Aleppo

ALEPPO, Syria — Syrian forces launched a fresh assault Friday in the country's largest city, Aleppo, while residents prepared for a broader offensive in the latest government stronghold to be transformed into a battleground. As Western powers warned of an impending massacre and the former chief of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Syria said it was a "matter of time" before President Bashar al-Assad's government fell, heavy automatic-weapons fire was unleashed in what activists said was a lethal attack on Aleppo's rebellious Firdous...

BEIRUT — Syrian government troops on Thursday flushed out rebels who had stormed a prison compound in the northern city of Aleppo in a bid to free hundreds of political prisoners inside. The forced retreat was the latest setback for fighters seeking to topple President Bashar Assad, whose forces have been gaining ground in the country's civil war. In Washington, President Barack Obama and the Turkish prime minister projected a united front on Syria, despite sharp differences about how...

BEIRUT — The bodies of least 65 people shot in a mass killing were found in Aleppo on Tuesday, according to opposition activists. A video posted online Tuesday showed many of the victims lying on the muddy banks of the Quweiq River in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of southwestern Aleppo with their hands bound. Most appeared to have been shot in the head, and some of the victims appeared to be teenagers. Bustan al-Qasr has been the site of heavy fighting in recent days as the Syrian military has launched several attacks to retake...

BEIRUT — More than 10,000 protesters poured onto the streets of Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo, on Friday, a sign that a city that had remained relatively quiet as an uprising swept the country has been galvanized into activity. The northern city's large university was the focus of a similar demonstration Thursday, when crowds of students greeted a team of U.N. observers , dancing on the tops of the visitors' cars and waving the flag of the protest movement from the rooftops.

BEIRUT — Rebels stormed a police academy near the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, the latest in a string of gains in the country's north using weapons seized from the Syrian military. Turning President Bashar al-Assad's own armaments against him, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) used captured tanks to launch a fresh offensive on the compound in Khan al-Asal on the outskirts of the city. Opposition fighters took control of all four buildings in the complex, but clashes continued to rage, according to the...

ALEPPO, Syria — Syrian rebels occupying the Salaheddin area of Syria's largest city and economic powerhouse were braced Thursday for a devastating attack by government troops, perching behind a fragile checkpoint of trash cans, rubble and a mutilated poster of President Bashar al-Assad. Fighters armed with Kalashnikov rifles and dressed in a mixture of military and civilian clothes were spread across this once-populous district, speaking with both resilience and realism about their prospects of...

BERLIN — Berlin daily Tagesspiegel reports that a German journalist has been detained by Syrian government forces while trying to cover the conflict in the country. The newspaper says Indonesia-based freelancer Armin Wertz first informed a friend by text message over a week ago that he was being held at a police station in the northwestern city of Aleppo. Tagesspiegel says the experienced war reporter sent a second message Sunday asking for his detention to be made public. The...

At least 65 people were found dead Tuesday in the contested Syrian city of Aleppo, many of them bound and shot execution-style, according to opposition activists. The discovery served as a grim reminder of the country's bloody descent into violence and the failure of diplomatic efforts to stop the killing. Opposition activists said it was not clear who had carried out the killings, when they happened or why. Some activists said they believed that the Syrian military or a pro-government militia was...

BERLIN — Berlin daily Tagesspiegel reports that a German journalist has been detained by Syrian government forces while trying to cover the conflict in the country. The newspaper says Indonesia-based freelancer Armin Wertz first informed a friend by text message over a week ago that he was being held at a police station in the northwestern city of Aleppo. Tagesspiegel says the experienced war reporter sent a second message Sunday asking for his detention to be made public. The newspaper said it was...

BEIRUT — TV singing contests around the world tend to serve up light, glitzy entertainment with a dash of emotional drama. But in the Middle East's version of "American Idol," it's the region's troubles that often take center stage. Two contestants are from civil war-ravaged Syria, including a singer-composer whose bus was ambushed by gunmen en route to her audition and a music student who brought judges to tears with a song lamenting the devastation of his...

Israeli jets reportedly destroyed a shipment of missiles at Damascus International Airport on Friday and carried out more airstrikes on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Sunday morning. The attacks over the weekend further complicated the task of U.S. and international leaders looking for a resolution to the country's two-year-old civil war, especially after President Bashar al-Assad's government threatened retaliation against Israel . The Obama administration, already...

Beirut — A Shiite king ruled northern Syria more than a millennium ago from behind the towering walls of the citadel in the city of Aleppo. In later centuries, Arab armies repelled medieval crusaders from the hilltop fortress, Mongol invaders damaged it and Ottomans used it as a military barracks. By 2011, the citadel had settled into what seemed a comfortable retirement as a UNESCO world heritage site and tourist attraction, illuminated at night by artistic ground lights and surrounded below by the...

JERUSALEM — Religious leaders from around the world have stepped up their pleas for the safe return of two Syrian bishops who were kidnapped April 22 by armed men as they were driving near the war-torn city of Aleppo. The kidnappers, who have not been identified, abducted Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahim, both of Aleppo, while they were undertaking a "humanitarian mission" to help Syria's Christian minority, according to...

TEL AVIV — Two senior Israeli military officials asserted Tuesday that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have deployed chemical weapons that killed dozens of rebel fighters and civilians, saying their evidence — including photographs of victims foaming at the mouth — made them "very close to 100 percent sure. " It was the most direct and public claim by Israel that Syria has resorted to chemical weapons, which would mark a steep escalation in a brutal civil war that has...

ALEPPO, Syria — President Bashar al-Assad named a new prime minister Thursday to replace Syria's most senior government defector as his forces pushed rebels back from a strategic district in the northern city of Aleppo. Assad appointed Wael al-Halki, a Sunni Muslim from the southern province of Daraa, where the Syrian uprising erupted 17 months ago, to head the government after Riyad Hijab fled this week after spending only two months in the job. Hijab's dramatic escape across the border to Jordan dealt...

BEIRUT — Syrian warplanes bombed the nation's largest city Tuesday, activists said, a dramatic escalation in the 16-month uprising and a stark sign of the government's growing desperation as it tries to reverse the recent momentum of rebel forces. Aleppo, like Damascus, the Syrian capital, had long been seen as a stronghold of support for President Bashar al-Assad. But the unrest has spread to the city, Syria's commercial capital, in recent days, adding to a sense that the regime...

CHINA White paper lifts lid on military structure China sought to demonstrate a new level of military transparency Tuesday by publishing more detailed information than ever before on the structure of its armed forces. The ground forces of the People's Liberation Army number 850,000, the PLA Air Force has a total strength of 398,000 and the PLA Navy counts 235,000, the Ministry of National Defense said in its twice-yearly white paper . Although the numbers have long circulated in independent publications online, the document...