EU leaders pledged at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for Syrian refugees in the Middle East and closer cooperation to stem migrant flows into Europe at a summit described as less tense than feared after weeks of feuding.
The Syrian military has recently started using new types of air and ground weapons supplied by Russia, a Syrian military source told Reuters on Thursday, underlining growing Russian support for Damascus that is alarming the United States.
The U.S. will take in “at least 10,000” refugees from Syria in fiscal 2016, which starts Oct. 1, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday.
Russian forces have begun participating in military operations in Syria in support of government troops, three Lebanese sources familiar with the political and military situation there said on Wednesday.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri dismissed Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as illegitimate but said his followers would join them in fighting the Western-led coalition in Iraq and Syria if possible.
At least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe this year and next, the United Nations said on Tuesday, giving estimates that already look conservative.
Islamic State fighters have seized the last major oilfield under Syrian government control during battles over a vast central desert zone, a group monitoring the conflict said on Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon are set to announce Sunday the start of a multi-billion-shekel effort to construct a sensor-laden fence on the southern border with Jordan, the news site Ynet reported.
Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Russia is holding up Security Council approval to establish a new international body to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria’s deadly conflict for the first time.
After rockets were fired from on the northern Israel earlier in day the IDF responded with artillery fire on Syria Thursday, Channel 2 reported.
A fighter proclaiming allegiance to Islamic State has appeared in a video urging fellow Turks to rebel against “infidel” President Tayyip Erdogan and help conquer Istanbul, highlighting the threat the NATO member faces as it battles the radical insurgents.
“All of the attacks in the Golan Heights sector since December 2013 have been carried out with Iranian direction,” a senior IDF Northern Command officer told reporters on Sunday.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday backed a new push for peace talks in Syria in a measure adopted by Damascus ally Russia and the other 14 member states, AFP reports.
The IDF has already prepared plans to attack Syria in light of a recent military assessment that Iran has opened a new front against Israel on the Golan Heights.
Turkey and the United States have agreed on the outlines of a de facto “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border under the terms of a deal that is expected to significantly increase the scope and pace of the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State in northern Syria, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.
The U.S. government is unprepared for a chemical attack against the homeland, a new report shows, even as the Islamic State takes responsibility for more terror attacks around the world and inches closer to gaining access to Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
In a surprise meeting with Syria’s foreign minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged his support Monday for Syrian President Bashar Assad and called on all Middle East nations to join forces to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants.
The intelligence community in the United States is concerned that the Syrian government led by President Bashar Assad may deploy a large-scale chemical weapons attack as a last resort effort to protect regime strongholds from rebels in the embattled country.
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army has used chemical weapons at least 29 times in the past year, according to testimony delivered Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.