Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group killed 12 members of the minority Alawite sect in central  Syria  after seizing their village, an opposition monitoring group said on Wednesday. Alawites are an offshoot sect of Shi'ite Islam and have been increasingly targeted by...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday he hoped that a U.S. promise to pursue diplomacy to remove the threat of chemical weapons in  Syria  was "serious", the state news agency IRNA reported. "I am hopeful that the United States new attitude to ...

President  Barack Obama  pledged on Tuesday to explore a diplomatic plan from  Russia  to take away Syria's chemical weapons, but voiced skepticism about it and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed. Faced with resistance in polls and...

With his truck fully laden with vegetable oil, driver Mustafa Demir makes his regular trip to the Syrian border from  Turkey  to sell to rebels desperate for provisions as war closes off normal trade channels. "There is so much demand from the Syrian side. There is demand for...