Israel's Netanyahu 'rejects with disgust' international court arrest warrant

Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's Netanyahu 'rejects with disgust' international court arrest warrant.

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  • Assad’s family ‘flees’ to Russia – but Kremlin won’t come to Syrian leader’s rescue

    Bashar al-Assad’s family fled to Russia in the days after rebel forces launched a shock offensive that captured swathes of territory across northern Syria, it has been revealed.

  • Why Syria’s army collapsed so suddenly

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, as rebels said they had infiltrated the capital with no sign of army deployments.

  • In Syria, a ruthless dictator is under siege. Will anyone step up to save him?

    Across northern and central Syria this week, families who've been torn apart by more than a decade of civil war have been holding joyous reunions."I didn't believe it, it was very emotional," said Ismail Alabullah, a volunteer with the Syrian NGO the White Helmets, as he described returning to the city of Aleppo for the first time since 2013 and reuniting with his sister."I couldn't believe I was seeing her again," he told CBC News from northern Syria. "I lost my brother, my mother and father ov

  • Syrian president leaves Damascus on plane as army says his rule ends - reports

    The Syrian government appears to have fallen after a lightning offensive by rebels. President Bashar al Assad fled Damascus on a plane for an unknown destination, according to two senior Syrian army officers speaking to the Reuters news agency, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria's army command has now notified officers that his 24-year rule has ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters.

  • Hezbollah sent 'supervising' forces to Syria's Homs, sources say

    Lebanese armed group Hezbollah sent a small number of "supervising forces" from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing the strategic city of Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources said on Friday. "Homs must not fall," one of the sources told Reuters, adding that senior officers deployed overnight to oversee some Hezbollah fighters who had been in Syria near the border with Lebanon for years.

  • The fall of Bashar Assad after 14 years of war in Syria brings to an end a decades-long dynasty

    The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government Sunday brought to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto power as his country fragmented amid a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers. Assad’s downfall came as a stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron grip. As the uprising hemorrhaged into an outright civil war, he unleashed his military to blast opposition-held cities, with support from allies Iran and Russia.

  • US-backed Syrian Kurds seize eastern city of Deir el-Zor, sources say

    HASAKEH, Syria (Reuters) -A U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured the main city in eastern Syria and the main border crossing with Iraq on Friday, taking effective control of Syria's vast eastern desert in two rapid moves. Two security sources based in eastern Syria said that by Friday afternoon the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had taken full control of the city of Deir el-Zor, the third city to fall out of President Bashar al-Assad's control in a week.

  • Rebels enter Syrian third-largest city Homs, says war monitor

    Syrian rebels entered Syria's third city Homs late Saturday, taking control of some districts, according to rebels and a Britain-based observation group. Syria's defence ministry denied the claim. Further south, opposition fighters reached the suburbs of the capital Damascus, extending this week's dramatic lightning offensive. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. This live blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage on the war in the Middle East, click here. Yesterday's key

  • Syria latest: Syria's government has fallen after a lightning offensive by insurgents

    Syria's government appears to have fallen after opposition fighters said they had entered Damascus following a stunning advance and a Syrian opposition war monitor reported that President Bashar Assad had left the country. Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government.

  • Thousands flee as Syrian insurgents advance to the doorstep of the country's third-largest city

    Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs, the country’s third largest, as insurgents seized two towns on the outskirts Friday, positioning themselves for an assault on a potentially major prize in their march against President Bashar Assad. The move, reported by pro-government media and an opposition war monitor, was the latest in the stunning advances by opposition fighters over the past week that have so far met little resistance from Assad’s forces. A day earlier, fighters captured the central city of Hama, Syria’s fourth largest, after the army said it withdrew to avoid fighting inside the city and spare the lives of civilians.

  • Iron-fisted Assad never quelled the Syrian rebels who came back to topple him

    President for 24 years, Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination early on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters. Rebels declared the city "free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad". A half-century of Assad family rule was over, army command told officers, according to a Syrian officer.

  • Baloch separatists becoming as big a national security threat as Pakistani Taliban, says think tank

    A Baloch separatist group is becoming as big a threat to Pakistan's national security as the Pakistani Taliban, according to a think tank. Last month, the Baloch Liberation Army killed dozens of people in the restive southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan. The BLA wants independence from the federal government, which last month launched an operation against armed groups operating in the province.

  • Melbourne synagogue fire an act of 'terrorism': Australian PM

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday called a deliberately lit fire in a Melbourne synagogue an act of "terrorism" and warned about the "worrying rise in anti-Semitism" in Australia. "There has been a worrying rise in anti-Semitism," the prime minister told reporters, adding that he would continue to "call it out". 

  • Statue of former Syrian president toppled in Hama

    The image is particularly symbolic: A statue of former President Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria's current ruler Bashar, was toppled in Hama after Islamist-led rebels overran the country's fourth-largest city, video authenticated by AFP showed.Young men celebrated the rebels' sweep of Hama as part of a lightning offensive, yelling "freedom for eternity" from Assad, referring to the current president who before Hama had also lost control of Aleppo, Syria's second city, for the first time sinc

  • Syria's Assad: the president who led a bloody crackdown

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad oversaw a merciless crackdown on a pro-democracy revolt that morphed into one of the bloodiest wars of the century.Bashar al-Assad was never meant to become president, but his life changed radically when his older brother Bassel, who was being groomed to inherit power, was killed in a road accident in 1994.

  • Syrian rebels say they have entered Damascus as Assad regime’s defense crumbles

    Less than two weeks after launching an offensive, rebels have entered the capital city

  • What the Syrian rebellion could mean for the balance of power in the Middle East

    Western and Arab states, as well as Israel, would like to see Iran’s influence in Syria curtailed, but none wish for a radical Islamist regime to replace Assad.

  • Rebel forces 'reach Damascus suburbs' as protesters topple statue on outskirts

    Syrian rebels have reportedly taken the key city of Homs and reached the suburbs of the capital Damascus as their lightning offensive threatens to end Bashar al Assad's 24-year rule. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents are now active in three Damascus suburbs, including Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya - making it the first time they have reached the outskirts of the city since 2018, when government forces recaptured the area after a years-long siege. Meanwhile, Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul-Ghani said insurgent forces had now "fully liberated" Syria's central city of Homs - in a strategically important move the cuts off Damascus from coastal military bases.

  • Syrian army quits Homs, cutting Assad off from coast

    AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrian government forces abandoned the key city of Homs on Saturday after less than a day of fighting, leaving President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule dangling by a thread with insurgents also advancing towards the capital Damascus. Since the rebels' sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at dizzying speed as rebels seized a string of major cities and reignited a rebellion in places it had long seemed dead. The fall of Homs and threat to the capital now pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty's five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.

  • Syria govt loses control of key city Daraa

    Syrian government forces have lost control of Daraa city, a war monitor said, in another stunning blow for President Bashar al-Assad's rule after rebels wrested other key cities from his grip.Never in the war had Assad's forces lost control of so many key cities in such a short space of time.