Damascus Violence

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  Israel Cancels Leave For Combat Units After Iran Revenge Threat

  The Israeli military halted leave for all combat units on Thursday amid concerns of a possible escalation in violence after the killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week drew threats of retaliation.

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  Barack Obama Denounces Aleppo 'Horror' As Evacuation Suspended

  Responsibility for atrocities committed in Aleppo lies with Syria and its Russian and Iranian backers, US President Barack Obama said Friday as Damascus suspended the evacuation of civilians and fighters from the city's last rebel-held areas.

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  Damascus Calls To 'End Bloodshed', Says Opposition 'Not Serious'

  Damascus wants to end the violence ravaging Syria for nearly five years, a top official said Sunday, but lamented that the main opposition was "not serious" about UN-brokered peace talks.

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  Number of Deaths From Syria Marketplace Attack Reaches 70: Report

  International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Saturday that at least 70 people had been killed in a missile attack on a marketplace near Damascus the day before.

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  At Least 57 Killed in Missile Attack in a Marketplace in Syria: Report

  At least 57 people were killed and dozens wounded when Syrian government forces fired missiles into a marketplace in a town near Damascus, a conflict monitor said on Friday.

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  Over 80 Dead, 200 Injured in Air Raids by Syrian Government Outside Damascus

  At least 82 people were killed in Syrian regime air raids Sunday on a town outside Damascus, a monitor said, as the UN's top humanitarian chief held talks with government officials.

• Syrian peace talks reach impasse; US, Russia spar

  Peace talks aimed at forging a path out of Syria's civil war have reached an impasse - with no guarantee of continuing - after five days of sparring over responsibility for mounting violence back home and President Bashar Assad's future, government and opposition delegates said on Friday.

• Syria death toll tops 136,000, future talks uncertain

  The death toll in Syria's civil war has topped 136,000 after January saw one of the conflict's bloodiest months, an NGO said on Saturday, as violence claimed yet more civilian lives.

• Mortar shell hits Vatican embassy in Damascus

  Eyewitnesses say a mortar shell has slammed into a Damascus building that houses the Vatican's embassy.

• Syrian government says aid, vaccinations will reach all

  The Syrian government promised on Monday to ensure delivery of vaccinations and humanitarian aid across the country, after an outbreak of polio in the northeast and warnings of malnutrition in areas under military siege.

• Syria releases 61 women detainees, activists say

  Syrian authorities have released a total of 61 women detainees, an activist group said Thursday, the latest in a three-way prisoner exchange that was one of the more ambitious negotiated deals in the country's civil war in which rival factions remain largely opposed to any bartered peace.

• Car bomb, clashes kill over 30 near Syrian capital

  Syrian rebels blew up an army checkpoint outside Damascus on Saturday and more than 30 combatants from both sides died in the blast and ensuing clashes, a monitoring group said.

• Bomb kills 27 in Syria as kidnapped aid workers freed

  A car bomb killed dozens of people in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Monday as suspected jihadists freed four out of seven aid workers kidnapped in the increasingly volatile region.

• Two car bombs explode in central Damascus: SANA

  Two cars laden with explosives and driven by suicide bombers blew up in the centre of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday night, state media reported.

• This hotel hosts fleeing families, not tourists

  These are the new "tourists" in Damascus: families fleeing the violence in their hometowns who now live in decrepit hotels, packed into tiny spaces where they even cook in bathrooms.