Syrian rebels need to wrest back control of territory held by Islamist militants whose involvement in the conflict gives Bashar al-Assad a pretext for more violence, French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday. Radical Islamist groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have...

Six Lebanese soldiers were killed on Sunday in clashes with supporters of a radical Sunni Muslim sheikh opposed to the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, an army statement said. "An armed group loyal to Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir attacked, for no reason, a Lebanese army checkpoint in the village...

A leading Syrian opposition figure slammed the decision of the Friends of Syria meeting to arm the rebels, calling the "ridiculous" idea would prolong the crisis and give rise to violence. "We think that the decision of the Friends of Syria meeting to arm the rebels reflects the Western...

The ambush was a simple affair, compared to some of the complex and brutal operations devised in Syria’s civil war. But in a society whose divisions are historic, even if they have only now exploded like a leaky petrol tanker, the circumstances were unusual. The target was a Sunni Muslim...