Islamist rebels battled Syrian government forces on Tuesday to retain control of Sadad, the historic Christian town which the insurgents has stormed a day earlier, residents said, according to Reuters. "There is a huge on-off battle here now, the army even used fighter jets," said one female...

On Sunday, September 29, President Bashar al-Assad declared to the world, via an interview on Italian television, his resolve to clear Syria  of chemical weapons - accepting a Russian-brokered deal to avert punitive U.S. action. That same morning his forces appear to have dropped...

Plans for talks to end the fighting in  Syria  were in jeopardy on Tuesday after the opposition refused to attend unless President Bashar al-Assad is forced from power and a furious Saudi Arabia made clear it would no longer co-operate with the United States over the civil war....

 The rise of Islamist groups fighting Syria's Western-backed rebels has emboldened the Syrian government and will make it harder to extract concessions from Damascus at any peace talks, a US official said on Monday.   The United States hopes to bring...