Middle East, Civil War | featured news

NBC News reports that Syria's military has loaded nerve-gas chemicals into bombs and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad.

The negative experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the Obama administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria.

U.S. and allied intelligence have detected Syrian movement of chemical weapons components in recent days, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday, as the Obama administration again warned the Assad regime against using chemical weapons on Syrian rebels.

Internet services in Syria's capital resume after a two-day blackout, as clashes between government forces and rebels around Damascus intensify.

An Internet blackout and complete lack of phone service has not stopped the infamous international hacker group Anonymous from its cyberwar on the Syrian regime. The hacker group, which has been credited with online attacks on governments, international banks and even the CIA, claims it is retaliating against the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad, which it believes had shut down online and cellphone access this week, perhaps in preparation for a major offensive.

“They are a legitimate representative of the Syrian people’s aspirations,” the American ambassador to Syria said Thursday. An official announcement of recognition was expected Dec. 12.

Internet access disappeared across Syria on Thursday, and airports were closed, prompting antigovernment activists to warn that the authorities might be planning to escalate their crackdown.

Syrian hospital officials say twin car bombs have killed at least 34 people in a Damascus suburb.

Before the civil war, Ramiz Moussa was a middle class civil servant who processed fines for littering, illegal construction and disturbing the peace in Aleppo, Syria's largest city....

In Damascus, two mortar shells struck the upscale neighborhood of Mazzeh during the morning rush hour Thursday.