Special to WorldTribune.com A pair of car bombings in Syria claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) killed 119 people just as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had announced a provisional deal for a ceasefire. Two car bombings killed at least 57 people and wounded dozens in the Al-Zahraa district of Homs, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Syrian forces are advancing rapidly against both anti-Assad rebels and Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) positions with support from Iranian officers, Hizbullah fighters and Russian warplanes, reports say. On Dec. 29, government forces and their allies captured a key southern military base from Brigade 82 rebels in the town of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Al Nusra Front, the Al Qaida rebel militia, has claimed the launch of weapons production and has attacked Syrian Army positions in Homs. On May 25, Nusra is said to have sent a car bomb that struck an Alawite neighborhood of Homs, which killed at least 10 people. Nusra is […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — President Bashar Assad has overseen a military campaign that could sever the last rebel supply line to central Syria. The Syrian Army has captured one of the last rebel strongholds along the border with Lebanon. The Army seizure of Zara on March 8 was said to have represented a key […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA ― Another Hizbullah commander has been killed. Lebanese sources said Hussein Salah Habib was killed in Syria and buried in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley on Jan. 1. The sources said Habib was abducted and tortured to death by Al Qaida-aligned rebels. “He went missing for eight months and was found a week […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — The Syrian opposition has reported that the Iran-backed Hizbullah was playing a leading role in an offensive by the regime of President Bashar Assad near Damascus. Opposition sources said Hizbullah was leading a force of several thousand troops as well as Iraqi militia fighters in the offensive against rebel strongholds […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Sunni rebels rebounded in Syria. Officials said the intelligence community has determined that the Sunni revolt reversed many of the gains of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the spring of 2013. The officials said the rebels, including Saudi-financed militias linked […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — After more than two years of civil war, much of Syria has refused to become drawn into the violence between the regime of President Bashar Assad and Sunni rebels, a report said. The International Crisis Group asserted that much if not most of Syria has dropped out of the Sunni […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, less than a week after approving U.S. military aid to Sunni rebels, has backed away from proposals meant to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. Obama, in his first interview on the subject, acknowledged that he was skeptical over measures to restrain Assad’s military amid its offensive against […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Hizbullah was said to have sustained heavy losses in fighting Sunni rebels along the Syrian border with Lebanon. The Syrian opposition asserted that nearly 100 Hizbullah troops were killed in the Syrian Army offensive to capture the rebel-held town of Qusair. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at […]