Syria

NORTHEAST SYRIA, March 4 (Reuters) - The nearly eight-year-old U.S. deployment to Syria to combat Islamic State is still worth the risk, the top U.S. military officer said on Saturday, after a rare, unannounced visit to a dusty base in the country's northeast to meet U.S. troops.

Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew to Syria to assess efforts to prevent a resurgence of the militant group and review safeguards for American forces against attacks, including from drones flown by Iran-backed militia.

3 Mar 2023; MEMO: The deadly earthquakes that hit Turkiye and Syria last month caused about $5.1 billion in direct physical damage in Syria, the World Bank said on Friday, furthering destruction in a country already devastated by years of civil war, Reuters reports.

28 Feb 2023; MEMO: North-west Syria is in the midst of a "very high number" of cholera outbreaks in the wake of deadly earthquakes that exacerbated an already dire humanitarian landscape, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief said Tuesday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Egypt’s foreign minister Monday met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus and promised to deliver more aid to the quake-hit country.

Sameh Shoukry is Egypt’s most senior official to visit Syria since 2011, a day after Cairo’s parliament speaker, Hanafy el-Gebaly, and a delegation of top Arab lawmakers visited Assad in a push to end Syria’s political isolation.

DAMASCUS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A delegation of senior Arab parliamentarians met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday, another sign of thawing ties after more than a decade of isolation over the conflict in Syria.

The heads of the Iraqi, Jordanian, Palestinian, Libyan, Egyptian and Emirati houses of representatives, as well as representatives from Oman and Lebanon, traveled to Syria as part of a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union.

They met with Syrian parliamentarians and with Assad, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

24 Feb 2023; MEMO: At least two people were killed in an air strike on a motorcycle in the rebel-held zone of north-west Syria on Friday, the local civil defence said, in the first aerial bombing on the area since a devastating earthquake nearly three weeks ago, Reuters reports.

The rescue force that operates in opposition-held parts of Syria said two unidentified people were hit in an air strike carried out by "an unidentified aerial drone".

19 Feb 2023; MEMO: An Israeli rocket strike early on Sunday hit a building in central Damascus's Kafr Sousa neighbourhood near a large, heavily guarded security complex close to Iranian installations, killing five people, witnesses and officials said, Reuters reports.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: A Daesh group leader was killed and four US troops wounded in a US helicopter raid on northeast Syria, the Defense Department said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said "an explosion on target resulted in four US servicemembers and one working dog wounded" on Thursday, adding that "the targeted Daesh senior leader, Hamza al-Homsi, was killed."

It did not elaborate on what Homsi's role was.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: Youssef Qramo fled conflict in Syria for safety in neighbouring Turkey but after the deadly earthquake which devastated parts of both countries, he and thousands of fellow Syrians are returning to their homes in the war zone – at least for now.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Qatari Ambassador to Turkiye, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Jassim Al Thani, headed the convoy of humanitarian aid provided by his country to those afflicted as a result of the earthquakes that struck northwestern Syria on 6 February.

The convoy carried humanitarian and medical aid to the Jindires area in Afrin, north of Aleppo, sources told the news website aramme.com.