The Pigeon Express
A Syrian cargo ship, sanctioned by the United States and carrying what Ukraine says is stolen barley from the country, has docked in Lebanon, the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in the Middle East nation has said. According to the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut, the cargo vessel Laodicea docked in the port of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, […]
Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended cross-border aid to Syria by one year without Damascus’s backing. The authorisation for aid deliveries across the Syria-Turkey border at Bab al-Hawa, which has been in effect since 2014, is set to expire on Sunday. The aid is a lifeline for more than […]
A fire at a shopping centre in the Syrian capital Damascus has killed at least 11 people, the interior ministry said. Many of those killed were security guards or staff who were on duty overnight in the six-storey building, said Ahmad Abbas, the director of civil defence. “Eleven people have died as a result of […]
At least 13 people have been killed in a major US special forces raid in opposition-held north-western Syria, first responders and activists say. The Pentagon said the mission was “successful” and that there were no US casualties, but gave no other details. The White Helmets rescue service said it had found the bodies of six […]
Two babies have died from the cold after heavy snow and freezing temperatures hit camps for displaced people in north-western Syria. A UN official told AFP that the seven-day-old and two-month-old girls had died in Idlib province. Some 2.8 million people have sought shelter in the opposition stronghold after fleeing their homes during the country’s […]
The Jordanian troops have killed 27 suspected smugglers attempting to enter the country from neighbouring Syria, they said, adding that some others also carrying drugs fled back into Syria. A report on the Jordanian army’s website on Thursday said it thwarted several suspected attempts to smuggle drugs from Syria, and that large quantities of narcotics […]
Intense fighting is taking place in north-eastern Syria after Islamic State (IS) fighters tried to break inmates out of a Kurdish-run prison. Kurdish-led forces backed by US air strikes have been battling militants in the city of Hasaka since Thursday. The assault on Ghwayran prison is one of the group’s most ambitious since its defeat […]
Five Syrian soldiers have been killed and 20 injured in a rocket attack on a military transport bus in the east of the country. Sunday’s attack took place at approximately 7:00pm, Syrian state media reported on Monday, adding that a military vehicle in the Badia area came under a rocket attack followed by artillery shelling […]
A “deliberate and coordinated” attack utilizing drones and indirect fire targeted US troops at the US base at At-Tanf in Syria, close to the border with Jordan, on Wednesday, according to US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East. The initial assessment is that there were no injuries as a result of the […]
Syria executed 24 people after charging them with igniting wildfires last year that left three people dead and burned thousands of hectares of forests, the justice ministry said. Although executions are common in war-torn Syria, the number of those put to death on Wednesday was larger than usual. Syria’s decade-old conflict left hundreds of thousands […]
A bomb attack on a military bus in central Damascus has killed 14 people, Syrian state media say. Two explosive devices attached to the vehicle blew up as it passed under Jisr al-Rais bridge during the morning rush hour, Sana news agency reported. Although Syria has been embroiled in civil war for a decade, such […]
Iraq claims to have captured the jihadist group Islamic State’s financial chief in an operation outside its borders. Sami Jasim al-Jaburi was arrested in a “complex external operation” by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted. He added that Mr Jasim, also known as Hajji Hamid, was a deputy leader of IS […]