The head of the Arab League exchanged a warm handshake Friday at the United Nations with the foreign minister of Syria, which has been suspended from the body since 2011.

Wearing clean bullet-proof vests and knee pads, fighters from a new Syrian amy battalion showcase the skills they have learned from Russia's military advisers.

The UN special envoy for Syria arrived in Damascus on Sunday for fresh talks on forming a committee tasked with drafting a new constitution for the war-ravaged country. 

Near the village of Hazano in northwestern Syria, children come running through the olive groves every morning to meet the bus that brings school to their improvised tented camp.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host his Russian and Iranian counterparts on Monday for their latest summit on Syria, with attention focused on Damascus's push on the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib.

Regime and Russian fire has killed at least six civilians in northwestern Syria's Idlib province, a war monitor said Saturday, two weeks after Moscow declared a ceasefire in the jihadist-dominated region.

Seven years after fleeing the civil war in his homeland, Zahir Hamshari's life is filled with questions and doubts: How to pay the rent? How to cover the electricity bill? How to afford even basic staples like bread and bottled water?

But one thing is crystal clear for him. Like many Syrian refugees, he cannot envision returning to his war-torn country.

Israel said Monday several rockets were fired at its territory from Syria by an Iranian-backed force in what would be a rare incident, but they all fell short.

Air strikes on Syria's northwestern Idlib region stopped on Saturday after a Russian-backed ceasefire went into effect following four months of deadly bombardment, a war monitor said. 

Turkey on Friday said Ankara wanted to witness itself the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from parts of northern Syria after such claims by Syrian Kurdish authorities this week.