Damascus

Air strikes did not aim to help Syria rebels, says Israel

Jerusalem: Israel sought to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that its recent air strikes around Damascus did not aim to weaken him in the face of a more than two-year-old rebellion. Officials say Israel is reluctant to take sides in Syria's civil war for fear its actions would boost Islamists who are even more hostile to Israel than the Assad family, which has maintained a stable stand off with the Jewish state for decades.

But Israel has repeatedly warned it will not let Assad's ally Hezbollah receive hi-tech weaponry. Intelligence sources said Israel attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored near the Syrian capital on Friday and Sunday that were awaiting transfer to Hezbollah guerrilla group in neighbouring Lebanon.

Syria accused Israel of belligerence meant to shore up the outgunned anti-Assad rebels - drawing a denial on Monday from veteran Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Interviewed on Israel Radio, Hanegbi said the Netanyahu government aimed to avoid "an increase in tension with Syria by making clear that if there is activity, it is only against Hezbollah, not against the Syrian regime".

Hanegbi noted Israel had not formally acknowledged carrying out the raids in an effort to allow Assad to save face, adding that Netanyahu began a scheduled visit to China on Sunday to signal the sense of business as usual....more    

Israeli airstrikes on Syria prompt threats, anger

Beirut: Israel rushed to beef up its rocket defenses on its northern border on Sunday to shield against possible retaliation after carrying out two airstrikes in Syria over 48 hours - an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war. Syria and its patron Iran hinted at possible retribution, though the rhetoric in official statements appeared relatively muted. Despite new concerns about a regional war, Israeli officials signaled...  

Tension escalates after Israel warplanes strike Syria

Beirut: Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital on Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said. The attack, the second in three days and the third this year, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syrian state media...  

Syrian Prime Minister escapes assassination bid

Damascus: Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi escaped an assassination bid when a bomb exploded near his convoy in Damascus. The attack killed at least five people and left several others injured including the country's interior minister. The Prime Minister was not hurt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide attack. The UN has condemned the attack and the civil war, which has claimed more than 70 thousand...  

Syria: Suicide car bomber kills 15 in central Damascus

Beirut: A suicide car bomb killed at least 15 people and wounded 53 in the main business district of Damascus on Monday in what the Syrian prime minister said was a response to army gains against rebels around the capital. The bomb near a school in the Sabaa Bahrat district, which also houses the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, set cars ablaze and damaged buildings, state television footage showed. A...  

US unsure whether chemical weapons used in Syria

The US ambassador to Syria said on Wednesday there is no evidence so far to back reports that chemical weapons were used in Syria on Tuesday, but the United States has a large team investigating the issue. ...  

Syria: Schools on frontline of Damascus war

Syria's civil war has burst into central Damascus and its indiscriminate violence has put civilians in the firing line. ...  

Defiant Assad summons Syrians for 'war to defend nation'

A defiant President Bashar al Assad called on Sunday for national mobilisation in a "war to defend the nation", describing rebels fighting him as terrorists and agents of foreign powers with whom it was impossible to negotiate. ...  

Syria blames rebels for petrol station blast in Damascus

Syria said on January 4 that a car bomb at a crowded petrol station in Damascus was set off by "terrorists", a term it uses for rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad. The blast on January 3 night killed 11 people and wounded 40 at a station packed with Syrians queuing for fuel, which has become scarce in the 21-month insurgency against Assad, in the second petrol station attack...  

Syria blames 'terrorists' for deadly petrol station blast

Syria said on Friday a car bomb at a crowded petrol station in Damascus was set off by "terrorists", a term it uses for rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al Assad. ...  

Syria: Eleven dead, 40 wounded in gas station blast

At least 11 people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded at a crowded petrol station in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, opposition activists said. The station was packed with people queueing for fuel that has become increasingly scarce during the country's 21-month-long insurgency aimed at overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad. ...  

Syria: Rebels capture northern town after heavy fight

Syrian rebels fully captured a northern town near the Turkish border on December 25 after weeks of heavy fighting and attacked a regime air base in a neighboring province, activists said. The air base is in Aleppo province, where opposition fighters have already captured three other large military bases in recent months. Rebels have also laid siege to the international airport in the city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital, and...  

Syria chemical weapons are secure for now: Israel

Syria's chemical weapons are still secure despite the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of parts of the country, a senior Israeli defence official said on December 23. Amos Gilad told Army Radio that the civil war between Assad and opposition forces fighting to topple him had become deadlocked, but that the Syrian leader showed no signs of heeding international calls to step down. ...  

Syrian army pounds Damascus suburbs, flights to resume

Beirut: Syrian army forces pounded rebel-held suburbs around Damascus with fighter jets and rockets on Sunday, activists said, killing and wounding dozens in an offensive to push rebels away from the airport and stop them closing in on the capital. The army struck hard after a week of rebel advances, including the capture of two military bases near the capital. Rebels had been planning to push into central Damascus from...  

Syria: Fighting cuts access to Damascus airport

Beirut: Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, restricting access to its international airport, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline and EgyptAir stopped flights to the Syrian capital. The Internet and some telephone lines went down across Syria. Rebels and the government traded blame for the blackout, the worst communications outage in 20 months of conflict. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al...  

Syria: Car bombs kill 34 in pro-Assad Damascus suburb

Beirut: Two car bombs killed at least 34 people in a district of Damascus loyal to President Bashar al Assad on Wednesday in the deadliest attack on the Syrian capital in months. The explosions struck the eastern neighbourhood of Jaramana, home to many of Syria's Druze minority as well as Christians who have fled violence elsewhere, ripping through shops and bringing debris crashing down on cars. Once a bastion of...  

Inside Syria: Refugees live on fragile hopes as war goes on

There is a crisis brewing for those who have survived the fighting in Syria. The United Nations' refugee agency says up to 7,00,000 Syrian refugees could leave the country by the end of this year, nearly 4 times its original estimate. However, as CNN's Ivan Watson found out, it's recently become much harder to get out of Syria and across the border into Turkey. Watson found refugees waiting - in ...

Syria: Rebels hit army headquarter in Damascus

Amman: Syrian rebels said they planted bombs inside the Syrian army's General Staff headquarters in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad's forces bulldozed buildings to the ground in parts of the capital that have backed the uprising. Syrian state television said four people were wounded in what it called a terrorist attack on the General Staff compound in the highly guarded Abu Rummaneh district, where another bomb attack...  

Undercover in Damascus: It's a no man's land

August has been termed as the bloodiest month of the uprising in Syria, with almost 440 people killed over the last weekend alone. ...

Watch: Rebels down Army chopper in Syria, 245 dead

While activists claim 245 civilians were killed in the massacre, the UN has condemned the killings and is calling for an investigation. ...