Syria - Page 7

The attack on a UN humanitarian aid convoy near Aleppo, Syria, last month, which Washington has blamed on Russia, was actually carried out by one of the terrorist groups present in the area, the Russian president has said.

Estonian media reported on Friday that Russia was shipping Iskanders on a civilian vessel in the Baltic sea.

Russia has vetoed a French resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council. The document was submitted by Paris a week ago and is countered by a Russian draft resolution still to be voted on.

Russia has confirmed it has sent an S-300 air defence missile system to its naval base in Syria's port of Tartus.

The US is trying to spare a jihadist group in its attempts to unseat Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, Russia's foreign minister has told the BBC.

Russia has criticised the US and UK for using "unacceptable" tone and rhetoric in speeches on Syria at the UN, after being accused of "barbarism".

He dismissed criticism of the Syrian army, expressed at the Security Council meeting by the US, France and the UK, over the latest offensive in eastern Aleppo.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Syrian rebel groups are exploiting the current ceasefire to regroup.

A cessation of hostilities has come into effect in Syria, although it is unclear how widely it will be observed.

The Russian and US-brokered nationwide ceasefire in Syria has come into effect, beginning at 7pm Damascus time (16:00 GMT). The Russian Defense Ministry says Moscow will continue airstrikes targeting terrorists.

The US says fighting between Turkey, pro-Turkish rebels and Kurdish-aligned forces in northern Syria is "unacceptable" and must stop.

Nearly 18,000 people have died in government prisons in Syria since the beginning of the uprising in 2011, according to Amnesty International.

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter has been shot down by ground fire in Syria following delivery of humanitarian supplies to Aleppo, the Defense Ministry said. Three crew and two officers from Russia's Reconciliation Center died, according to a Kremlin statement.

Prosecutors in Paris charged Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with corruption earlier this month, an anti-corruption group said Tuesday.

If successful it could cut the militants' main access route to the outside world, paving the way for an assault on their Syrian capital Raqqa.

At least eight people have been killed in suicide bomb attacks on a suburb of Damascus which is home to Syria's holiest Shia shrine, state media say.

Government troops backed by Russian air strikes approach group's de facto capital for the first time since August 2014.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the monitoring group, said Tabqa would be a difficult military target because Islamic State has large stocks of weapons there.

A series of car and suicide bombings has hit two government strongholds on Syria's Mediterranean coast

The hospital has reportedly been badly damaged.