Syria

Read recent Syrian news stories and current events on Newser.com

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Syria Fires Rockets at Lebanon
 Syria Fires Rockets at Lebanon 
Mar 18, 2013 9:00 AM CDT

Syria Fires Rockets at Lebanon

No injuries reported as empty buildings are hit

(Newser) - Syria fired three rockets into Lebanon today, as it threatened to do last week . The jet-fired rockets hit empty buildings in the border town of Arsaal, CNN reports. Syrian officials claim armed terrorists have infiltrated Syria from Lebanon, and the UN has voiced concern over the growing tension and cross-border...

Syria Warns It May Strike Lebanon

Assad's regime says rebels are crossing back and forth over border

(Newser) - With Syrian militants crossing back and forth across the northern Lebanon border, the Syrian foreign ministry has told Lebanon to put a stop to it or else face military strikes, reports Reuters via the Christian Science Monitor . "Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs...

Iran Shipping More Weapons to Assad
Iran Shipping More Weapons to Assad
Mar 14, 2013 4:30 AM CDT

Iran Shipping More Weapons to Assad

Meanwhile, French official says they want to arm opposition

(Newser) - Iran has drastically increased its arms shipments to Syria in recent months, sending weapons to Bashar al-Assad's regime, and to its Hezbollah supporters, in what is increasingly becoming a Shiite-vs-Sunni conflict, Western diplomats tell Reuters . The weapons are flowing primarily through Iraq—despite Iraqi protestations to the contrary—but...

Fearing Syria Spillover, CIA Ups Iraq Presence

Al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda in Iraq closely tied, experts say

(Newser) - The US military may have pulled out of Iraq in December 2011, but now the CIA is going back in, reports the Wall Street Journal . In a series of secret decisions in 2011 and 2012, the White House directed US intelligence to take over from the military in supporting Iraq'...

Entire Generation of Syrian Kids Could Be Doomed: UN

After 2 years of fighting, millions of children in serious need, says report

(Newser) - March brings the start of the third year of the Syria conflict, and UNICEF is seeing doom for the country's children. A rep for the children's aid organization warns that "the risk of a lost generation grows every hour, every day, and every month," and backs...

Journo Escapes After 5 Months in Captivity

Says she was held by Syrian rebels, defends Assad's regime

(Newser) - A Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped in Syria on Oct. 9, reportedly by rebels, managed to escape yesterday, she tells RIA Novosti . "I took a terrible risk, as I had to walk across an area leading on to minefields," Ankhar Kochneva says. "I walked and walked, and...

Syria Using Militias for Mass Killings: UN

As more than 2.5M displaced by civil war

(Newser) - The latest travesty the Syrian government has been accused of: using local militias to carry out mass killings. UN human rights investigators say these "Popular Committees" commit killings that sometimes have "sectarian overtones," Reuters reports. (The rebels in Syria are mainly Sunni Muslims, while President Bashar al-Assad...

Syria Refugees Could Double, Triple By 2014: UN

'Risk of an explosion' in their numbers, says Antonio Guterres

(Newser) - The U.N. chief for refugees says the number of refugees from Syria could increase by "two or three times" the present level by the end of the year if the country's conflict doesn't end. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says the international community should...

Syria Rebels Free 21 UN Peacekeepers

Rebel faction held them 4 days, gave in to pressure

(Newser) - Syrian rebels today freed 21 UN peacekeepers after holding them hostage for four days, ending a sudden entanglement with the world body that earned those trying to oust President Bashar Assad a flood of negative publicity. The Filipino peacekeepers, part of a force that has spent four decades monitoring an...

No Release for Seized UN Monitors

Their release had been expected today

(Newser) - The Philippine government was under the impression that Syrian rebels would release 21 UN monitors today—but that hasn't happened, it says. Officials say the rebels maintain that they won't release the monitors until Syrian government forces exit the Jamlah area, near the Golan Heights. "I don'...

Now Syrian Rebels Claim They Rescued UN 'Guests'

Video making demands for their release pulled offline

(Newser) - You got it all wrong, a Syrian rebel group protested today. They weren't abducting UN peacekeeping troops in the Golan Heights yesterday, they were rescuing them. The rebel group, known as the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, has pulled down a video they'd posted on Facebook saying they wouldn't...

Syrian Opposition Detains 20 UN Peacekeepers

They had been monitoring Israel-Syria ceasefire

(Newser) - The UN Security Council has strongly condemned the detention of more than 20 peacekeepers monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Syria by armed members of the Syrian opposition and demanded their immediate and unconditional release. Russia's UN Ambassador, the council president, says talks are underway between UN officials and...

Syria&#39;s Refugee Tally: 1M
 Syria's Refugee Tally: 1M 
Mar 6, 2013 4:04 AM CST

Syria's Refugee Tally: 1M

And half of them are children, according to UN report

(Newser) - A million people have now fled Syria to avoid the war raging there—and half of them are children, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported today . "Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," commissioner António Guterres said. "We are doing everything we can to help, but...

Syrian Rebels Seize Key Provincial City

Fighters smash statue of President Assad's father

(Newser) - Syrian rebels today captured most of the key north-central city of Raqqa, possibly dashing President Bashar al-Assad's hope of ever reclaiming northern and eastern Syria, the New York Times reports. The rebels posted a video of them destroying a statue of al-Assad's father—former President Hafez al-Assad—in...

49 Syrian and Iraqi Troops Killed in Border Ambush

Fears increase that civil war will spill over into Iraq

(Newser) - At least 42 Syrian soldiers and seven Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush near a border crossing in Iraq today, sharpening fears that Syria's civil war could spill into Iraq and destabilize the region, the AP reports. The Syrian soldiers ( Reuters reports the group also included government...

Kerry: Time for Iran Nuke Talks Is 'Finite'

UN watchdog prevented from entering Iran military site

(Newser) - Talks with Iran on its nuclear program can't simply drag on forever, John Kerry and the Saudi foreign minister are warning. "There is a finite amount of time," Kerry said during a Riyadh press conference on his first overseas trip as secretary of state. Diplomacy, he said,...

Kerry Unveils $60M in Aid for Syria Rebels

But purely of the 'non-lethal' variety

(Newser) - The US intends to step up its "non-lethal" aid to the Syrian opposition, John Kerry announced after a meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group in Rome today. The Obama administration will ask Congress for $60 million in aid, along with food rations, and medical supplies, the BBC...

US May Give Direct Aid to Syria Rebels

Washington Post: Expected policy shift does not include weapons

(Newser) - The Washington Post reports that the US is poised to give direct aid to Syrian rebels for the first time. That doesn't mean weapons, however. Think body armor, military vehicles, humanitarian assistance, and maybe military training. John Kerry is expected to hash out the details this week and next...

In Sea Change, Saudis Arming Syrian Opposition

Plus, opposition agrees to attend international summit

(Newser) - A big shift in the Syrian conflict: Saudi Arabia is arming the opposition. It's a decidedly more activist approach than had previously been taken by regional and Western powers, the New York Times reports, and it signals an attempt to counter the weapons Iran is sending to Bashar al-Assad'...

Huge Blast Rocks Damascus
 Huge Blast Rocks Damascus 
Feb 21, 2013 7:46 AM CST

Huge Blast Rocks Damascus

Kids dead, Russian embassy damaged

(Newser) - A powerful car bomb exploded in central Damascus today, blowing out the windows of the Russian embassy, and killing at least some children at a nearby school. The bomb detonated at a security checkpoint between the embassy and the Baath Party Headquarters, the BBC reports. Activists say at least 31...

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