The withdrawal of American troops late last year was premature, with fighting intensifying in Idlib province, say Charles A Kupchan and Sinan Ülgen

When Russia’s fourth-term dictator President Vladimir Putin poured his particularly chilling scorn on the idea of liberalism last week his demeanour, his stone-cold certainty suggested he is not a man to tolerate opposition.

Dozens of international aid groups have warned that humanitarian conditions in Syria's north west have reached a new "crisis point", as government troops push to retake the rebels' last stronghold.

Here's your morning bulletin.

Turkey's president has announced that a Turkish military helicopter was "downed" in northern Syria during Ankara's offensive on Syrian Kurdish militia in the region.

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

Russia's defence ministry has displayed a pair of drones that it said were captured following attacks on two Russian military bases in Syria.

A Russian-built plane used by the Syrian air force conducted a sarin gas attack in the spring that killed at least 83 civilians and sparked a retaliatory US strike, a UN investigation has found.

A chemical weapons watchdog investigation has confirmed sarin was used in the deadly April 4 attack on Syrian town Khan Sheikhoun.

Latest: The US has seen chemical weapons activity at a Syrian air base used for a sarin gas attack in April, the Pentagon said.

The White House has issued a warning to Bashar Assad as it claimed "potential" evidence showed Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack.

The United States has issued 271 sanctions in response to Syrian president Bashar Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that air strikes had seriously damaged the medical centre in Abdin village, in Idlib

Israeli defence officials said this week that Syria still has up to three tons of chemical weapons in its possession.

LATEST: At least 100 people have been killed in the blast near evacuation buses outside Aleppo city, the Syrian opposition rescue service says.

The US, its allies and Russia could best help the Syrian people by stepping up genuine humanitarian assistance in response to the refugee crisis, coming clean about their real intentions in the wider region, ceasing arms sales and engaging in a genuine peace process, argues Jim Roche. 

Russia has been told it must choose between aligning itself with the US and like-minded countries or embracing Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran and militant group Hezbollah.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has used a visit to a Second World War memorial in Italy to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians.

While most of the world has agreed to destroy these deadly weapons, the attack in Syria this week shows the urgency of the situation, writes Caroline Alexander

US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned on Wednesday that US President's Trump administration will take action against chemical attacks in Syria - if the UN Security Council fails to act.

International donors have pledged $6bn to help conflict-torn Syria this year, a senior European Union official has confirmed.

A suspected government chemical attack in an opposition-held town in northern Syria has killed dozens of people.

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.

An airstrike on a mosque in a rebel-held area of northern Syria today killed at least 35 people, emergency officials and activists said.

A plane has crashed in the countryside near Turkey's border with Syria, with preliminary information suggesting the aircraft belonged to Syria, a Turkish official says.

A deal to evacuate trapped civilians and fighters in war-ravaged east Aleppo and two Syrian villages has been thrown into doubt after assailants torched six buses assigned to the operation.

A ceasefire "surrender deal" allowing civilians and opposition fighters to be evacuated from eastern Aleppo has begun as Russia declared all military action had stopped and the Syrian government assumed control of the former rebel enclave.

America has dismissed an eight-hour pause in attacks by Russian and Syrian forces on rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo as "too little, too late".

Shelling and more than a dozen airstrikes on rebel-held parts of Aleppo have reportedly killed at least 11 people in Syria.

A top commander in Syria's rebranded al Qaida affiliate who was close to terror network leader Ayman al-Zawahri has been killed in an air strike, the group said.

A ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is set to begin in Syria at sunset today.

A ceasefire has been agreed between government forces and rebel factions in a key rebel-held Damascus suburb, Syrian state TV and opposition activists said.

A series of air strikes on opposition areas in Syria’s northern Aleppo province have killed at least 18 people, including children and hospital staff, activists and rescue workers said.

A Russian transport helicopter was shot down in opposition rebel territory in northern Syria yesterday and all five crew and officers onboard were killed, the Kremlin said. 

A Save the Children-backed maternity hospital in an opposition-held area of northern Syria has been bombed, with casualties reported, the charity has said.

Today is World Refugee Day, and aid agency GOAL have released six facts that you probably do not know about refugees.

Victoria White reports from Skaramagas refugee camp, west of Athens, home to 2,800 refugees who fled fighting in Syria but now fear that their hopes of starting life afresh in the West will never be realised

Russian officials have rebuffed claims that warplanes from the country struck a hospital in northern Syria.

Close to 50 civilians have been killed and many more wounded in missile attacks on at least five medical facilities and two schools in northern Syria, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.