Syrian troops backed by war planes battled on Monday to dislodge Islamist rebels from a border crossing and northern town in the coastal province of Latakia, heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority. Fighters from the Islamic Front and al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front...

  The head of a Syrian paramilitary force and cousin of President Bashar Assad died Sunday in clashes with rebels near the coastal city of Latakia, sources inside Syria said. Syrian state media confirmed reports that Hillal Assad, head of the National Defense Forces,...

Bashar al-Assad’s top commander in Aleppo has been killed on Saturday with other 25 soldiers, activists reported.  Brig. Gen Sameea Abbas was the commander of the Republican Guards, mostly formed of Alawites, in Aleppo. Activists say that rebels keep...

  Militants of Al Qaeda splinter group, the State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)   have reportedly crucified a man in Raqqa in northern Syria after shooting him in the head. Activists said the man had been accused by the radical group of theft and deliberate...