'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
A powerful bomb ripped through a bustling commercial district of Damascus on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people, shattering store fronts and bringing Syria's civil war to the heart of the capital for the second consecutive day.
The intensity level of Middle East affairs ratcheted a degree higher Thursday, as Russian officials expressed concern, almost to the point of condemnation, about reported Israeli air strikes in Syria.
Israel conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria, foreign officials and Syrian state TV said Wednesday, amid fears that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is providing weapons to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.
Palestinian factions in Syria called for a cease-fire Tuesday after fighting flared at a refugee camp in the capital, Damascus, highlighting a split among Palestinians as the civil war intensifies.
A Syrian warplane blasted a gas station near Damascus on Wednesday, killing and wounding dozens of people and igniting a huge fire in what could be one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks during the 22-month civil war.
Syrian fighter jets bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus Tuesday for the second time this week after rebels made significant advances, seizing large areas within the camp.
Syrian fighter jets bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus on Tuesday for the second time this week after rebels made significant advances, seizing large areas within the camp, activists said.
More than 100 countries on Wednesday recognized a new Syrian opposition coalition, further isolating the regime and opening the way for greater humanitarian assistance to the forces battling President Bashar Assad.
Syrian rebels made a new push into Damascus on Wednesday, clashing heavily with troops in the rebellious suburbs of the capital and firing mortars at a presidential palace and a Palestinian refugee camp, activists said.
Syrians took to the streets for the largest anti-regime protests in months in several cities Friday, taking advantage a lull in fighting as a cease-fire took effect at the start of a Muslim holiday. But scattered violence including battles over a northern military base and a Damascus suburb illustrated the difficulty of maintaining even a limited truce.
Syria's protracted civil war is spilling across its borders, creating breeding grounds for extremists, sharpening sectarian schisms and threatening to destabilize U.S. allies in the Middle East.
Government airstrikes on rebel areas in northern Syria killed at least 43 people and leveled buildings, forcing residents to search mounds of rubble for bodies trapped underneath, anti-regime activists said Thursday. The strikes late Wednesday and early Thursday hit at least five towns in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
Syrian government warplanes unleashed deadly airstrikes on rebel strongholds in the country's north on Tuesday, activists reported.
The United States is blaming Syrian President Bashar Assad for the growing violence spilling across the border into neighboring Lebanon, which already is burdened with 90,000 refugees from the Syrian civil war.
A Syrian military helicopter clipped the tail of a Syrian passenger jet with 200 people aboard in midair Thursday, but the larger aircraft landed safely and no one aboard was hurt, Syrian state TV said.
