Syria's President Bashar al-Assad joined prayers at a Damascus mosque Sunday for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, as his forces reportedly pressed on with a deadly assault against rebels.

State te

UN observers wind up their mission in Syria on Sunday, after Damascus denied opposition claims that top regime official Vice-President Faruq al-Shara had defected as its armed forces pounded rebels in

Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat troubleshooter, will take over from Kofi Annan as the international envoy on the Syria conflict, the United Nations said.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon appealed to the div

Amid escalating violence in Syria, UN has decided to end its observer mission in the strife-torn country after failed international attempts to broker a cease-fire between the forces of Bashar al-Assa

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria on Thursday, saying the Muslim world can no longer accept a government that ‘massacres its people’, further isolating the embattled regime.

An emergency summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) began late Tuesday with a proposal to suspend conflict-wracked Syria, a move strongly opposed by Iran.

A draft final sta

Syria's former Pime Minister, who defected last week, said on Tuesday that the regime was collapsing and now only controlled about a third of the conflict-wracked country.

"The Syrian regime only con

The United States and Turkey indicated they were studying a range of possible measures over Syria, including a no-fly zone, as battles between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's forces shook Aleppo and the heart of Damascus.

Arab foreign ministers postponed a planned meeting on the Syrian conflict that had been due to take place in Saudi Arabia later on Sunday, a top Arab League official said.

Syrian troops and rebels clashed on Friday in the city of Aleppo, where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds of residents queued for bread, reporters said.

They said aro