Damascus

Russia is supplying weapons to Damascus under contracts completed since the conflict in Syria began in 2011, as well as under earlier deals, President Bashar al-Assad said.
   

With a few days to go before the deadline of the nuclear talks with Iran, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of forces started to hit rebel positions in Yemen in the early hours of March 26. The move came after a call by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was forced to flee the capital Sanaa last month, losing control of large chunks of the country to the Iran-backed, mainly Shiite Houthi forces.

Turkey has pounded a Syrian artillery unit near the border in reprisal for cross-border fire that injured five Turkish civilians and damaged a military base, the Turkish military announced on March 25.

Turkey will provide a military facility in the southern province of Hatay, along with the Hirfanl? military base in the central Anatolian province of K?r?ehir, for the training-equip program with the U.S. in the struggle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Turkish official has told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The foreign ministers of Syria and Iraq met in Damascus on March 24 to discuss ways to tackle militant groups and Syria said it hoped Baghdad would help "break the siege" against it, Syrian state media said, ahead of an Arab summit.
   

Syrian civil society groups appealed March 24 for an international commitment to end the brutal war in their country as the only means to put the brakes on the spread of extremism.
      

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters attacked a military airport in Syria's Homs province on March 23 as they pushed on with an offensive against government strongholds towards the west, a monitoring group said.
   

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fired two top intelligence chiefs after a fight between the two officials, a high-ranking security source in Damascus told AFP on March 20.
      

Since the Syrian civil war erupted four years ago, tens of thousands of refugees have poured into the southern Turkish port town of Mersin, fearing they may never return home and yearning for a better life.
     
Between 200,000-350,000 Syrian refugees are now estimated to live in the workaday Mediterranean city, swelling its population of around one million by about a quarter.

Syria's military shot down a U.S. drone over the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, state media said March 17.