After three years of grinding conflict, the destruction of whole city districts and an exodus of refugees all triggered by an uprising against his rule, Bashar al-Assad is quietly preparing to be re-elected. The Syrian president has not yet announced whether he will stand for a...

  Assad’s planes Thursday renewed raids on the embattled city of Yabrud, the last rebel stronghold in the Qalamoun region near the border with Lebanon. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for human Rights reported eight air raids on the area, which regime troops are...

Negotiators have lost contact with a group of nuns kidnapped from a Syrian town last year after their captors moved them, a source told AFP on Thursday. The 13 nuns and three maids were kidnapped from the famed Christian hamlet of Maalula last year and transported to the nearby town of...

At least five people were killed and more than 20 wounded on Thursday in a bomb blast near a security headquarters in central Syria's city of Hama, a monitor said. "A truck packed with explosives detonated... near a branch of the military intelligence, killing at least five people and...