Syria's army will reduce air strikes and shelling on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on humanitarian grounds, it said on Wednesday, after mounting international criticism of it and Russia. Last month, the army - backed by Shi'ite militias from Lebanon and Iraq, and by Russian jets - launched a new...

France is to launch a new push for United Nations backing for a ceasefire in Syria that would allow aid into the city of Aleppo after some of the heaviest bombing of the war. As diplomatic efforts resumed, a Syrian military source said army commanders had decided to scale back air strikes...

Turkey's army said it clashed with Islamic State over the border in Syria, leaving one soldier and 23 militants dead, as Ankara stepped up an operation to clear insurgents from the frontier region. Three other Turkish soldiers were wounded in the battle near the Syrian village of Ziyara over...

Israeli aircraft attacked Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, wounding at least one person, witnesses said, after a rocket fired from the enclave hit an Israeli border town. Israeli police said there were no casualties in the rocket strike on Sderot, but Israel has a...