Military, Syria | featured news

Just when they expected a flood of heavy weapons to help them make a major push against the forces of President Bashar Assad, rebel commanders in Syria say, arms shipments from outside the country have instead slowed, prolonging a conflict now nearing the end of its second year.

The UK has not excluded providing military assistance to the Syrian opposition, should the conflict worsen, William Hague has said.

The U.S. will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack, the Pentagon said Friday.

A NATO official says the military alliance has approved plans to send Patriot anti-missile systems to southern Turkey to bolster its defense against strikes from neighboring Syria....

Israel faced the prospect of stepped-up military action on two fronts Monday as rockets fired from Gaza hit southern communities for the third straight day, and the army said it shelled a Syrian artillery battery after a stray shell landed near one of its posts in the Golan Heights.

For a second consecutive day, Israel confronted fire along its border with Syria on Monday as the Israeli army said it fired shells toward the source of a mortar shell, hitting Syrian artillery units.

Syrian army helicopters and tanks pounded rebel positions in the Mediterranean province of Latakia for a second day on Wednesday, activists said, in the heaviest clashes there since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad erupted last year.

President Barack Obama says it is important to resolve the ongoing conflict in Syria without outside military intervention. Obama says not every situation allows for the type of military action the U.S. and allies took in Libya, which led to the removal of Moammar Gadhafi last year. The president says a negotiated solution in Syria is possible. He defended his administration's handling of the violence there, saying the U.S. has been "relentless" in demanding that President Bashar Assad leave power.

The Syrian military defied growing condemnation and sent tanks into Deir al-Zour, the fifth-largest city in the country.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets outside Damascus, in Homs and elsewhere in response to the lethal military assaults centered in the besieged city of Hama. The growing civilian toll intensifies international condemnation of the Syrian regime.