Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday for a New Year's Day mass shooting in a packed Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people, an attack carried out by a lone gunman who remains at large.
The evacuation of rebel fighters from Aleppo is complete, creating the conditions for a ceasefire deal in Syria, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying on Friday (Dec 23).
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for the country to reinforce its military nuclear potential and praised the army's performance in its Syria campa
The Syrian army declared on Thursday the liberation of eastern Aleppo city in northern Syria, as the last batch of rebels left the city, making Aleppo city completely under the government control.
France and Britain are pushing the UN Security Council to ban the sale of helicopters to Syria and to impose the first sanctions over the use of chemical weapons in the five-year war.
The United Nations(UN) intends to convene the Syrian peace talks in Geneva on Feb. 8, 2017, the Spokesperson of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Syria said in a statement here on Monday.
Dozens of buses and ambulances drove out of the rebel-held part of Aleppo yesterday, carrying people being evacuated as part of a ceasefire deal after a siege by Syrian government forces and their allies that lasted for months.
UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is arriving Sunday in the capital Damascus for a brief meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.
Intense air strikes resumed in rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo after a weeks-long pause on Tuesday, killing at least three people, residents and a war monitor said.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday that the Syrian army's capture of Aleppo, which has come under renewed bombardment in an effort to seize its rebel-held sector, would be "a very important springboard" to pushing "terrorists" back to Turkey.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled a visit to Paris next week after President Francois Hollande said he would see him only for talks on Syria - the latest episode in deteriorating relations between Moscow and the West.
Two opposing draft resolutions: a French-Spanish version and the other by Russia, on Saturday failed to be approved by the UN Security Council in response to the current situation in Syria.
The UN Special Envoy for Syria offered Thursday to physically accompany 900 al-Nusra fighters out of east Aleppo in a bid to prevent more civilian bloodshed there.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday that Russia was not going to compete with the United States for the leading role in Syria talks.
The U.S. decision to suspend talks with Russia over restoring a ceasefire in Syria will further escalate the situation in the war-torn country and thus prolong the crisis, analysts say.
The United States was suspending negotiations with Russia on restoring a ceasefire in Syria, the State Department said on Monday.
A senior Iranian official warned the United States against any direct military intervention against the Syrian army, Press TV reported on Monday.
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