Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad denied yesterday that his government had ever used chemical weapons or chlorine during the brutal war in his country. Mekdad was speaking at a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as the group comes close to fully eliminating Damascus’ deadly stockpile of nerve agents and […]
Syrian military loads chemical weapons into bombs, awaits Assad’s order
The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday. The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens […]
IRAN SEEKS SOLUTION TO SYRIA CONFLICT
Iran’s foreign minister has met embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and called for a solution to the ongoing civil war, as a rights group accused Damascus of waging “relentless, indiscriminate” attacks against its own people. Speaking in Damascus on Wednesday, Ali Akbar Salehi said the solution to the 18-month conflict lies “only in Syria and […]
Fears grow over fate of Syrian city of Aleppo
International concern was mounting Friday over a looming massacre as Syrian troops bombarded the besieged city of Aleppo with artillery, strafed it with aircraft and pulled in major reinforcements ready to crush the outgunned rebels.
Syria: Aleppo could be ‘ the mother of all battles’
The battle for Syria’s second city, Aleppo, is a crucial fight that could determine the direction of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, observers say. Troops and rebel fighters are massing in and around the city, and Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime, pulled no punches describing the fighting in the northern commercial […]
U.S. concerned Syrian regime planning massacre in Aleppo
The United States said on Thursday it appeared that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were “lining up” for a massacre in the city of Aleppo, but again ruled out military intervention in the conflict.
Analysis: The ‘day after’ in Syria
By David Ignatius
It is time for Washington to emphasize what the United States can do, rather than what it can’t, in Syria. U.S. policy is caught between two imperatives
Syrian troops, rebels reinforce for big Aleppo battle
Syrian rebels have stepped up their stockpiling of ammunition and medical supplies in preparation for a major battle in Aleppo, a BBC reporter says. The rebels, who are in control of large parts of Syria’s second city, have set up checkpoints
Syrian army rushes reinforcements to Aleppo to fight rebels
Syrian troops rushed dozens of tanks and reinforcements Wednesday toward Aleppo, the country’s strategically vital commercial capital, in a bid to crush a rebel advance that has spread to wide swaths of the sprawling city. As five days of fighting in Aleppo intensified
Key role floated for highest-ranking Syrian military defector
The Obama administration and officials of some Arab and Western nations are discussing ways to place Syria’s highest-ranking military defector at the center of a political transition in the Arab state, according to U.S. and Middle East officials.