Israel has claimed that its military stepped in to protect the Druze community in Syria and eliminate pro-government forces accused of attacking them
Clashes raged in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Wednesday after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed and Israel threatened to escalate its involvement in support of the Druze religious minority. Syria's Defence Ministry blamed militias in Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire and continue military operations in the Druze-majority province. Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes, the statement said. A rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted Syria's longtime despotic leader, Bashar Assad, in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Since then, the country's new rulers have struggled to consolidate control over the territory. The primarily Sunn
HTS was labelled a terrorist group by the US in 2018 because of its previous connections to al-Qaeda. However, in late January, it was disbanded and the fighters were integrated into Syrian military
Syria's new government has agreed to give inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog access to suspected former nuclear sites immediately, the agency's head told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency's director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, spoke in an exclusive interview in Damascus, where he met with President Ahmad al-Sharaa and other officials. He also said al-Sharaa expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future, adding, Why not? The agency's aim is to bring total clarity over certain activities that took place in the past that were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons, Grossi said. He described the new government as committed to opening up to the world, to international cooperation and said he is hopeful of finishing the inspection process within months. An IAEA team in 2024 visited some sites of interest while former President Bashar Assad was still in power. Since the fa
Once hunted by the US with a $10 million bounty, Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa now shakes hands with Donald Trump in a rare and dramatic diplomatic U-turn
US President Donald Trump met Syria's interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia during his Gulf tour; talks signal shift as Trump plans to lift decades-old US sanctions on Syria
President Donald Trump is set to meet Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, going face-to-face with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by US forces after being captured in Iraq. The White House said Trump has agreed to say hello to al-Sharaa before the US leader wraps up his stay in Saudi Arabia and heads to Qatar, where Trump is to be honoured with a state visit. His Mideast tour also will take him to the United Arab Emirates. Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family. Trump said he agreed to meet with al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president also pledged to lift yearslong sanctions on Syria. There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilising the country and
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said Wednesday that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent recent hostilities from getting out of control. He spoke on his first visit to Europe since taking office in January, and as he seeks to broaden ties to Western countries. Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on parts of Syria last week, saying it aims to protect the country's Druze minority coming under attack by pro-government gunmen. Speaking to reporters in Paris, al-Sharaa said, "Regarding negotiations with Israel, there are indirect talks through mediators to calm down the situation so that they don't go out of control." He did not say who the mediators are. His visit to Paris comes amid renewed sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where al-Sharaa took power after his Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive that toppled former President Bashar Assad in December. Assad, a member of Syria's Alawite minority, ruled for more than two decades. The vi
Israeli strikes in Syria reportedly killed at least nine people in the southwest of the country on Thursday, as Israel accused Turkey of trying to build a protectorate in Syria. Syrian state news agency SANA said that those who died in the strikes were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that they were armed residents from the Daraa province. Israel had also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including more than a dozen strikes near a strategic air base in the city of Hama, where Turkey, a key ally of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, reportedly has interests in having a military presence. Syria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the strikes had resulted in the near-total destruction of the Hama military airport and the injury of dozens of civilians and military personnel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar accused Turkey of playing a negative role in Syria. They are doing their utmost to h
Unlike traditional structures, the government will not have a prime minister, with al-Sharaa expected to directly lead the executive branch
Three months following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad, Syria is at a crossroads, the top UN envoy for the country said. Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Council that Syria can return to violence or start an inclusive transition and end decades of conflict. He said the road back to conflict, fragmentation and violations of Syrian sovereignty by external powers "must not come to pass". The other road, which would restore Syria's sovereignty and regional security, is "viable" but "requires the right Syrian decisions" and international support, Pedersen said. Syria's civil war had gone on for 13 years when a lightning insurgency led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew Assad in December, ending his family's more than 50-year rule. Former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa was announced as the country's interim president after a meeting of armed groups that took part in the offensive. Pedersen spoke weeks after clashes between al-Sharaa's security forces an
For more than five decades, the dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father before him ruled Syria by terror. Anyone wanted by any of the regime's numerous intelligence
Lebanese and Syrian defense officials reached an agreement late Monday for a ceasefire to halt two days of clashes along the border, Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported. The agreement also stipulates enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides, the statement from the Syrian Ministry of Defense said. Lebanon's president earlier Monday ordered troops to retaliate against the source of gunfire from the Syrian side of the border after more deadly fighting erupted overnight along the frontier. Lebanon's Health Ministry reported that seven Lebanese citizens were killed and another 52 injured in the clashes, including a 4-year-old girl. The fighting happened after Syria's interim government accused militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah group of crossing into Syria on Saturday, abducting three soldiers and killing them on Lebanese soil. Hezbollah denied involvement and some other reports pointed to local clans in the border region that are not directly affiliated with .
