An explosion struck the Christian Bab Touma district in the Old City of Damascus on Thursday in what  Syria n state television said was a suicide bombing. Opposition sources said it was a mortar attack. It was the first major blast reported inside the walls of the Old City, a UNESCO...

   Domiz Camp is overcrowded – 45,000 people living in a place designed for 25,000 – so people look for other places to live.  Many refugees have moved into the cities and towns of Kurdistan, Iraq. This is where I met Ahmed, Shaheen and Hadija. Three reasons to...

This week marked another grim milestone in Syria’s ongoing civil war when the death toll topped 100,000. But as hopes for a peaceful resolution fade, a window of opportunity may have opened with the election of Iran’s new moderate leader, the cleric Hassan Rowhani.  The...

In the border towns where Syrian rebels recuperate and resupply, the buzz is that the long wait for Barack Obama may be near an end. The excitement is not the result of the White House announcement on June 13 that the United States will supply light weapons to the groups seeking to...

The Red Cross said on Thursday it was planning humanitarian operations for an extended conflict in  Syria  in the absence of any sign of a political solution and military stalemate between rebels and government troops. Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of...

  The full Report about Tal Kalakh Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights Period covered: 18/6/2013 to 25/6/2013   Lebanese Hezbollah accompanied by Shabiha and Syrian Government's Armed Forces started wide attack in the period...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that arming Syrian rebels is a bad idea, and parliamentary leaders ought to think long and hard before acting. “The risks would be incalculable,” she said in an address to Parliament, The Associated Press reported. Ms. Merkel also said...

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are said to want two more children and are thinking of adopting a Syrian orphan from a refugee camp in Jordan. Prolific humanitarian Angelina is said to have made the decision in Jordan last week, and hopes the high-profile adoption would help raise awareness of...

The lynching of four Shia by a mob apparently led by Salafi sheikhs in the village of Abu Musallim in Greater Cairo on June 23, 2013, came after months of anti-Shia hate speech at times involving the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and its political party, Human Rights Watch said today. The episode...

The director-general of Qatar-based al Jazeera satellite news network has resigned to take up a post in the newly reshuffled government, the station said on Wednesday .   Ahmed bin Jassim al-Thani said in a statement posted on the station's website that he was...

President Mohamed Mursi offered opponents a say on Wednesday in amending a controversial new constitution and a forum to seek "national reconciliation", as he sought to avert a violent showdown in the streets. In a televised address lasting more than two and a half hours, the Islamist...

The Assad army, backed by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group, declared victory over a second city in the central province of Homs, Al Arabiya television channel reported on Wednesday. The city was already under the regime control in most of it Activists said. The...

 Russia has evacuated all military personnel from its small naval base in Syria, Russian news organizations reported Wednesday. The base, at Tartus on the Mediterranean, has been Russia’s only foothold in the Middle East. Although it is a minor facility, its importance has...

Susan Rice has called the UN Security Council's inaction on the Syrian war "a stain" on the body, in final remarks as US ambassador to the organisation. She criticised Russia and China for vetoing three resolutions that would have increased pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad....

The manager of Qatar's rise to global prominence, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, used charm, tenacity and economic clout to broker peace and topple dictators overseas and build an investment nest-egg for future generations at home. Sheikh Hamad was replaced as...

The other night I spoke to Alaa al-Sheikh, the Free Syrian Army’s Khaled Bin Waleed Brigade in Rastan, a city that’s home about 25,000 people and lies on the main Damascus-Aleppo highway in the province of Homs. Over the last several months, Rastan has become the frontline in the war...

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political group in Lebanon with a militant wing the United States defines as a terrorist organization. With significant support from Iran and Syria, Hezbollah maintains an extensive security apparatus, political organization, and social services network in Lebanon,...

Tens of Hezbollah militants occupied a school, close to Shia villages in Aleppo, to make it a military point, Aleppo Media center reported. 500 fighter have gathered there in step to break the siege implemented by FSA on the Nobul and Zahraa, Pro-Assad towns and the mean...

The new emir of the State of Qatar has made his first public address since taking over from his father, who he praised as the architect of the Gulf State. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday addressed his nation and international audiences in a speech that promised to continue with...

The highest-ranking Soviet-bloc intelligence officer ever to defect to the West claims in a new book that anti-American Islamic terrorism had its roots in a secret 1970s-era KGB plot to harm but the United States and Israel by seeding Muslim countries with carefully targeted propaganda. Yuri...