BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops began a ground offensive under the cover of airstrikes on rebel-held areas outside the capital Damascus on Friday after a 10-day truce collapsed over disagreement regarding evacuation of opposition fighters. The new wave of violence left at least 36 people dead, including women and children, according to state media and opposition activists.
BEIRUT (AP) — A new group of Syrian rebels and their family members left their stronghold near Damascus on Tuesday, heading to the rebel-held north as part of an agreement with the Syrian government and its Russian backers.
State-run Syrian television broadcast footage that showed several buses leaving the town of Douma. It said those on board were fighters and family members belonging to the Army of Islam, the largest rebel group in eastern Ghouta.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local):
10:15 p.m.
The Russian military says rebels are leaving the town of Douma in the suburbs of Damascus.
Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, of the Russian military's Reconciliation Center in Syria, said Monday that 1,146 rebels and their relatives have left Douma, in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, for the northern province of Idlib over the past 24 hours.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian army declared victory in eastern Ghouta Saturday after opposition fighters evacuated from most of the area near the capital except for the town of Douma where negotiations are still underway for rebels there to leave or face an all-out government offensive.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government has given a final, three-day ultimatum to the largest rebel group in the enclave of eastern Ghouta to leave the last remaining rebel-held town in the area, state TV reported on Thursday.
According to the TV report, the 72-hour deadline began on Wednesday night.
Talks have been deadlocked for days between the Army of Islam group, which controls the Syrian town of Douma, just outside of Damascus, and Russian mediators.
BEIRUT (AP) — Three years ago, the Army of Islam, one of Syria's most powerful armed opposition groups, held a massive military parade that included thousands of opposition fighters marching in formation and a striking display of tanks and armored vehicles at the doors of the Syrian capital.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops massed around the town of Douma on Tuesday after a powerful rebel faction refused to evacuate, threatening the resumption of the ferocious air and ground offensive that has driven rebels from the rest of the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus.
Thousands of fighters have already evacuated the suburbs with their family members and other civilians, but the Army of Islam said it was determined to stay in its stronghold, Douma, the largest town in eastern Ghouta.
BEIRUT (AP) — Russia's military said Monday it expects to reach an agreement with a major Syrian rebel group to arrange its exit from the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta in another key victory for President Bashar Assad's forces as they push to gain control of the region on the edge of Damascus.
Douma is the only town on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital still held by rebels, after government forces captured all other opposition areas they had besieged for years.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):
9 p.m.
The largest rebel group in eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus says they have agreed with a U.N. team that entered the besieged area to evacuate al-Qaida-linked fighters from the district.
In a statement Friday, The Army of Islam said that the first batch of fighters to be evacuated is currently detained in the group's prisons in eastern Ghouta.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the civil war in Syria, where a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia began at sundown (all times local):
10:45 p.m.
More than a dozen Syrian rebel groups have harshly criticized a U.S. and Russian agreement aimed at reducing the violence, but did not reject a cease-fire that went into effect at sundown.