Syrian government News

The Syrian government`s delegation returned to Geneva on Sunday for the resumption of talks with United Nations mediator.

Syrian government and allied forces have taken the eastern town of al-Mayadeen from Islamic State, a Syrian military source said on Saturday, further weakening the militants` diminishing presence in Syria. 

The desert, known as the "Badiya", extends over some 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 square miles) from central Syria to the borders with Iraq and Jordan to the east and southeast.  

Blast killed three people in the al-Zahraa neighbourhood of the Homs, which lies around 160 km (100 miles) north of the capital.

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had information that the United States was planning to launch new missile strikes on Syria, and that there were plans to fake chemicals weapons attacks there.

The Kremlin on Thursday called a deadly poison gas attack in Syria`s Idlib province earlier this week a "monstrous crime," but said Washington`s conclusions about the incident were not based on objective data.

The strikes hit three IS targets in Baaj, a remote northwestern town near the Syrian border, and killed between 150-200 militants. 

Syrian government and rebel delegations have confirmed their attendance at peace talks set to resume in Geneva this week, the United Nations said on today, despite renewed fighting around Damascus.

The Syrian government committed "slow-motion slaughter" of unknown numbers of Syrians trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas by wilfully denying them food and health care, according to a new report today from a civil rights group.

Syrian rebels cast doubt on Monday that they would attend Russian-backed peace talks in Kazakhstan this week, accusing Moscow of failing to get Damascus to fully comply with a ceasefire deal or release any prisoners.

"The bodies were found in prisons run by the terrorist groups in Sukkari and al-Kalasseh, and they were found to have been executed by gunshot at very close range," Aleppo's forensic unit Zaher Hajjo said.

Syria's government and rebels have accused each other of violating terms of an already shaky ceasefire.

The Syrian government said no ceasefire in Aleppo if rebel factions remain in the city.

The United Nations said up to 16,000 people have already been displaced in recent days of fighting.

"France is taking an initiative to confront the strategy of total war by the regime and its allies, who are taking advantage of the uncertainty in the United States," Ayrault said.

The military airdropped leaflets with a picture of a green coach like those used in the past to transport civilians and rebels from areas retaken by the government.

Syrian government forces were battling rebels for control of a strategically significant district of Aleppo on Tuesday, in what could be the most important advance in the divided city by Damascus and its allies in several weeks.

An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held east of the city reported that his entire street had been in flames following the pre-dawn strikes.

The ceasefire's co-sponsors, Russia and the United States, have traded accusations over the fraying deal, with relations strained even further after the US-led raid killed scores of Syrian soldiers on Saturday. 

US State Department said that US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov agreed to prolong the ceasefire which began on Monday.