Syria | Pakistan

Fighting intensified on Thursday between Syrian government troops and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, with a fierce exchange of fire extending into the night and rescue workers scrambling to put out fires ignited by the shelling. Plumes of smoke rose above the city skyline at dusk and the boom of artillery could be heard across Aleppo as the Kurdish fighters tried to repel the troops’ advance and cling to neighbourhoods under their control. The fighting, which erupted on Tuesday, has driven more than 140,000 people from their homes and left at least seven civilians dead, according to Syrian authorities. The deadly stand-off between Damascus and Kurdish authorities, who have resisted integrating into the central government, is a major challenge for Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to unite the country after 14 years of civil war. Stalled talks on ceasefire Syria’s army gave a window on Thursday for residents to evacuate the neighbourhoods held by Kurdish forces in Aleppo befor...

The British Ministry of Defence said it cooperated with France on Saturday night to strike an underground facility in Syria that had likely been used by the militant Islamic State (IS) group to store weapons. “Royal Air Force aircraft have completed successful strikes against Daesh in a joint operation with France,” the ministry said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for IS. “This facility had been occupied by Daesh, most likely to store weapons and explosives. The area around the facility is devoid of any civilian habitation,” the statement added. The ministry said there was no indication the bombing north of the ancient site of Palmyra had posed any risk to civilians. IS was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 but still maintains a presence, particularly in the country’s vast desert. Last month, Washington said a lone IS gunman in Palmyra attacked American personnel, killing two US soldiers and a US civilian. US forces said they struck dozens of IS targets in Syria in retaliation.

An explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Syria’s Homs on Friday, state media said. The attack during Friday prayers is the latest on the Alawite community, and the second blast in a place of worship since extremist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June. In a statement on Telegram, terrorist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said its fighters “detonated a number of explosive devices” in the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in the central Syrian city. The group formed after the ouster last year of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, himself a member of the Alawite community, and had claimed responsibility for the June church bombing, though authorities blamed the militant Islamic State group. State news agency SANA reported an explosion in the mosque in Homs’s Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood and gave a preliminary toll of at least eight dead and 18 wounded, citing a health ministry official. An AFP photographe...

The US military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, US officials said. A US-led coalition had already been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting Islamic State suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces. US President Donald Trump had vowed to retaliate after a suspected ISIS attack killed US personnel last weekend in Syria. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted “ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” and said the operation was “OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE”. “This is not the beginning of a war it is a declaration of vengeance,” Hegseth said. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” he added. Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the US was inflicting “very serious retaliation”. At a speech in North Carolina on Friday night,...

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday expanded a list of countries subject to a full travel ban, prohibiting citizens from an additional seven countries, including Syria, from entering the country. The White House said in a statement that Trump signed a proclamation “expanding and strengthening entry restrictions on nationals from countries with demonstrated, persistent, and severe deficiencies in screening, vetting, and information-sharing to protect the Nation from national security and public safety threats”. Tuesday’s move banned citizens from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, Syria and those holding Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents. The action also imposes a full ban on Laos and Sierra Leone, which had previously only been subject to partial restrictions. The White House said the expanded ban goes into effect on January 1. The action comes despite Trump’s vow to do everything he could to make Syria successful after landmark talks in November with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sha...

Syria is joining the global coalition against the militant Islamic State (IS) group, a United States’ official said on Monday hours after US President Donald Trump welcomed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa for historic White House talks. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, was the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country’s independence in 1946. But the 43-year-old’s landmark visit to the Oval Office came just days after Washington removed him from its terrorism list. Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda. “During the visit, Syria announced that it is joining the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” becoming the 90th member of the alliance and “partnering with the United States to eliminate ISIS remnants and halt foreign fighter flows”, a senior administration official said. According to the official, Syria will also be allowed to resume diplomatic relations with Washington “t...

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday he would honour all past deals struck between his country and Moscow, a pledge suggesting Moscow’s two main military bases in Syria are safe. Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al Qaeda and who toppled predecessor Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, late last year, was speaking at the start of Kremlin talks with Putin, his first visit to Russia since coming to power. “There are bilateral relations and shared interests that bind us with Russia, and we respect all agreements made with it. We are working on redefining the nature of relations with Russia,” Sharaa, who was speaking in Arabic, told Putin. Putin told him that Moscow was ready to do all it could to act on what he called “many interesting and useful beginnings” that had already been discussed between the two sides when it came to renewing relations. The Kremlin chief also congratulated Sharaa on the fact that parliamentary elections were held earlier this ...

