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

A fragile and limited ceasefire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and its surrounding countryside has been extended for the third time, for another 48 hours starting at 1am this morning, the Syrian military said yesterday.

Syrian military aircraft have bombed the north-western town of Jisr al-Shughour today, a day after insurgents seized control of it as part of a broader offensive that has left government forces in the area reeling.

The Defence Forces has said reported rocket fire in the Golan Heights is not taking place in the area where Irish troops are based.

Syrian rebels holding dozens of Fijian UN peacekeepers hostage have attacked Filipino troops in the Golan Heights, Philippine officials said.

Israeli war planes have unleashed airstrikes against Syrian army targets in response to a roadside bombing in the Golan Heights that wounded four soldiers.

Irish troops serving in the Golan Heights had a lucky escape yesterday after twice getting caught in cross-fire between Syrian government forces and anti-Assad rebels.

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria has ended a visit to Damascus, calling on both the government and the opposition to attend a peace conference in Geneva later this month.

Israeli warplanes attacked a shipment of Russian missiles inside a Syrian government stronghold, officials said yesterday.

The United Nations chief has said his organisation's report into the use of chemical weapons in Syria is "indisputable".

A Turkish fighter jet has shot down a Syrian military helicopter after it entered Turkish air space and ignored repeated warnings to leave, an official said.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad denied that he was behind a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, as the White House yesterday pressed ahead with the uphill effort of persuading Congress to approve a military strike to punish Assad.

The Syrian military today launched an offensive to retake a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, a government official said, as activists reported that regime airstrikes and shelling of the town have killed at least 16 people, including opposition fighters.

Israel launched an airstrike in the Syrian capital Damascus today.

A senior Israeli military intelligence official has claimed Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons last month in his battle against insurgent groups.

A barrage of rockets has struck a residential district on the outskirts of Damascus, killing at least five people, activists say.

Syrian government airstrikes killed at least 14 people in the northern province of Raqqa less than a week after rebels seized the area’s provincial capital, activists said today.

The chief of Syrian rebel forces says his fighters are in “desperate” need of weapons and ammunition rather than the food supplies and bandages that the US now plans to provide.

Syria threatened today to retaliate for an Israeli air strike and its ally Iran said there will be repercussions over the attack.

The Syrian military has bombarded the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country, according to activists.

Syrian rebels made a new push into Damascus today, clashing heavily with troops in the rebellious suburbs of the capital and firing mortars at a presidential palace and a Palestinian refugee camp, activists said.

France’s president has vowed his country will stand against instability in Lebanon, two weeks after the assassination of a senior Lebanese intelligence official sparked clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian groups.

A Syrian warplane flattened a three-storey building, suspected rebels detonated a deadly car bomb and both sides traded gunfire in hotspots across the country, leaving a United Nations-backed holiday truce in tatters on its second day.

The Syrian military says it will cease military operations for four days starting tomorrow in observance of a major Muslim holiday.

A car bomb exploded near the police headquarters in central Damascus yesterday, killing at least one person and damaging buildings, Syria’s state-run news agency said.

Syrian warplanes and artillery have pounded the central city of Homs, subjecting the former rebel stronghold to its worst bombardment in months, activists said.

Two bombs went off near the Syrian military’s joint chiefs of staff’s offices in central Damascus today, state television said.

Syrian military helicopters have dropped hundreds of leaflets over Damascus and its suburbs, urging rebels to hand over their weapons or face inevitable death.

The UN General Assembly is preparing to denounce Syria for unleashing tanks, artillery, helicopters and warplanes on the people of Aleppo and Damascus, and demand that the Assad regime keep its chemical and biological weapons warehoused and under strict control.

Syria imported nearly six times more weapons from 2007-2011 than in the previous five-year period, with Russia accounting for 72% of the arms supplies to President Bashar Assad’s regime, an international research institute said today.

The UN humanitarian chief entered the shattered Syrian district of Baba Amr, where activists accuse regime forces of trying to cover up evidence of execution-style killings and reprisal attacks following a bloody military siege.

Syrian forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began, a UN official said, aa Hilary Clinton suggested the Syrian leader may be a war criminal.

The head of the UN Ban Ki-moon has called directly on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to halt the on-going bloodshed in the country.

The head of the Arab League warned today that Syria may be sliding toward civil war, as security forces fired on thousands of people who poured into the streets in support of army defectors.

Dozens of Syrian military commanders and officials authorised or gave direct orders for widespread killings, torture and illegal arrests during the wave of anti-government protests that began nine months ago, Human Rights Watch said today.

Hours of clashes across Syria killed at least four people today and wounded dozens more - including an 11-year-old girl who was struck by stray bullets that flew across the border into Lebanon, officials said.

TENS of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to military rule packed Cairo’s Tahrir square in the biggest turnout of a week of protests and violence that has killed 41 people.

The Syrian military vowed today to “cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood”, as it missed an Arab League deadline to allow observers in or face economic sanctions.

European nations dropped an explicit threat of sanctions against the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad to try to win Russian support for what would be the first UN resolution condemning his military crackdown on civilian protesters.

Two Gulf Arab nations have joined Saudi Arabia in recalling their ambassadors from Syria in the wake of bloody crackdown, further isolating President Bashar Assad's regime.

The Syrian military stormed the central city of Hama before dawn today, killing up to 13 people as tank shells slammed into the streets, activists and witnesses said.