Free Republic

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state media say government forces are advancing in battle and tightening their grip on the last rebel stronghold near the border with Lebanon. The SANA news agency said on Tuesday that troops have made significant gains in the battle for the opposition-held town of Yabroud. It cites a field commander in the mountainous Qalamoun region along Syria's border with Lebanon who says President Bashar Assad's forces captured several hills and strategic positions on the town's outskirts. Backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Syrian troops have been on the offensive in Qalamoun since December, trying to sever a...

Bombs have been planted in the confessional box of one of the world's oldest churches in a Syrian town hailed as the country's last remaining centre of religious tolerance, Syria's most senior Christian leader has disclosed. On a visit to London to highlight the persecution of Christians in the civil war, Patriarch Gregorios III said the two devices were found at the Cathedral of Constantine and Helen in the rebel-held town of Yabroud. Not only is the church one of the oldest in the world, but it lies in a town where Christians and Sunni Muslims have so far resisted...