Latest Syria government News

US imposes more Iran sanctions and hits Syrian regime with penalties for drug trafficking

Mar. 26, 2024 12:55 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran's military and the Houthi militant group in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. ...

UN seeks $4B for aid in Syria as civilians face growing humanitarian crisis

Mar. 22, 2024 11:50 AM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.N. humanitarian official appealed Friday for more than $4 billion in life-saving aid for more than 10 million Syrians, saying that the country's largely forgotten crisis remains “one of the most deadly to civilians in the world.” Adam Abdelmoula, resident...

Senior Hezbollah security official makes rare visit to UAE to discuss detained Lebanese

Mar. 21, 2024 17:05 PM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — A senior official with Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group made a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates to discuss the cases of a dozen Lebanese citizens detained in the oil-rich nation over alleged links to the Lebanese group, Hezbollah said Thursday. The United...

Israel strikes several sites in Syria, wounding a soldier, Syrian military says

Mar. 16, 2024 20:15 PM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria early Sunday wounding a soldier, Syrian state media reported. State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said air defenses shot down some of the missiles, which came from the direction of the...

Violence in Syria is on the rise while aid is flagging as the civil war enters its 14th year

Mar. 15, 2024 10:15 AM EDT

AL-NAYRAB, Syria (AP) — For years, Syria’s civil war has been a largely frozen conflict, the country effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus government of President Bashar Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces. But as the conflict entered...

Swiss refer Syrian president's uncle to trial for alleged war crimes over 4 decades ago

Mar. 12, 2024 08:16 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of the war-battered country's current president, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago. ...

Turkish drones kill 3 in an attack on a local Christian militia in northeastern Syria, officials say

Feb. 28, 2024 15:44 PM EST

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkish drone strikes in northeastern Syria on Wednesday killed at least three members of a local Christian force and wounded others, including civilians, a Kurdish official and a Syrian opposition war monitor said. Also on Wednesday, reported Israeli airstrikes hit...

UN envoy invites Syrian opponents for constitution talks in Geneva despite Russia's opposition

Feb. 27, 2024 13:14 PM EST

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Syria issued formal invitations to the Syrian government and opposition groups on Tuesday to meet in Geneva in late April to resume negotiations on revising the country’s constitution, despite opposition from Damascus’ key ally Russia. ...

International watchdog investigation finds Islamic State used mustard gas in 2015 attack in Syria

Feb. 22, 2024 12:59 PM EST

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An international investigative team said Thursday that its probe into a 2015 attack in Syria found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Islamic State group used mustard gas, the latest finding of use of poison gas and nerve agents in Syria's grinding civil...

State media say an Israeli strike kills 2 in a Damascus residential area. Another kills 2 in Lebanon

Feb. 22, 2024 07:25 AM EST

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli strikes hit a neighborhood of the Syrian capital on Wednesday morning, killing two people and causing material damage, Syria's state TV said. There was no confirmation of the strikes from Israel. In neighboring Lebanon, state media and security...