl)-- Syrian rebels have recaptured two towns from rival Jaysh al-Thuwar group in the northern province of Aleppo, activists said on Monday. Rebels have taken towns of al-Alqamiya andl al-Zeraa near Menng military airbase after heavy fighting started on Sunday.   Rebels have...

Translation by Yusra Ahmed (Zaman Al Wasl)- Daraya city has been under heavy bombardment in the last four months, by the Syrian regime’s aroplains, and followed by the Russian warplane. It is istimanted that almost 42 explosive barrels were thrown on Daraya dail since July till December...

Forces of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have committed significant human rights violations in north and northeastern Syria -- including "ethnic cleansing massacres" -- since the withdrawal of government forces in 2012, according to a report published Monday by the...

At least four people were injured in an explosion at a school in southern Turkey on Monday, a local hospital source said. The blast occurred at Eyup Gokceimam Middle School in Kilis, a city close to the Syrian border, at around 9.30 a.m. local time (0730GMT). One of the injured is in a...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 7,000 people have fled regime major attack on rebel-held areas in southern countryside of Hama to the neighboring region of al-Houla, local revolutionary council  said Sunday. Hundreds of displaced families of villages of Har Banafsheh, Talaf and Deir al-Faris...

Five people were killed and another 11 injured by airstrikes carried out by Russian warplanes on Sunday in Aleppo’s opposition-held Kallaseh district, according to local sources. Local civil defense officials told Anadolu Agency that the airstrikes had targeted residential parts of the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Hundreds of ISIS fighters are expected to be evacuated soon from besieged southern Damascus suburb due to a U.N.-brokered deal that was suspended late December 2015 after the killing of Islam Army's commander Zahran Alloush in Russian air strike. Zaman al-Wasl sources said the...

The death toll from Saturday's air strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa, de facto capital of the Islamic State group, has risen to 40 civilians, including eight children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday. The group, which monitors the conflict in Syria through...

Islamic State militants kidnapped at least 400 civilians when they attacked government-held areas in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor on Saturday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday families of pro-government fighters were among...

Queen Rania of Jordan has hit out with total class at Charlie Hebdo’s Alan Kurdi cartoon . The drawing showed Alan, the drowned Syrian refugee whose death shook Europe out of inertia, as an adult chasing a woman. It was paired with a caption saying the two-year-old would have grown up...

(Washington Post)- When you are a major nuclear power and you want to make a secretive deployment to a faraway ally, what is the first thing you do? Draw up the terms, apparently, and sign a contract. That’s what the Kremlin did with Syria in August, according to an unusual document...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 15 civilians have been killed on Saturday in Russian air strikes on rebel-held Aleppo, activists said. Seven people were killed in al-Sakhour neighborhood when Russian warplanes fired vacuum missile into the local marketplace, Zaman al-Wasl reporter said. 8 more...

The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State with 18 strikes in Iraq and 11 in Syria on Friday, the U.S. military said. Eight of the strikes in Iraq hit Islamic State tactical units and five command and control nodes near Mosul, a statement issues on Saturday said....

Unverified reports say 15 to 20 people died of starvation in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor last year, the United Nations said on Saturday, warning that 200,000 residents there face a severe food shortage and sharply deteriorating conditions. Western parts of the city have been...

The United Nations' refugee agency will seek additional resources for Turkey, the world's largest host of refugees, and push for more resettlement, its head said on Saturday, as the civil war in Syria is set to enter its sixth year. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees...