rebel

Yemeni forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive to retake the rebel-held port city of Hodeida.

IDLIB: A former Al-Qaeda affiliate took control of the northern Syrian city of Idlib on Sunday two days after agreeing to end fighting with a rebel group, a monitor said. "Ahrar al-Sham (the rebel group) withdrew from the city of Idlib which is now under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham," Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. This week saw fierce clashes between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham across much of Idlib province, including at the key Bab al-Hawa border…

ALEPPO: Syria's most populous city before the war, has been split for years between a government-held western sector and the rebel-held east. Intense bombing has destroyed the landscape of the city and killed thousands of people and injured many more since the start of the conflict. Shifting battleground As peace talks began in Geneva in February, Syrian and Russian forces launched their most intense offensive, breaking a three-year rebel siege of two villages outside Aleppo and taking them within 3km of their objective…

ALEPPO: The Syrian army and its allies advanced on Sunday in southeast Aleppo and a rebel official said insurgents face "death or surrender" in an ever smaller enclave, with large numbers of civilians under very fierce bombardment. Russian and US officials are meeting in Geneva on Sunday for more talks on an elusive deal for civilians and fighters to leave the city, diplomats said, but the rebel official said the Aleppo insurgents had no word yet on their progress. The fall of all of Aleppo to President Bashar al-Assad…

BOGOTA: Colombia's government and FARC rebels signed a controversial revised peace accord Thursday to end their half-century conflict, set to be ratified in Congress despite bitter criticism from opponents. President Juan Manuel Santos and guerrilla leader Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono signed the new deal with a pen made from a bullet used in the conflict, in a low-key ceremony in the capital Bogota. The original deal -- signed with great fanfare in September -- was rejected by voters in a referendum last month, a shock…

AMMAN: The Syrian army and allied forces captured the town of Al Hader in the northern province of Aleppo on Thursday, state television said quoting a military source, in their latest advance into a strategic rebel-held area.

BEIRUT: The Islamic State jihadist group has executed more than 90 people, a third of them civilians, over the past month in areas of war-torn Syria under its control, a monitoring group said Sunday.

TEHRAN: Eight Iranian border guards have been killed in a clash with Sunni rebels who had infiltrated from neighbouring Pakistan, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

ADEN: Fierce fighting for control of Yemen's main southern city Aden has left at least 185 people dead and more than 1,200 wounded, including many civilians, a medical official said Saturday.