Free Republic

Syria’s armed forces on Monday announced an end to a week-long ceasefire in the war-torn country brokered by the United States and Russia, blaming opposition groups battling to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad for its failure. “Syria’s army announces the end of the freeze on fighting that began at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) on September 12, 2016 in accordance with the US-Russia agreement,” the statement carried by state news agency SANA said. It said rebel groups “did not commit to a single element” of the deal. After months of negotiations, the United States and Russia agreed on September 9 to...

A Russian official has criticized Washington's lack of authorization from Syria to deploy troops. The UN warned Damascus and Moscow of increased violence against civilians after a hospital was bombed, leaving 30 dead. Moscow sees the deployment of an additional 250 US military personnel in Syria as an affront to Damascus' territorial sovereignty, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia's state-owned TASS news agency on Friday. "If we are talking from the position of the foreign minister, we - of course - cannot not be concerned over the fact that the US carries out such actions without coordination with...

BEIRUT - Syria´s embattled president marked Easter with a tour Sunday of an ancient Christian village recently recaptured by his forces, an important symbolic prize for his government ahead of coming presidential elections he appears poised to contest. President Bashar Assad´s visit to Maaloula, some 40 miles northeast of Damascus, serves a propaganda victory for his government in its quest to be seen as protector of religious minorities as its civil war grinds on. (Snip) Rebels, including fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, seized Maaloula several times late last year, most recently in December.

Blame Someone Else Day When : The first Friday the 13th of the year What a great time you can have on this day. Imagine all the problems, errors, and mistakes you could heap on someone else today. On this day you don't have to take responsibility or blame for any faux pas on your part. On the downside, this day comes as a double edged sword. While you are busy putting the blame elsewhere, someone might just be putting the blame on you! So.......if ther is somethin wrong whif the spellin of this artickle, it's not my fallt.....its'...

NAHARIYA, Israel — The 3-year-old girl cried “Mama, Mama” over and over as a stranger rocked her and tried to comfort her. She had been brought from Syria to the government hospital in this northern Israeli town five days earlier, her face blackened by what doctors said was probably a firebomb or a homemade bomb. In the next bed, a girl, 12, lay in a deep sleep. She had arrived at the pediatric intensive care unit with a severe stomach wound that had already been operated on in Syria, and a hole in her back. Another girl, 13, has been...

WASHINGTON – Is the CIA trying to cover up information relating to the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans? Members of Congress are seeking an investigation into covert CIA efforts to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels, CNN reported over the weekend. Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the September 2012 attack. According to one source, that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously. It is unknown how many of...

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Thursday that he is "confident in victory" in his country's civil war, and he warned that Damascus would retaliate in kind to any future Israeli airstrike on his territory.

The chemical attack that killed Yasser Yunis’s family was a small, almost private affair. Had the 27-year-old car mechanic not managed to struggle out of the doorway of his home in Aleppo on to the street in the darkness of night, clutching his infant son to his chest, no one might have ever known what wiped out the family. They died twitching, hallucinating and choking on white froth that poured from their noses and mouths. Their doctors believe that they were killed by nerve gas. The Syrian regime prefers to gas its opponents in this small-scale way, testing the elasticity...

In comments made a day after reports circulated claiming several IAF planes had entered Syrian airspace, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. -Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said that the winner and loser of a future war would have to be made apparent. "In any future conflict forced upon the state of Israel, there will be a need to ensure that it is known who lost and who won." Ashkenazi made his comments during a meeting held with high-ranking reserve officers on Friday and made no connection between his statement and the latest fears surrounding a war with Syria. Earlier Friday, in...

Israel rejects Syria's arms embargo pledge By Patrick Bishop in Beirut and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 02/09/2006) Israel last night rejected Syria's pledge to Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, that it would prevent weapons being smuggled to Hizbollah across its border with Lebanon. Syrian soldiers on parade at Riyyak airbase President Bashar al-Assad of Syria told Mr Annan during talks in Damascus that he was prepared to deploy his military forces along the Lebanese border to enforce the arms embargo on Hizbollah demanded by security council resolution 1701. Mr Assad has previously warned that Damascus would take...

DAMASCUS, Syria -- The prime minister on Thursday denounced Israel for buzzing the summer residence of President Bashar Assad with its warplanes, saying Syria can defend itself against any aggression. Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otari said the Israeli action was meant to divert attention from its bombing of the Gaza Strip in the wake of Sunday's abduction of an Israeli soldier. Militants linked to Hamas, which now controls the Palestinian government, claimed it had abducted the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. "This aggression represents Israeli piracy that aims at covering up the savage crimes the Israeli occupation forces are committing in...

DEIR EZ ZOUR, Syria -- In this remote corner of Syria where the Euphrates River cuts a lush strip through empty desert, fighting between U.S. Marines and Iraqi insurgents just across the border has people on edge. Artillery shells that strayed from Iraq during last week's battles injured several Syrians, townspeople complain. And Syria's government is again on the defensive against U.S. accusations that it allows fighters to cross its territory. On Wednesday, a top U.S. military official charged that Iraq's recent surge of bombings and other insurgent violence could be traced to a meeting in Syria about a month...

CAIRO: Syria has made no final decision about restricting Palestinian militant groups operating on its soil, President Bashar Assad said in comments published Saturday. Assad's remarks, made in an interview with Newsweek magazine, are in sharp contrast with the comments of US Secretary of State Colin Powell after their meeting in Damascus on May 3. Powell told reporters the following day that Syria had indicated it had closed the offices of some of the radical Palestinian groups in Damascus. ``They did closures. I expect them to do more,'' Powell said. US officials accompanying him named the groups as Hamas, Islamic...