A deal hammered out by Russia, Turkey and Iran to set up "de-escalation zones" in mostly opposition-held parts of Syria has gone into effect.

The US missile attack caused heavy damage to one of Syria's biggest and most strategic air bases - but the impact on President Bashar Assad's military capabilities is limited.

US-backed forces in northern Syria have paused military operations near a dam held by the Islamic State group to allow engineers to fix any problems.

Syrian government warplanes have pounded a rebel-held neighbourhood in the central city of Homs, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, opposition activists said.

At least 13 people have been killed in a string of bomb attacks inside government territory in Syria, according to state media.

The US president has been condemned for not intervening early and removing the Assad regime, but such military action was disastrous in Iraq and Libya, says Christopher R Hill     

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.

A child refugee who lost her parents in the Syrian conflict smiled for the first time after meeting a group of Irish circus artists.

The ceasefire in Aleppo could prove to be a real turning point in the Syrian conflict, and what happens in the city could be seen as setting the tone for the rest of the country, says Peter Apps

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

US secretary of state John Kerry said yesterday that a “provisional agreement” has been reached on a ceasefire that could begin in the next few days in Syria’s five-year civil war.

The Syrian opposition cast doubt on whether it would go to peace talks planned for Friday — throwing UN diplomatic efforts into question as it accused the US of adopting unacceptable Iranian and Russian ideas for solving the conflict.

At least 32 people were killed and 90 wounded in two bomb explosions in the Syrian city of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hundreds of activists rallied in front of Donald Trump’s hotel in midtown New York City to condemn the Republican 2016 presidential candidate’s call to bar Muslims temporarily from entering the US.

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

Turkish jets shot down an unidentified drone that flew into Turkey’s airspace at the border with Syria, an incident that comes as Syrian troops under Russian air cover are pressing their offensive against rebels in central and northern Syria.

President Bashar al-Assad said a military campaign by Russia, Syria and its allies will decide the fate of the Middle East, and a year of US-led air strikes against Islamic State militants had only helped the spread of terrorism.

Russia continued to bomb Syria for a third day yesterday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than Islamic State (IS) fighters it said it was targeting.

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, a further sign of the rapid internationalisation of a civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake.

Russian military jets have carried out air strikes in Syria for the first time, targeting what Moscow said were IS positions.

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.

Appeal for cThe UN’s food agency is cutting back on assistance to thousands of Syrian refugees after an appeal for a ceasefire to enable Syrians feed themselves went unheeded, World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Ertharin Cousin said.easefire so Syrians could feed selves went unheeded

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.

Noel Baker travels to Lebanon, where as many as 1.5m Syrian refugees find themselves in limbo on the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict

Syrian rebels and government forces have started observing a 10-day truce in the last rebel-held area of the central city of Homs, marking another setback for opposition fighters, activists said.

A UN report says the world is facing a challenge of foreign fighters in terror groups on an "unprecedented scale", with about 15,000 in Syria and Iraq alone.

Twin bombings near an elementary school in Syria killed at least 22 people, including at least 10 children, with the second blast going off as screaming parents frantically searched for their sons and daughters.

The US-led coalition attacking Islamic State in Syria has launched air strikes on its positions including wheat silos in the country's east, activists said today.

Tune in to BBC2 at 9pm for Children of Syria. Lyse Doucet follows the lives of six children over six months. Their stories offer an intimate and powerful insight into a country being torn apart.

Syrian government forces have launched a counter-attack to recapture a gas field seized by Islamic extremists, activists said, as the death toll from three days of fighting there rose to more than 200.

A car bomb has exploded in the central Syrian city of Homs, killing one person and wounding at least 14 in the latest blast to hit the city in recent weeks, Syrian media and an activist group said.

Syrian rebels bombed a once luxurious, historic hotel being used as a government army base in the northern city of Aleppo, levelling the building and causing multiple casualties in a giant explosion carried off by digging tunnels under the complex, activists and militants said.

What an image.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is quietly preparing the ground to hold elections by early this summer, even as the Syrian conflict rampages into its fourth year with large parts of the country either in ruins or under opposition control.

Syrian troops captured a famed Crusader castle near the border with Lebanon today, running the two-starred government flag high above the stone ramparts of the 12th century fortress after days of intense clashes with rebel fighters.

An Irish pharmacist has stepped in to help a Syrian chemist who fled war-torn Homs for Ireland after his business was destroyed by a car bomb.

Her sisters are famed for cooking and TV, but Ettie Higgins is back in Syria, a nation in a perpetual chaos, says Noel Baker