As the Syrian civil war deepened and anti-government rebels struggled to unify their fractious forces, the White House early last year quietly convened an elite group of senior policymakers to advise President  Barack Obama . Their unusual mandate: think outside the box on how to...

Dozens of Mohamed Morsi's supporters were killed Saturday in Egypt's capital as violence erupted at mass rallies for and against the ousted Islamist president, medics and the Muslim Brotherhood said. The bloodshed came hours after the military-backed interior minister, Mohammed Ibrahim,...

Civilians in the vicinity of opposition fighters’ bases in the governorate of Tartous are at risk of summary execution by pro-government forces, Amnesty International said.  Following the deliberate killing of 13 members of the same family in the village of Al Baydah, the organization...

  Assad's forces withdraw from parts of al-Khalidiya neighborhood under fierce shelling of rebels Syrian Activists denied claims of the Assad troops of achieving progress in the al-Khalidiya neighborhood in the western city of Homs. ''The regime army backed by...