Governorates of Syria

Three Spanish freelance journalists who traveled to Syria to report amid the country's long-running civil war have gone missing around the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a Spanish journalism association said July 21, the latest ensnared in the world's most dangerous assignment for reporters.

The barbaric terrorist attack in Suruç, a Turkish town just 10 kilometers from the Syrian border, not only killed 31 innocent souls and wounded dozens of others. It also shook the nation, showing that the fire beyond our southern borders can easily burn us as well. It is time to think seriously about this threat and understand what its perpetrators really want. 

A bomb explosion in a tunnel near Aleppo Citadel in Syria on July 12 damaged a wall of the fortress that is part of the UNESCO-listed Old City, state media and a monitor reported.

A suicide bomber from Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, killed 25 soldiers and fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime in an attack on an army base in government-held western Aleppo on July 6, a Britain-based monitoring group said.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters seized a Syrian town back from Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa city on July 6, a group monitoring the war reported, recovering ground near its de facto capital two days after it was pummelled in heavy U.S.-led air strikes. 

Syrian government forces backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on July 5 entered Zabadani, the last rebel-held town in the Qalamun region on the Lebanese border, state media said.

Two coalitions of Syrian rebels battled to advance in government-held western Aleppo on July 4, seizing an army barracks in one district, but being pushed back elsewhere.

The fighting in the country's former economic powerhouse is some of the fiercest since the Syrian conflict arrived in the northern city in mid-2012.

?We are exchanging messages with the PYD [Democratic Union Party]. Our dialogue channels are open. The course of Turkey?s relations with the PYD depends on their attitude. Tal Abyad is a test case for them.?

These words came out of the mouth of a high level official in Ankara amidst allegations that Turkey is about to intervene in northern Syria, which is dominated by the PYD.

Syria?s main Kurdish party warned Turkey July 1 that any military intervention would threaten international peace and said the country?s main Kurdish militia is ready to face any ?aggression.?

Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel group released a video showing 18 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants being shot in the backs of their heads.

A Syrian Kurdish militia said on July 1 it had recovered full control of the border town of Tel Abyad after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters raided its outskirts the day before in preparation for a larger assault.