Saudi Arabia has dispatched 50 aid trucks to Syria as part of its ongoing humanitarian land bridge, carrying more than 670 tons of medical, food, and shelter supplies to support the Syrian people.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday strongly condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and Syria, terming them blatant violations of international law and urging the international community to hold Israel accountable.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday expressed concerns over violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday signed major investment and partnership deals with Syria, valued at $6.4 billion, to help rebuild the war-ravaged country’s infrastructure, telecommunications and other major sectors. The oil-rich Gulf kingdom has been a major backer of the new Syrian government, which seized power after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad […]

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Thursday that it opposed Israel’s strikes in Syria, a day after Washington helped broker a deal to end violence. “The United States did not support recent Israeli strikes,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. “We are engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between the two sovereign states,” she said. She declined to say if the United States had expressed its displeasure with Israel or whether it would oppose future strikes on Syria. Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced concern when asked about the Israeli strikes, which included attacking the defence ministry in Damascus. Fresh clashes rock Druze heartland He later issued a statement that did not directly address the Israeli strikes, but voiced broader concern about the violence. Israel said it was intervening on behalf of the Druze community after communal clashes. Fresh clashes Meanwhile, Bedouin tribes an...

Pakistan has strongly condemned Israel’s ongoing military aggression against Syria, calling it a dangerous violation of international law and a serious threat to regional and global peace.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa promised to protect the rights of Druze citizens on Thursday as a ceasefire appeared to be holding in the country’s south following US intervention to end fighting between government forces and Druze fighters. Overnight, the government’s troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting local fighters against the Damascus authorities and Bedouin tribes. The violence in Syria escalated sharply on Wednesday as Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus while pressing attacks on government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying Israel aimed to protect Syria’s Druze minority. Describing Syria’s new rulers as “barely disguised jihadists”, Israel has bombed repeatedly this year, saying it will not allow Syrian government forces to deploy into areas near its frontier. Facing calls from Israel’s own Druze minority to shield Syria’s Druze, Israel has also seized ground in the south. In ...

In Syria’s Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions. Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders following days of fighting with local Bedouin tribes. Syria’s Druze community follows a religion derived from Islam and is part of a minority group that also has members in Lebanon, Israel, and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In Syria, the community is concentrated in the Sweida region bordering Jordan, in areas adjoining the Israeli-occupied Golan, and in Damascus’ Jaramana suburb. Echoing arrangements for the Alawites, French colonial authorities established a state called Jabal al-Druze centred on Sweida until 1936. Members of the Druze community demonstrate before Israeli forces by the barbed-wire fence separating the Israeli-an...

Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, has revealed that nearly 40,000 Pakistani pilgrims who traveled to Iran, Iraq, and Syria are either missing or have overstayed, with no official record of their whereabouts.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked the foreign terrorist organisation designation for Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, according to a State Department memo filed on Monday, a major step as Washington moves to ease sanctions on Syria. The memo dated June 23 was signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was published in a preview of the Federal Register before official publication on Tuesday. The move comes a week after Trump signed an executive order terminating a US sanctions programme on Syria, to help end the country’s isolation from the international financial system and build on Washington’s pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war. “In consultation with the attorney general and the secretary of the Treasury, I hereby revoke the designation of Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (and other aliases) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation,” Rubio wrote in the memo. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, was previously Al-Qaeda’s Syr...

Britain said on Saturday it was reestablishing diplomatic relations with Syria after the country’s years-long civil war, as foreign minister David Lammy visited its capital Damascus, pledging 94.5 million pounds ($129 million) in support. “There is renewed hope for the Syrian people,” Lammy said in a statement. “It is in our interests to support the […]

The United Kingdom is re-establishing full ties with Syria following the toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, foreign minister David Lammy said during a visit to Damascus on Saturday. “After over a decade of conflict, there is renewed hope for the Syrian people. The UK is re-establishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians,” Lammy said in a statement. The statement came following Lammy’s meeting with Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, the Syrian presidency said, in his first visit since Assad’s ouster. Interim President Sharaa received Lammy alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, according to photos of the meeting released by the presidency. The talks addressed “bilateral ties … and ways of strengthening cooperation, as well as regional and international developments”, Sharaa’s office said in a statement. The Syrian foreign min...

Syria said on Friday it was willing to cooperate with the United States to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two countries’ forces. In a statement following a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, Asaad al-Shaibani expressed Syria’s “aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement”. Washington has been pushing diplomatic efforts towards a normalisation deal between Syria and Israel, with envoy Thomas Barrack saying last week that peace between the two was now needed. Speaking to The New York Times, Barrack confirmed this week that Syria and Israel were engaging in “meaningful” US-brokered talks to end their border conflict. Following the toppling of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel deployed its troops into the UN-patrolled zone separating Syrian and Israeli forces. It has also launched hundreds of air strikes on military targets in Syria and carried ou...