Reporting by Mustafa Mohamed; Translation by Yusra Ahmed GAZIANTEP (Eqtsad)- Turkish official figures said the number of Syrian refugees in the border city of Gaziantep has been increased strongly to reach 325,000 people, however the count increases to about half a million people after adding...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Head of the paramilitary National Defense Forces in Homs was killed on Friday in the ongoing fighting with the Islamic State near the ancient city of Palmyra, pro-regime media accounts said. M.General Sharaf Shaaban al-Oja, the head of NDF in eastern Homs and the commander...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least two Syrian refugee children have died on Friday due to a fire broke out in Derik camp near Turkish Mardin city, spokesman of the Syrian Association for Refugee Affairs said. Mudar al-Asaad told Zaman al-Wasl that many suffocation cases reported, three of them...

Syrian state TV has said that the army recaptured major parts of the historic and strategic city of Palmyra as battles rage between Syrian army troops and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters. Syria's state news agency, SANA, reported on Friday that the army, backed by...

A suicide attacker detonated an explosive belt in a park outside Baghdad on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 71, said the security head in Babel province where the bomb - claimed by Islamic State - went off. The blast in Iskandariya, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim town 40...

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings Friday that targeted Yemeni checkpoints in Aden and what it said was an attack on a nearby base of the pro-government Arab coalition. The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said in an online report that "IS fighters have...

Moscow's position that the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad should not be discussed at the moment has found understanding in Washington, the Interfax news agency on Friday quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying. "To a large extent, the current political process...

A senior Islamic State commander was targeted and likely killed in a U.S. operation, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. News of the operation comes just ahead of a Pentagon briefing scheduled for 10:45 a.m.. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Smell of death twinges, carry your pick and follow the smell to dig a grave for a civilization that taught humanity the meaning of miracle when it made from it and for it a special kingdom in the middle of the desert. As a journalist, I am supposed to present the Palmyra...

Powerful Iraqi Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr warned political party leaders Friday they would face street protests if they obstruct a government overhaul planned by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to fight corruption. Sadr also called on Abadi to announce a new cabinet lineup by Saturday...

Translation by Yusra Ahmed (Zaman Al Wasl)- Samira Abdul Karim Karzon, a Syrian woman refugee in Ersal from Qusayr in the countryside of Homs, suffers of renal failure and had had a kidney transplant few years ago in Syria. Samira suffers now in finding her medications especially those for...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, an Islamic State-linked group operating in southern province of Daraa, took Thursday a key town and encircled another in the western countryside, sources said. Yramouk Martyrs and its allied group al-Muthanna Movement launched major attack on...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish authorities arrested last Monday Zaman al-Wasl reporter in the border city of Gaziantep without any charges, relative disclosed on Thursday. Abdel Salam Haj Bakri, 47, who uses 'Omar Abu Khalil' as an alias, was arrested by the immigration department of Gaziantep,...

A Russian special forces officer has been killed in a combat operation near Palmyra in Syria, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing a Russian military source in Syria. "While performing a special task to direct Russian air strikes onto terrorist targets, a Russian...

Russia and the United States have agreed to push for direct talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday. "As the immediate task we have agreed to push for the soonest start of direct talks between the government delegations...

Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff has died on Thursday at age 68. The Cruyff Foundation said on its website that he passed away in his house in Barcelona. He had been receiving cancer treatment. In February, he had said he felt as if he was "leading 2-0 at halftime" against the disease....

  Syrian government forces fought their way into Palmyra on Thursday as the army backed by Russia n air cover sought to recapture the historic city from Islamic State (IS) insurgents, Syrian state TV and a monitoring group said. The Syria n army earlier this month launched a...

Secretary of State John Kerry, ahead of a meeting with Vladimir Putin, said the United States and Russia must work together to end the war in Syria despite their differences, and called for a further reduction in violence and more aid deliveries. Russia and the United States...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- U.S.-backed rebels and Kurdish factions are pressing hard to take the Syrian-Iraqi border from the Islamic State, as regime army backed by a Russian cover makes advances in Palmyra, the capital of Syrian desert, activists said. The radical group has been trapped in the Syrian...

Writing by Ethar Abdul Haq (Zaman Al Wasl- Exclusive)- ‘Islamic State’ received in its ranks members holding fake passports. Also, Islamic State issued fake passports and semi fake ones. The fake passport issue will last for years to come, and it will be a real preoccupation that bothers...