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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday that Assad may have fled Syria, citing sources that claim he departed via Damascus International Airport after a series of rapid and surprising territorial losses to advancing rebel forces. This information, however, has not been independently verified by international agencies, deepening the mystery surrounding Assad’s current location and the stability of his regime.

Catch LIVE updates of Syrian Crisis with MintSyria War Live: X account ‘War Monitor’ hailed ‘first day in the next era of the Levant’ after rpeorts of Assad fleeing and his decade long regime falling into the hands of rebels emerged. Syria War Live: Syrian rebels say it is prohibited to go near public institutions that will remain under the supervision of the ‘former PM’, reports War MonitorSyria War Live: People celebrate in joy as military informs that the Assad regime has felled.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SYRIANS HAVE seen these scenes before: their countrymen tearing down posters of Bashar al-Assad, overrunning his army bases, storming the jails where he keeps political prisoners. But that was ten years ago and more, and they had not expected to see them again, certainly not now, and not with this air of finality.

Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US military should stay out of the escalating conflict in Syria as a shock opposition offensive closes in on the capital, declaring in a social media post, «THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.» With world leaders watching the rapid rebel advance against Syria's Russian-and Iranian-backed president, Bashar Assad, President Joe Biden's national security adviser separately stressed that the Biden administration had no intention of intervening. «The United States is not going to… militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,» Jake Sullivan told an audience in California. He said the US would keep acting as necessary to keep the Islamic State — a violently anti-Western extremist group not known to be involved in the offensive but with sleeper cells in Syria's deserts — from exploiting openings presented by the fighting.

Bashar Assad was in serious trouble was 10 years ago, at the height of the country's civil war, when his forces lost control over parts of the largest city, Aleppo, and his opponents were closing in on the capital, Damascus. Back then, he was rescued by his chief international backer, Russia, and longtime regional ally Iran, which along with Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah militia helped Assad's forces retake Aleppo, tipping the war firmly in his favor. Now, as insurgents pursue a shock offensive that quickly captured not just Aleppo, but other key cities across the country's northwest and in the south, reaching the suburbs of the capital Damascus, the Syrian leader appears to be largely on his own.

Syrian rebels said they seized control of the southern city of Daraa on Saturday, the birthplace of a 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the fourth city his forces have lost in a week. Rebel sources said the military agreed to make an orderly withdrawal from Daraa under a deal giving army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 km (60 miles) north. Social media videos showed rebels on motorcycles and others mingling with residents on the streets. People fired shots into the air at the city's main square in celebration, according to the videos.

Syria's second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country's conflict began more than a decade ago, a war monitor said Sunday, after a surprise advance by rebels. An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance has pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after two months of all-out war. The Syrian army — supported by Russian air power — had recaptured in 2016 rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a city dominated by its landmark citadel.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. To grasp how bad things are in Lebanon, consider that Syria—where war and tyranny created the world’s largest refugee crisis—now seems like a safe haven. Since September around 500,000 people have fled Israel’s invasion of their country for the war-torn and fragmented ex-state next door.

A key crossing in Syria between an area held by the government and one held by the opposition has been closed again after violence followed its brief reopening this week

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the target of the strike, Fouad Shukur, was behind the Saturday rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights of Syria.Hezbollah, which denied it was behind the Majdal Shams attack, didn't confirm that Shukur was the target of Tuesday's airstrike or that he was killed. If Israel's claim proves true, Shukur would be the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed since 2016, when Mustafa Badreddine, the group's military commander in Syria, died in an explosion in the Syrian capital of Damascus.The Israeli military said that Shukur had directed Hezbollah's attacks on Israel since October 8, after the Israel-Hamas war erupted, and that he was also involved in “the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years." It said Shukur was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah's most advanced weaponry, including guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets and UAVs.The 62-year-old, secretive Shukur was in charge of Hezbollah's forces in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel as well as being a top official in the group's missile program.He had been a close aide to Hezbollah's top military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in 2008 by a car bomb in Damascus.

Islamic State fighters have killed nearly 4,100 people in Syria since 2019 when the jihadists lost their last stronghold in the country, a war monitor said Saturday. IS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror in June of that year. In March 2019, the jihadist group lost its last scraps of Syrian territory in a Kurdish-led military campaign backed by a US-led coalition, but remnants continue to launch deadly attacks from desert hideouts.

More than 300 Syrians refugees are heading back home from northeastern Lebanon to an uncertain future in Syria as anti-refugee sentiment is surging in crisis-hit Lebanon

Iran-based Houthi rebels launch drone attack on 4 ships in Indian Ocean, Red Sea He reiterated that in 2019, saying that building and stockpiling nuclear bombs was "wrong and using it is haram", or religiously forbidden. But Iran's then-intelligence minister said in 2021 that Western pressure could push Tehran towards nuclear weapons.

Djimon Hounsou and Kodi Smit-McPhee are set to star in 'The Zealot,' a thriller that promises intense performances and gripping suspense. The film, based on Bennett Fisher's play 'Damascus,' will be directed by Vadim Perelman, known for his work on 'House of Sand and Fog' and 'The Life Before Her Eyes.' Fisher will also pen the screenplay for the adaptation.

security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time. Two security sources had said earlier that an airstrike caused the blast, which killed a member of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wounded eight others at Kalso military base about 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad. In a statement, the PMF said its chief of staff Abdul Aziz al-Mohammedawi had visited the location and «reviewed the details of the investigative committees present in the place that was attacked».

NBC News. Follow Iran-Israel war LIVE Updates here He added that Iran was not planning to respond unless Israel launches a significant attack. "As long as there is no new adventurism by Israel against our interests, then we are not going to have any new reactions," Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying.

Lebanon's Hezbollah group said it attacked an Israeli army base near the border on Wednesday, with the latest in a series of tit-for-tat strikes wounding 14 soldiers, according to Israel's military. Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally, have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip. But Wednesday's incident marked the third day in a row that Hezbollah strikes wounded people in Israel, with regional tensions high after Iran launched a direct attack on Israel over the weekend in retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran's Damascus consulate.

Gold rate today: Yellow metal prices steady amid geopolitical risks; higher US Treasury yields weigh Iran announced its military's preparedness to counter any potential Israeli aggression. Recently, Iran launched its inaugural direct assault on Israel, retaliating against a suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus on April 1. On Tuesday, prominent figures from the U.S.

Iran's attack on Israel, an immense barrage that included hundreds of ballistic missiles and exploding drones, changed the unspoken rules in the archrivals' long-running shadow war. In that conflict, major airstrikes from one country's territory directly against the other had been avoided. Given that change in precedent, the calculus by which Israel decides its next move has also changed, said the Israeli officials who requested anonymity to discuss Iran.

Israel's war cabinet was set to meet for the third time in three days on Tuesday, an official said, to decide on a response to Iran's first-ever direct attack, amid international pressure to avoid further escalating the conflicts in the Middle East. Military chief of staff Herzi Halevi had promised that Saturday night's launch of more than 300 missiles, cruise missiles and drones from Iran into Israeli territory «will be met with response», but gave no details. While the attack caused no deaths and little damage, thanks to the air defences and countermeasures of Israel and its allies, it has increased concerns that violence rooted in the Gaza war is spreading, and fears of open war between the long-time foes.

Moscow, Apr 16, 2024 -Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that further escalation in the Middle East could have «catastrophic consequences,» during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, the Kremlin said Tuesday. «Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and prevent a new round of confrontation fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region,» the Kremlin said in a readout of the call. The situation in the Middle East grew even tenser over the weekend when Iran and its allies launched a barrage of over 300 missiles, drones and rockets at Israel.