Syria

Theresa May’s cabinet spent more than two hours this afternoon in a special meeting to discuss military strikes against President Assad’s forces. Ministers are expected to back her plan for the UK to join action threatened by the United States and its allies. But opposition parties have demanded that Parliament be recalled so MPs have…

Syrian activists say at least 40 people have been killed in a poison gas attack on Douma – the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus… rescue teams described finding families suffocated in their homes. Relief workers in the town said hundreds more people had been brought into clinics, with symptoms…

The Syrian army says it’s on the verge of cutting through the surrounded, rebel-held area of east Ghouta near the capital Damascus. According to human rights groups, more than 900 civilians have been killed there in the last 18 days and the Red Cross has held back an aid convoy because of the intense fighting.…

“Today we’ll see if Russia has a conscience” declared the US Ambassador to the UN this evening. All the while Syria has been pounding eastern Ghouta with warplanes and artillery guns. Activists and rescuers say around forty-one people have been killed today, taking the total this week to over 500. Warning: this report contains distressing…

It’s a year since rebels lost the city of Aleppo to Syrian and Russian forces – a turning point in the war, and a decisive win for President Assad. This programme reported extensively from inside the besieged city with reports by filmmaker Waad Al-Khateab – but it was the fate of one man – who…

They are under siege. They are under constant bombardment. Now shocking new pictures reveal the agony of life in the Damascus suburb of east Ghouta, under government blockade, where activists say 19 civilians died in a wave of attacks by Syrian forces yesterday. Rebels fired several mortars into a Damascus neighbourhood in response.

When it comes to Syria, Russia has been doing a great deal of diplomatic leg work in recent days, meeting with Iran and Turkey to broker a post-conflict settlement. Today, a top Russian general said Russia was likely to reduce troop numbers in Syria. But the Russians and the Syrian regime also seem in a…

The UN’s humanitarian advisor on Syria has warned of a “complete catastrophe”  and a return to “the bleakest days of this conflict”,  as the regime refuses to let hundreds of injured women and children leave an area it is bombing. The UN advisor, Jan Egeland, said around 400 people needed urgent medical evacuation from Eastern…

The Syrian army says it has recaptured the strategic city of Deir al-Zour. The city had been held by the extremist Islamic State group for the last three years and was its last major position in Syria after recently losing control of Raqqa. Iraqi forces say they’ve also seized control of a crucial border crossing…

After a five-month onslaught backed by US airstrikes, the Syrian Democratic Forces say they have taken full control of Raqqa from the Islamic State. The western backed troops drove IS fighters from their last holdouts this morning, freeing the remaining civilians who had been trapped inside. IS’s capital was one of the final bastions of…

Idlib province in north-west Syria has faced an intensive bombing campaign conducted by President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies. Yesterday an airstrike on a market reportedly killed ten people, including two children. Following a military push by President Assad, backed by Russian airstrikes, he has regained control of half the country. The people of…

In Northern Syria, Kurdish and Arab forces have made major gains against the Islamic State in Raqqa, the capital of their purported Caliphate. The most significant Arab contingent fighting Isis comes from one of the largest tribes in the Middle East – the Shammar.

We report from Raqqa: It was the capital of their self-styled caliphate for three years, the base from where the Islamic State terrorised the Middle East and planned violent atrocities across Europe. But now Isis may finally be about to be driven out.

Syria has accused Israel of conducting an overnight strike on a military base in Hama province, in the west of the country. A Syrian monitoring group claims missiles may also have targeted a chemical weapons manufacturing facility there.

We’ve just returned from Syria, where we’ve been spending time with an elite unit of the Syrian army called the Tiger Forces.