A prominent member of a secretive monitoring group in Syria that works to expose Islamic State atrocities in the war-ravaged country was found dead Friday along with a friend in southern Turkey, activists said. Members of the monitoring group, known as Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,...

At least 22 migrants, including 13 children, drowned overnight Thursday to Friday off the Greek islands of Kalymnos and Rhodes as they made a desperate bid to reach Europe, while another 144 people were rescued, Greek port authorities said. Off Kalymnos, authorities recovered the bodies of 19...

Talks on a political solution to the civil war in Syria got under way Friday, with 17 countries plus the United Nations and European Union taking part. Syria itself was not represented, but senior envoys from Turkey, Italy, Britain, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian and Russian warplanes continued Friday its deadly air strikes on rebel-held areas in northern and western Syria in an initial death tool reaches 75, mostly from a rebel-held town near Damascus and Aleppo, according to monitoring groups and activists.   At least 47...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 47 people were killed and about 200 wounded after Syrian regime forces fired missiles into a market place in a town northeast Damascus, activists and monitoring groups said on Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces fired 12 missiles at...

Saudi Arabia has said reports about its response to the Syrian refugee crisis are “false and misleading” and it has in fact given residency to 100,000 people as war rages in their country. The kingdom’s statement followed a similar defence issued by the United Arab Emirates after questions were...

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged participants at international talks aimed at resolving the brutal war in Syria to show “flexibility” and welcomed Iran’s participation for the first time in the discussions. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will join key players in the...

The rules are clear in Al-Obaidi in northern Iraq, the only U.N. refugee camp in Iraq operating in territory controlled by ISIS. Women have to cover their faces with a niqab and cannot walk around without a male escort. No alcohol or smoking is allowed. The Internet is forbidden although the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Russia's warplanes have carried out more than 20 raids on northern countryside of Homs city, activists told Zaman al Wasl on Thursday as the regime army backed by fighters from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah launch a new offensive on embattled towns of the central province. A...

(Reuters)- A former German rapper who participated in propaganda videos for Islamic State and sought to lure foreigners to the militant group has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Thursday. Born in Berlin, Denis Cuspert was once a popular rapper...

The United States has "operational information" that leads U.S. officials to believe Russian military aircraft hit a hospital while carrying out bombing raids in Syria, the State Department said on Thursday. Since the start of the Russian bombing campaign on Sept. 30, various...

The foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia met Thursday in Vienna to work through their differences on the eve of talks on the war in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers Sergei Lavrov, Feridun Sinirlioglu and Adel al-Jubeir form a core...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian activists and state-owned media are saying that several mortar shells hit near the Russian Embassy in Damascus, but no injuries were recorded, AP reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 shells struck in the vicinity of the...

Britain's domestic spy service chief said extremists militants pose the biggest threat to the country that he had seen in his 32 years in intelligence, as he called for new digital surveillance powers to keep Britons safe. Andrew Parker, head of MI5, said again that militants are planning mass...

A number of leaders in the first row of the Islamic Movement Ahrar al-Sham denied media allegations that talked about a meeting of the leaders of the Movement with Russia in the Turkish city of Istanbul. "Labib Nahhas" head of foreign relations in the political wing of Ahrar al-Sham in a tweet...

Russia said Wednesday it opposes a draft U.N. resolution on Syria's use of barrel bombs which is being promoted by France, Britain and Spain because it could jeopardize upcoming international talks on how to restore peace to the conflict-wracked country. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Matthew...

A "significant increase" of air strikes on Syrian hospitals recently has killed at least 35 patients and medical staff and wounded 72, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Thursday. The escalation of attacks by air forces the group did not identify, which began in late September, had targeted 12...

Syria's main political opposition body did not get an invitation to international talks on the country's four-year-old civil war that will take place in Vienna Friday, one of its members said. "That didn't happen," George Sabra told Reuters Thursday when he was asked about whether the Syrian...

he United States is intensifying its diplomacy to end the "hell" of Syria’s civil war even as it increases support for moderate rebels fighting Islamic State militants, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday The chief U.S. diplomat leaves for Vienna later in the day...

Turkey will "do what is necessary" to prevent U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish rebels from declaring autonomy in the town of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border, including conducting further military operations, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday. NATO member Turkey is part of...