Al-Assad family

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin where they discussed the political situation in Syria, international terrorism as well as issues of bilateral and humanitarian cooperation. The details about the meeting held on September 13 were published on the Russian leader's website on Tuesday.

President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria on July 17, after officially winning 95 percent of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.

It was the second presidential poll since the start of a decade-long civil war that has killed almost half a million people and battered the country's infrastructure.

Syrian politician Ammar Haidar, imprisoned by the Bashar Assad regime in 2009, reunited with his daughter Marwa Haidar in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul after 12 years.

Born in Hama, Syria, Haidar, since his youth, has opposed the Assad family due to their anti-democratic practices.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected for a fourth seven-year term in a presidential election on Wednesday dismissed by the opposition as a sham, news wires reported. Al-Assad won 95.1% of the valid votes, head of the Syrian parliament Hamoud Sabagh said. Some 78.6% of eligible voters cast ballots inside and outside Syria, Sabagh added at a press conference in Damascus.

Candidate for the post of President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in the Municipality Council of Douma city in Damascus countryside.

The U.S. on March 1 remembered Turkish soldiers killed last year in an airstrike by forces of Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime in northwestern Idlib province.  

A Syrian graffiti artist residing in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib has paid tribute to the legendary football player Maradona, who recently died of heart failure, by drawing his image on walls of houses collapsed following the attacks by the Assad regime.

The United States on June 17 imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife and dozens of others as it vowed a vast pressure campaign under a new law that has already rattled the war-torn nation's economy.

At least four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others injured in intense shelling by Bashar al-Assad regime forces in northwestern Syria on Feb. 3, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

The U.S. Senate has passed a $738 billion budget for the Pentagon which includes new sanctions within six months against Syria, Iran, and Russia for their "war crimes" during the Syrian civil war.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 was approved on Dec. 18 by an 86-6 bipartisan vote after passing the House of Representatives last week.