A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups advanced toward a dam in northern Syria held by Islamic State fighters on Thursday, in an assault aimed at capturing the militants' stronghold of Raqqa, rebels and a monitor said. They said the push by fighters of the Democratic...

Indonesian forces are mobilizing for a manhunt in steamy jungles on the far-flung island of Sulawesi to flush the country's most-wanted man from his hideout and deal a pre-emptive blow to Islamic State. The real threat could be much closer to home. Militant leader Santoso, the...

Israeli forces killed four Palestinian assailants in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the army said, as a 12-week surge in street violence showed no sign of abating. In the latest in a wave of almost daily assaults, a knife-wielding Palestinian hurt two...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Russian fighter jets have killed 10 civilians, mostly drivers, on Thursday in an attack on a fuel convoy in the northern countryside of Aleppo, local reporter said. Russia's vacuum missile attacks have targeted the convoy between the towns of Ehrus and Harbel near the Turkish...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- One Islam Army fighter has been killed on Thursday in clashes with an-ISIS-linked group in Dumeir city east of Damascus, the local coordination said. The infighting has renewed after nearly two weeks of fragile truce between Islam Army and Jaish al-Tahrir, or Liberation Army,...

(The Wall Street Journal)- The Obama administration pursued secret communications with elements of Syria’s regime over several years in a failed attempt to limit violence and get President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power, according to U.S. and Arab officials. Early on, the U.S....

(Zaman Al Wasl)- French authorities decided to grant the political asylum to Elaph Qaddah, a Syrian journalist who was arrested by the Jordanian intelligence on Monday, Zaman Al Wasl reporter said. The remarkable move by the French Embassy in Amman came to save Qaddah from extradition to Syria...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 20 civilians, including 8 children and 2 women, have been killed and dozens wounded in  the regime's vacuum missiles fired into a local marketplace in Damascus suburbs, local media center and monitoring group said Thursday. Douma Media Center said the death tool...

Video footage of Jewish zealots mocking the death by arson of a Palestinian baby has sparked outrage in Israel, even as some on the far right saw in the leak a possible bid to justify tough interrogation of suspects in the killing. Aired on Israel's Channel 10 television late on Wednesday, the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian activists and ISIS say the militants have seized a district previously held by Syrian troops in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, AP reported. The industrial district of Deir Ezzor fell to the group late Wednesday following an attack and fierce clashes between the two...

Syria is ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hopes that the dialogue will help it form a national unity government, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday during a visit to Beijing. The U.N. Security Council last Friday unanimously approved a...

The Japanese government is seeking information after reports a Japanese freelance journalist is being held hostage in Syria and has been threatened with execution, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week...

A close adviser to Syrian President Bashar al Assad said on Wednesday Damascus was ready to join U.N.-sponsored peace talks with its position bolstered by both Russian backing and the West's retreat from a hardline anti-Assad approach. Bouthaina Shaaban said her government...

Translation by Yusra Ahmed (Zaman Al Wasl)- Riad Hijab, the newly-appointed Syrian opposition's coordinator for Syria future talks and  former prime minister who defected in August 2012, is facing 4 arrest warrants issued by the regime's security services, according to the leaked archive...

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations Security Council voted Wednesday to endorse an agreement between rival Libyan political factions to form a government of national unity. The 15-nation body gave its support to the deal signed last week in the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime's barrel bombs have killed seven people from the same family in the southern province of Daraa, activists said Wednesday. Father, mother and their five children have lost their lives in Sheikh Miskeen after targeting their neighborhood with 4 barrel bombs. Syria...

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that nearly three months of Russian air raids in Syria have killed hundreds of civilians, many in targeted strikes that could constitute war crimes. Some strikes "appear to have directly attacked civilians or civilian objects by striking...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Media activists of the besieged Moadamiyet al-Sham town, western Damascus, said regime forces have shelled the town with 60 mortar rounds and 7 barrel bombs on Wednesday, hours after 10 people killed in regime's sarin gas attack. Moadamiyet al-Sham, also known as Moadamiya,...

Clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants intensified in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir Wednesday after a bomb attack on troops there killed one soldier and wounded seven other people, security sources said. Turkish security forces last week launched an operation in...

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud accused Syrian President Bashar Assad Wednesday of having aided the rise of ISIS and called for a political settlement with moderate forces to end the war there. The solution would be to form "a transitional government made up of moderate opposition...