The European Union hosts a donor conference for Syria on Monday to muster support to ensure a peaceful transition after President Bashar Assad was ousted by an insurgency last December. Ministers and representatives from Western partners, as well as Syria's regional neighbors, other Arab countries and UN agencies will take part in the one-day meeting in Brussels which will be chaired by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Syria will attend the conference the ninth edition of its kind for the first time, and will be represented by Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani. The event was organized in haste by the EU to try to take advantage of the change sweeping the country. The gathering comes at a precarious time. Syria's new leaders are trying to consolidate control over territory that was divided into de facto mini-states during nearly 14 years of civil war and to rebuild the country's economy and infrastructure. The United Nations in 2017 estimated it would cost at least $250
The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has aggravated already tense relations between Turkiye and Israel, with their conflicting interests in Syria pushing the relationship toward a possible collision course. Turkiye, which long backed groups opposed to Assad, has emerged as a key player in Syria and is advocating for a stable and united Syria, in which a central government maintains authority over the whole country. It welcomed a breakthrough agreement that Syria's new interim government signed this week with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, to integrate with the Syrian government and army. Israel, on the other hand, remains deeply suspicious of Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, pointing to his roots in al-Qaida. It's also wary of Turkiye's influence over Damascus and appears to want to see Syria remain fragmented after the country under Assad was turned into a staging ground for its archenemy, Iran, and Tehran's proxies. Syria has become
Syria's Druze minority has a long history of cutting their own path to survive among the country's powerhouses. They are now trying again to navigate a new, uncertain Syria since the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad. Members of the small religious sect find themselves caught between two forces that many of them distrust: the new, Islamist-led government in Damascus and Syria's hostile neighbor, Israel, which has used the plight of the Druze as a pretext to intervene in the country. Syria's many religious and ethnic communities are worried over their place in the new system. The transitional government has promised to include them, but has so far kept authority in the hands of the Islamist former insurgents who toppled Assad in December -- Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. That and HTS's past affiliation with Sunni Muslim extremist al-Qaida, has minorities suspicious. The most explosive hostilities have been with the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad's family belongs. Hea
The violence erupted in Syria's coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, where security forces clashed with fighters loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad
The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, including nearly 750 civilians, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence since Syria's conflict began 14 years ago. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in addition to 745 civilians, 125 members of the government security forces and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with deposed President Bashar Assad were killed. The observatory also said that electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the coastal city of Latakia and many bakeries shut down. The clashes, which erupted Thursday, marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power. The government has said that they were responding to attacks fro
Fighters siding with Syria's new government stormed several villages near the country's coast, killing dozens of men in response to recent attacks on government security forces by loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad, a war monitor said. The village assaults erupted Thursday and continued Friday. Ongoing clashes between the two sides have marked the worst violence since Assad's government was toppled in early December by insurgent groups led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The new government has pledged to unite Syria after 14 years of civil war. More than 200 people have been killed since the fighting broke out, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In addition to around 140 killed in apparent revenge attacks in the villages, the dead include at least 50 members of Syria's government forces and 45 fighters loyal to Assad. The civil war that has been raging in Syria since March 2011 has left more than half a million people dead and ...
Gunmen ambushed a Syrian police patrol in a coastal town Thursday, leaving at least 13 security members dead and many others wounded, a monitoring group and a local official said. The attack came as tensions in Syria's coastal region between former President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect and members of Islamic groups escalate. Assad was overthrown in early December in an offensive of insurgent groups led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the ambush in the town of Jableh, near the city of Latakia, killed at least 16. Rami Abdurrahman, head of the monitoring group, said the gunmen who ambushed the police force are Alawites. These are the worst clashes since the fall of the regime, Abdurrahman said. A local official in Damascus told The Associated Press that 13 members of the General Security directorate were killed in the ambush. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release secur