While the emergence of al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as a major force in the Syrian civil war has caused deep concern for many rebels, one group’s fighters claim its presence has given them a popularity boost. Until   ISIS   asserted its place in the war...

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...

  U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was in Baghdad Monday on the next leg of a regional tour to build support for talks aimed at ending Syria's civil war, the foreign ministry said. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari met Brahimi at the airport, a statement on the...

  A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with 1.5 tons of explosives killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens in the Syrian city of Hama on Sunday, state media and a monitoring group reported. The man blew himself up inside the vehicle on a busy road on the...