Beirut: Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, state media and activists said, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital.
Six people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, the latest in a series of rebel attacks on government targets including a December bombing which wounded Assad's interior minister.
Halki wields little power but the attack highlighted the rebels' growing ability to target symbols of Assad's authority in a civil war which has cost more than 70,000 lives, according to the United Nations.
Assad picked Halki in August to replace Riyadh Hijab, who defected and escaped to neighbouring Jordan just weeks after a Damascus bombing which killed four of the president's top security advisers....
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08:10 PM, Apr 29, 2013
Beirut: At least 54 people were killed when a Syrian air strike hit a fuel station in the northern province of al-Raqqa on Thursday, an area of heavy fighting between government and rebel forces, a British-based monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across Syria reporting on government violence during the 18-month-old revolt, cited an activist in the region saying that more...
01:55 AM, Sep 21, 2012
Beirut: Two Syrian activist groups say about 5,000 people were killed in Syria in August, making it the deadliest month since the uprising began more than 17 months ago. Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that 5,440 people, including 4,114 civilians were killed. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said 4,933 civilians were killed in August. The civil war witnessed a major turning point in August...
11:19 PM, Sep 02, 2012
Beirut: Row upon row of bloodied bodies wrapped in colorful blankets laid out on a mosque floor in a Damascus suburb. Long narrow graves tightly packed with dozens of victims. Nestled among them, two babies were wrapped in a single blood-soaked blanket, a yellow pacifier dangling beside them from a palm frond. Evidence mounted on Sunday of a new massacre in Syria's deepening civil war, with activists reporting a killing...
08:01 PM, Aug 27, 2012
Beirut: Syrian state-run news agency SANA says President Bashar Assad has appointed a new prime minister to replace one who defected this week to neighboring Jordan. Assad appointed Wael Nader al-Halqi, elevating him from the post of health minister. Halqi is a member of Assad's ruling Baath party and hails from the southern city of Daraa, birthplace of the Syrian uprising. The 48-year-old held the post of secretary general of...
05:27 PM, Aug 09, 2012
Beirut: A bomb ripped through the third floor of the state TV building in Damascus on Monday, shattering several offices and wounding at least three employees, Syrian TV said. The explosion was the latest in the Syrian capital, which has seen a string of suicide attacks and other bombings in the past few months as the country's civil war has escalated and the rebels grow bolder in their tactics. The...
01:56 PM, Aug 06, 2012
United Nations: Russia remained at loggerheads with the US and its European allies ahead of a scheduled vote on Wednesday afternoon on a new Syria resolution and there appeared to be little hope that the UN's most powerful body would unite behind a plan to end the 17-month civil war in the country. The key stumbling block is the Western demand for a resolution threatening non-military sanctions and tied to...
11:09 AM, Jul 18, 2012
Beirut: Syrian rebels said they shot down an Army helicopter on Tuesday as they battled government forces backed by air power and artillery in the fiercest fighting to hit Damascus since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad erupted last year. Rebel officers said thousands of fighters had converged on the capital, a government stronghold during 16 months of turmoil, to bring the battle from Syria's turbulent provinces into Assad's power...
07:57 AM, Jul 18, 2012
Beirut: Syrian rebels fired grenades at tanks and troops while regime armor shelled Damascus neighbourhoods on Monday, sending terrified families fleeing the most sustained and widespread fighting in the capital since the start of the uprising 16 months ago. A ring of fierce clashes nearly encircled the heavily guarded capital as rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad pushed the civil war that has been building in Syria's impoverished provinces...
07:48 AM, Jul 17, 2012
United Nations: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international envoy Kofi Annan increased pressure on the divided UN Security Council on Friday, urging that it demand a halt to the escalating violence in Syria and promising "consequences" if the conflict doesn't end. The UN chief and the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria renewed their appeals for action following Thursday's attack on a poor farming village in Hama province, which rebels claim...
08:45 AM, Jul 14, 2012
Amman/Beirut: The United States has branded Syria's leaders murderers after an attack on a village by President Bashar al-Assad's troops left dozens dead, but there was no break in the deadlock among world powers over how to bring about an end to the bloodshed. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned what his monitors on the ground had seen as an "indiscriminate" bombardment that included rocket-firing helicopters of the town...
08:27 AM, Jul 14, 2012
Brussels: European foreign ministers on Monday increased pressure on Syria's regime to stop its crackdown on opponents, freezing the assets of several Syrian government officials and imposing sanctions on the country's central bank. They also banned the purchase of gold, precious metals and diamonds from the country, and banned Syrian cargo flights from the European Union. The EU had previously imposed several rounds of sanctions on Syria, freezing the assets...
07:38 PM, Feb 27, 2012
Over 90 people were killed in Homs on Friday as President Bashar al Assad's forces shelled the city for the 21st day. ...
08:16 AM, Feb 25, 2012
Veteran journalist Marie Colvin from US was killed in Syria last week as the violence continues in Homs. ...
08:03 AM, Feb 24, 2012
Marie Colvin of Britain's Sunday Times and French photographer Remi Ochlik, both veteran war correspondents, were killed in Syria. ...
08:04 AM, Feb 23, 2012
United Nations: Voicing its opposition to the use of force to resolve the crisis in Syria, India on Wednesday asked all sides to cooperate with the Arab League and start a political process that should respect Damascus' sovereignty. "We are firmly of the view that all sides need to cooperate with the League of Arab States. A political process must begin without any further delay," Indian Ambassador to the UN...
11:33 AM, Feb 01, 2012
Police and army used tear gas and rubber bullets to keep the protesters from storming the Interior Ministry. ...
09:18 PM, Nov 23, 2011
Residents come out to show loyalty to Bashar al Assad, but they also feel the pressure that the Syrian government is feeling. ...
09:24 AM, Aug 24, 2011
The rebels stormed into Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's main military compound in Tripoli on Tuesday. ...
09:08 AM, Aug 24, 2011
Washington: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has accused the Syrian government of killing more than 2,000 of its own citizens during its ongoing brutal crackdown against opposition protesters as the Obama administration moved to further isolate President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle. The administration is unhappy with Assad's actions in trying to quell the five-month-old uprising. "We think, to date, the government is responsible for the deaths of...
05:36 PM, Aug 05, 2011
