Brian Maguire returned from Aleppo intent on painting the reality of what he’d seen in the Syrian city, writes Alan O’Riordan.

Syria's foreign minister has told world leaders that his country is "marching steadily" toward the goal of rooting out terrorism and "victory is now within reach".

Syria's military said it has fully recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from Islamic State for the second time in a year.

Syrian army experts are dismantling explosives and booby-traps left behind by rebels before they left the last neighbourhoods they held in the northern city of Aleppo, according to state TV.

Hundreds of civilians have streamed out of eastern Aleppo by foot as Syrian troops and allied forces waged a relentless campaign to drive rebels from their rapidly crumbling enclave.

Syrian government forces have launched a counter-offensive under the cover of air strikes in an attempt to regain control of areas they had lost to insurgents the day before in Aleppo, activists and state media said.

Russia has warned the US against carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, claiming there would be repercussions across the Middle East.

IF every generation is destined to have its Ladysmith, its Nanking, its Stalingrad or its Sarajevo, then it is not hard to identify the most recent stage for atrocity and barbarism. 

The family of American journalist Marie Colvin, who died in Syria in 2012, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a US court, accusing the Syrian government of deliberately killing her.

Russia and its military has proven prowess in learning lessons from its failures, writes Geoffrey Roberts

No Borders will combine real-life testimonies from refugees in Ireland with plays, poetry and music, writes John Tynan

World and regional powers have agreed to try and turn a fragile truce in Syria into a comprehensive ceasefire.

Operation Mayday aims to help refugees settle in their new surroundings in Ireland, writes Joe Leogue.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview that Syria needs a national unity government that would secure the transition to a new constitution, rejecting the “transitional body” demanded by the opposition, which wants him to step down.

Given that the Syrian army and its allies (Kurds, Hezbollah, Iran) are about to encircle the ISIS terrorists in Aleppo and cut off their supply routes to Turkey, the Turks have begun shelling Kurds in Syria (from Turkey) who have been successfully fighting ISIS. 

Diplomats have agreed to work toward a temporary “cessation of hostilities” in Syria’s civil war within a week, although efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire fell short.

Donor nations have pledged to give billions of dollars in aid to Syrians as world leaders gathered for a conference to tackle the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with Turkey reporting a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing air strikes.

Syria's official news agency has reported that three children have been killed by rocket fire in Aleppo.

Since the House of Commons voted for war on 1 December against ISIS the RAF have mounted only three strike missions, and may have dropped only 19 bombs. The RAF manned missions were against the Omar oilfield which had already been incapacitated by an American attack 6-weeks previously.

Vladimir Putin has warned that the Russian military will “immediately destroy” any targets threatening its forces in Syria.

Does British Prime Minister David Cameron believe America and Russia, with their powerful, regional allies, could enforce a ceasefire between Assad and moderate rebels, quite soon, if they wanted to?

The US is giving TOW anti-tank missiles to the Free Syrian Army. 

The British government is de facto backing Saudi Arabia, and America supplies it with TOW missiles which can destroy tanks.

The UK government and mainstream media say Syria president Bashar Al-Assad is killing his own people in Syria. 

Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday branded US support for rebel forces in Syria as illegal and ineffective, saying US-trained rebels were leaving to join Islamic State (IS) with weapons supplied by Washington.

Three years of carnage has turned the city mentioned by Shakespeare in Macbeth into a Stalingrad, writes JAMES HARKIN

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe’s refugee crisis on Western support for “terrorists”, as people fleeing his country’s civil war stream towards the EU.

On the one hand, the United States claim they have hard evidence for militant activity. This justifies drone strikes, which kill alleged militants in places like Afghanistan, Waziristan, and Yemen, etc, and this is keeping us safe.

The US and its partners now realise that a no-fly ‘safe zone’ on Syria’s border will protect its citizens and force Assad to negotiate, writes Anne-Marie Slaughter

Islamic State militants have abducted dozens of Christian families after seizing a strategically located town in the central Syrian province of Homs, a monitor said.

IS yesterday seized a key town in central Syria after heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces, in the militants’ biggest advance since capturing the historic town of Palmyra in May, Syrian activists said.

A fuel tank yesterday exploded inside a clinic in the predominantly Kurdish north-eastern Syrian town of Qamishli, killing at least 25 people, including children.

Islamic State (IS) militants have overrun the famed archaeological site at Palmyra, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighbouring Iraq.

Islamic State militants are in full control of the famed archaeological site in the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria, according to activists.

Talks between representatives of the Syrian government and some mainstream members of the opposition concluded yesterday in Moscow with no sign of progress towards ending a four-year-old conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.

A new propaganda video by Islamic State featuring British photojournalist John Cantlie, in which he says it is the “last film in this series”, has appeared online.

Obama is allowing himself to be drawn back into Iraq mostly because he doesn’t know what else to do, says Andrew J Bacevich

More than 70 Syrian refugees fleeing the ongoing war in their homeland are expected to arrive in Ireland in the next two months.

The detention — or kidnapping if you prefer — yesterday of 43 UN peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by militants fighting the Syrian army, introduces a new layer of complexity and danger into an already dreadful situation.

Syrian rebels, including fighters from an al Qaida-linked group, have seized control of a border crossing with Israel in the Golan Heights after heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces, activists and rebels said.

It is unlawful to supply a weapon to another person. Someone can even be complicit in murder if they supply the murder weapon. Why then should these laws not apply to governments supplying arms to terrorists?