Jabhat Al-nusra

Five years of conflict have torn Syria apart. And nowhere is that more stark than in its most populous city, Aleppo, where front lines carve through neighborhoods and slice it in two.

A New Zealand man could spend up to three decades behind bars after he was found guilty by an Australian court Tuesday of trying to travel to the Middle East to fight in the Syrian conflict.

A former aide of Osama bin Laden has appealed to British Muslims not to join Islamic State for the so-called jihad in Syria as he denounced the group's beheadings and mass rape as "completely against Islam".

The shadowy leader of a powerful al-Qaida group fighting in Syria sought to kidnap United Nations workers and scrawled out plans for his aides to take over in the event of his death, according to excerpts of letters obtained on Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The rise of Islamist groups fighting Syria's Western-backed rebels has emboldened the Syrian government and will make it harder to extract concessions from Damascus at any peace talks, a US official said on Monday.

Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria's extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers.

Syrian rebels on Saturday seized a major air defense base in a strategic region of southern Syria near the Jordanian border in the latest battlefield triumph for fighters seeking to topple President Bashar Assad, activists said.

Five years of conflict have torn Syria apart. And nowhere is that more stark than in its most populous city, Aleppo, where front lines carve through neighborhoods and slice it in two.

A New Zealand man could spend up to three decades behind bars after he was found guilty by an Australian court Tuesday of trying to travel to the Middle East to fight in the Syrian conflict.

A former aide of Osama bin Laden has appealed to British Muslims not to join Islamic State for the so-called jihad in Syria as he denounced the group's beheadings and mass rape as "completely against Islam".

The shadowy leader of a powerful al-Qaida group fighting in Syria sought to kidnap United Nations workers and scrawled out plans for his aides to take over in the event of his death, according to excerpts of letters obtained on Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The rise of Islamist groups fighting Syria's Western-backed rebels has emboldened the Syrian government and will make it harder to extract concessions from Damascus at any peace talks, a US official said on Monday.

Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria's extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers.

Syrian rebels on Saturday seized a major air defense base in a strategic region of southern Syria near the Jordanian border in the latest battlefield triumph for fighters seeking to topple President Bashar Assad, activists said.