BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday ordered its citizens out of Lebanon in its first concrete action against the Mediterranean country, while officials in Beirut demanded the immediate return of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who abruptly announced his resignation last week in a television appearance from the kingdom, where he has been holed up … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local): 4:20 p.m. The Dutch government is sending a military refueling plane to Kuwait to assist the U.S.-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. The government announced the deployment Monday, saying a KDC-10 refueling plane left … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the fighting in Syria (all times local): 5:30 p.m. The Russian military says it has sent a team of sappers to clear the eastern part of Aleppo from mines. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff said Wednesday the unit has 200 soldiers and 47 vehicles. He … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — At least 21 civilians were killed in a wave of artillery fire in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning that struck a neighborhood crowded with people displaced from other parts of the city. It was the second time the Jub al-Quba neighborhood, in the rebel-held eastern side of the city, was struck in … Continue reading
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian military said Friday its officers have found evidence of chemical weapons use by Syrian militants in the northern area of Aleppo where government forces are trying to regain control of areas they recently lost to insurgents. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that ministry experts have found … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament on Monday elected Michel Aoun, an 81-year-old former army commander and strong ally of the militant group Hezbollah, as the country’s president, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the top post and a political crisis that brought state institutions perilously close to collapse. Aoun secured a simple majority of … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces and their allies on Monday captured strategic high ground in embattled Aleppo as Russia — a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad — said it was not planning more “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in the city’s eastern, rebel-held districts. The fighting in Aleppo came as airstrikes hit … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) â The Latest on Syria (all times local): 5:58 p.m. The Russian military says Russian and Syrian warplanes are staying away from Aleppo, a day before a temporary pause in the military push declared by Moscow. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said the “humanitarian pause” in Aleppo will last from 8 a.m. to 7 … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian residents in opposition-held eastern part of the city of Aleppo woke up to a fresh wave of airstrikes on Friday amid intense clashes between government forces and rebels — part of a devastating military campaign by Syria and Russia that the opposition says has killed dozens of people in the past … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the developments in the Syrian civil war (all times local): 6:05 p.m. Russia says that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Switzerland on Saturday to discuss efforts to find a peace deal in Syria. The encounter will be the first face-to-face contact … Continue reading
BERLIN (AP) — A Syrian man arrested for a suspected Islamic extremist bomb plot underwent a security check last year, but it turned up nothing suspicious, Germany’s top security official said Wednesday. Jaber Albakr, a 22-year-old Syrian who had been granted asylum, was arrested Monday in Leipzig after three fellow Syrians tied him up and … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in the Syrian civil war (all times local): 4:30 p.m. Germany is hosting a meeting of senior foreign ministry officials from a group of Western nations in hopes of exploring ways out of the diplomatic impasse surrounding Syria’s civil war. Ministry political directors from the United States, France, … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local): 5 p.m. The IS-linked Aamaq news agency reports that the extremist group has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks in the central Syrian city of Hama that killed two people and wounded 12. The attack was carried out by two suicide bombers wearing explosives-laden … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s government secured a deal to restore its authority over another rebellious Damascus suburb on Thursday while Syrian rebels captured new ground in a lightning advance on the central city of Hama and suspected government airstrikes killed 25 civilians in the surrounding province. The Syrian capital’s western suburb of Moadamiyeh, which a … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — A powerful Kurdish party announced plans Wednesday, Mar. 16, to declare a federal region in northern Syria, an idea promptly dismissed by Turkey and Syrian government negotiators at U.N.-brokered peace talks. The declaration was expected to be made at the end of a Kurdish conference that began Wednesday in the town of … Continue reading
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