Syria

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. The United States still refuses to let through buses sent for evacuating refugees from the Rubakan camp in Syria, head of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the conflicting sides Viktor Kupchishin said on Monday.

"Refugees from the Rubakan camp still cannot leave as the US side does not let through buses for evacuating refugees and refuses to ensure security for humanitarian convoys inside the 55-kilometer zone around its Al-Tanf base," Kupchishin said.

DAMASCUS, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The military commanders of Syria, Iran and Iraq discussed in the capital Damascus on Monday issues, including the coordination to counter terrorism, opening borders, and restoring all Syrian areas.

The meeting was attended by Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, the Syrian defense minister, Othman al-Ghanmi, chief of staff of the Iraqi military, and Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Beirut, Mar 14 (AFP) Russian air strikes killed at least 13 civilians, including six children, Wednesday in Idlib province, in the first such raids since a September truce deal, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said around 60 people were also wounded in the air strikes that struck several areas in the northwestern province, which is Syria's last major rebel bastion.

13 Mar 2019; DW: Some 3,000 members of "Islamic State" have left the group's last holdout in Syria to surrender to Kurdish-led forces.

"[The] number of Daesh (IS) members [who have] surrendered to us since yesterday evening has risen to 3,000," Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Mustefa Bali said Tuesday.

The SDF temporarily halted airstrikes and shelling on IS-controlled Baghouz in eastern Syria on Tuesday to allow people to leave the village to hand themselves over.

DAMASCUS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 people were killed on Monday by U.S.-led airstrikes on the last Islamic State (IS) stronghold in eastern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

The airstrikes targeted the IS-held area in the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour province.

The report said most of the deaths were women and children.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Russia and Syria are calling on the world community to realize the truth about the situation at the Rukban refugee camp, the heads of the Russian and Syrian inter-agency coordination headquarters, Mikhail Mizintsev and Hussein Makhlouf, said in a joint statement.

DAMASCUS, March 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 63,500 refugees, most of whom are the Islamic State (IS) militants and their families fleeing the last IS-held areas in eastern Syria, are living in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, a war monitor reported Saturday.

The refugees are mostly non-Syrians either from Iraq or Europe, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. The US-led coalition once again carried out airstrikes on the inhabited community of al-Baghouz in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province on Sunday using white phosphorus munitions, the SANA news agency reported.

According to the Syrian news agency, civilian casualties are reported.

03 Mar 2019; AFP: Nearly 300 Syrians suspected of belonging to the Islamic State jihadist group have been freed because they have "no blood on their hands", Kurdish authorities who were holding them said.

Their release was announced late Saturday by the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration of northern Syria, which said in a statement that 283 Syrians had been set free.

Tribal chiefs and other local officials had lobbied for their release.

01 Mar 2019; DW: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reported that the toxic chemical used in Douma, was likely molecular chlorine.

Despite being given the power to assign blame by its member states last June, the OPCW investigation did not do so for the Douma attack, as it was not part of the mandate for the team investigating the April attack.