Syria’s rebels take over oilfields once belonging to Assad

Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing is helping to finance its activities by selling the product of oilfields that once helped to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil were previously produced by wells around the city of Raqqa (more…)

Relatives of Lebanese hostages continue their sit-ins

Relatives of Lebanese hostages in Syria’s staged another sit-in on Thursday outside the Turkish Airlines office in Downtown Beirut.

A delegation of the relatives headed to the Ministry of Energy to demand the boycott by caretaker Minister of Energy (more…)

Fights ensue over Syrian highways

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian rebels on Saturday cut a newly built bypass road linking the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, an activist group said, while state media reported that government troops have secured a strategic highway between the capital and the southern (more…)

U.S. reassures Syria rebels about its stance on Assad

The new U.S.-Russia peace initiative for Syria will inevitably lead to the departure of President Bashar Assad, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday, moving to reassure Syrian rebels and their allies that the Obama administration had not backed down on its insistence that Assad must go.

“There is no way that anybody here believes that the opposition is ever going to give consent to President Assad to be running that government,” (more…)

US Ambassador crosses into Syria to meet with rebels

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford briefly crossed into northern Syria on Thursday to meet with Syrian opposition leaders.
It is Ford’s first visit back to Syria since he left in February, 2012, when the U.S. embassy suspended operations in Damascus as the opposition effort to oust Syrian President Bashar al Assad developed into a full-blown civil war. (more…)

More Filipino UN peacekeepers ‘held by Syrian rebels’

A group of Syrian rebels have used their Facebook page to announce that they are holding four Filipino UN peacekeepers in the demilitarised zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. (more…)

4 UN peacekeepers detained by Syria rebels

The United Nations says four peacekeepers have been detained by armed men while patrolling on the Golan Heights in an area separating Syria and Israel.

Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department, said the four peacekeepers, all from the Philippines, were taken by an unidentified armed group (more…)

Israeli strike kills 42 Syrian soldiers: Activists

Israel’s weekend airstrike on a military complex near the Syrian capital of Damascus killed at least 42 Syrian soldiers, a group of anti-regime activists said Monday, citing information from military hospitals.

The Syrian government has not released a death toll (more…)

Israeli airstrike in Syria aimed at Iran, report

Beirut, Lebanon – From Israel’s perspective, its airstrikes near Damascus were more about Iran than Syria: Tehran’s shipment of guided missiles destroyed in the weekend attacks would have posed a potent threat had the weapons reached Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon. (more…)

French FM calls for “a political solution” in Syria

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called Monday for “a political solution” to the conflict in Syria, after its regime was suspected of using chemical weapons and after two Israeli raids on the country.

Israeli raids on Sunday hit three military sites outside Damascus, the second such reported attack in 48 hours, reportedly targeting weapons bound for Lebanese group Hezbollah (more…)