Rebels shot down a government warplane over the town of Al-Eis in northern Syria on Tuesday and captured one crew member alive, a rebel source told AFP.
Air strikes have killed several Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front members including its spokesman and regime forces have retaken a strategic town from the Islamic State group in the latest setbacks for jihadists in Syria.
The Syrian army has found a mass grave containing the bodies of 42 civilians and soldiers executed by the Islamic State jihadist group in Palmyra, a military source said Saturday.
A view of the remains of Baalshmin temple, which was destroyed by the Islamic State (IS) group in 2015, in the Syrian ancient city of Palmyra. AFP
US President Barack Obama met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington, the White House said, amid tensions over press freedom and the war in Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that he is willing to hold early presidential elections if the Syrian people want them, in remarks released on Thursday.
The refugee crisis caused by Syria's war requires an "exponential" rise in global solidarity, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, as he opened a conference on securing resettlement places for those displaced.
China on Tuesday appointed its first special envoy for the Syrian crisis, a career diplomat who has served as ambassador to Iran, as it seeks a more active role in the Middle East.
The presidents of Russia and Iran agreed on Monday to step up bilateral contacts, including over the Syrian conflict, in which both countries are allies of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday hailed his troops' victory over the Islamic State group in the ancient oasis city of Palmyra as an ‘important achievement.’
Syrian government forces drove Islamic State fighters out of Palmyra on Sunday, the army said, inflicting a major defeat on the militants who seized the desert city last year and dynamited its ancient temples.
Syrian troops backed by Russian ground and air forces on Saturday pushed deeper into the Islamic State group stronghold of Palmyra, as Washington considered boosting its anti-jihadist fight in neighbouring Iraq.
