A top officer aboard the US Navy’s largest warship, which is deployed in the eastern Mediterranean, said Monday his forces were wary of “tensions” and ready to strike allies of Syria’s regime. The USS George H. W. Bush, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has been a leading part of the US bombing campaign in Iraq … Read more
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has said the worst of his country’s six-year war “is behind us” after a string of advances by his forces backed by key ally Russia. In recent months, Assad’s troops and allied fighters have retaken territory across the country, including recapturing all of Aleppo city in December after years of fighting. … Read more
A suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria’s Idlib province on April 4 killed dozens of people. Western powers blamed the incident on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and days later, the United States responded by firing cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase. Here is a recap of developments: On April 4, 2017, an … Read more
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who faces international calls to be tried as a war criminal, has branded claims his regime launched a chemical attack on his own citizens ‘100 per cent fabrication’. He made the comment in an interview released today, less than 24 hours after world leaders clashed over a UN resolution condemning a … Read more
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hosted US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the Kremlin on Wednesday but the rival powers failed to bridge a deep gap of trust. In the wake of the meeting Russia then vetoed a US-backed resolution at the UN demanding the Syrian government cooperate with an investigation of a suspected chemical … Read more
The United States has “no doubt” that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for last week’s chemical attack on a rebel-held town that left dozens dead, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Tuesday. Mattis told reporters that Washington’s military strategy in Syria had not changed even after its retaliatory missile strikes on a … Read more
The United States is looking into whether Russia was complicit in an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian military on civilians, but has not yet made a determination, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The official said the US was continuing to gather intelligence on whether Russian forces in Syria were aware of the … Read more
Any new US action in Syria “will not go unanswered”, Iran’s Defence Minister Hossein Dehgan warned Tuesday after America threatened to follow up a strike last week with more attacks. The United States last week fired a volley of cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed … Read more
Russia hailed Donald Trump when he came to power as the leader who could help restore battered ties between Moscow and Washington. But the US president’s surprise missile strike in Syria against the Kremlin’s ally Bashar al-Assad has instead thrown down a gauntlet, infuriating Moscow and challenging its dominance in the war-torn country. Since launching … Read more
In the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, site of an alleged chemical weapons attack, residents still mourning their dead on Friday welcomed US strikes as a way to pressure Damascus. “God bless Trump,” said Abu Ali, in his forties, hours after the US launched a barrage of cruise missiles at a Syrian government air base … Read more
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday denounced the Syrian regime’s latest alleged chemical weapons attack as an “affront to humanity” and warned it would not be tolerated. Speaking alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah at a White House news conference, Trump did not lay out in any detail how the United States would respond to the killings. … Read more