Syrian Army

A journalist of Russia Today was murdered in the Syrian province of Homs during an attack by "Islamic State," the World Agencies said, quoted by Mediapool.

Three of the leading international powers involved in Syria's war—the U.S., Russia and Iran—are looking to expand and fortify their military presence in the country by building and upgrading foreign bases, with some already in the works, according to NewsWeek.

The US-led coalition has downed a government warplane in southern Syria, the Syrian army and coalition have announced in separate statements. The Syrian military added that the plane's pilot is now missing.

Photo: SPUTNIK / MICHAEL ALAEDDIN

The US-led international coalition fighting Daesh terrorists in Syria announced on Tuesday that it had launched a strike on the Syrian pro-government forces as they had entered an established US-Russian de-confliction zone near the town of al-Tanf.

An Israeli attack on a Syrian training camp near the Golan Heights killed three members of a pro-government militia on April 23, an official from the forces said.

The Al-Fawwar camp in Syria's southwestern Quneitra province is used by the National Defense Forces (NDF), which command some 90,000 fighters across Syria.

Rebels and jihadists launched a fresh assault on east Damascus on March 21, just two days before another round of U.N.-backed peace talks were set to get underway in Switzerland.

Clashes raged between regime forces on one side and opposition fighters and allied jihadists from the Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly al-Qaeda's branch in the war-ravaged country.

U.S.'s Senior Republican Senator John McCain, who serves as a chairman for the Senate Armed Services Committee, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on Feb. 20.

McCain, who has been an ardent promoter of U.S.-Turkey relations, was expected to discuss the Syrian crisis in Ankara. 

BELGRADE - In the early hours of Friday morning, the Syrian Army reported that Israel had carried out missile strikes targeting the Mezzeh military airport southwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus. Syrian military command has since warned Tel Aviv that it may take retaliatory measures.

A U.S. official has categorically denied recent media reports claiming that Washington was preparing to send Stinger missiles, an effective weapon in air defense, to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Ankara considers a terrorist group. 

"It's not true," a U.S. official told the Hürriyet Daily News while commenting on reports that appeared in the media on Dec. 9. 

The Russian military on Oct. 6 strongly warned the United States against striking the Syrian army, noting that its air defense weapons in Syria stand ready to fend off any attack.
The statement underlined high tensions between Moscow and Washington after the collapse of a U.S.-Russia-brokered Syria truce and the Syrian army's offensive on Aleppo backed by Russian warplanes.