Syria on Tuesday hailed its "constructive dialogue" with the United States after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met her Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in New York and warned Damascus not to undermine stability in Iraq or Lebanon.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met the new head of the US military's Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper in Damascus on Friday, his office and CENTCOM said.
Britain's government is facing a legal challenge Thursday over its use of a drone to kill two British Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in Syria, even though it is not part of military action there.
International chemical weapon troubleshooters will enter war-torn Syria on Tuesday to start one of the biggest and most dangerous disarmament operations ever staged.
Syria is committed to handing over its chemical weapons, President Bashar al-Assad said, as major powers inched closer on Thursday to a UN resolution enshrining a Russian-US deal.
A US and Russian-inked programme to destroy Syria's chemical weapons should begin "in a matter of days," the watchdog tasked with implementing the plan said Monday.
A ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States took effect in Syria at sundown Monday, despite scepticism over how long the truce in the five-year conflict would hold.
A war monitor said a senior commander from the security forces in northeast Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration was killed on Tuesday in a blast near a prison in Hasakeh province.
Iranian engineers were among those killed in a blast at a secret Syrian military installation two months ago, defence group Jane's said, claiming the base was being used to develop chemical weapons.
Syrian firefighters and army helicopters Wednesday battled forest fires for a seventh consecutive day in government-held areas of the war-torn country, state media said.
Syria is confident the United Nations will not adopt a resolution on its chemical weapons under Chapter VII, which could allow the use of force, its deputy foreign minister said Wednesday.
Syria's stockpile of chemical agents is largely "unweaponized" and could be eradicated more quickly than initially thought, the Washington Post reported Thursday citing a confidential US and Russian assessment.
Three people have died of cholera in northern and eastern Syria, the region's Kurdish administration said Saturday, appealing for international help to contain the outbreak.
Syrian troops counterattacked against the Islamic State group around a key eastern airbase Sunday after a US-led coalition air strike killed scores of soldiers forcing a retreat, military sources said.
Nassar spent 10 weeks in an underground jail at Hanano military barracks in the embattled province of Aleppo in northern Syria for planning to desert before his fortunes changed.
Kurdish militia fought to defend a key border town in northern Syria on Monday after 130,000 terrified residents fled to Turkey to escape an advance by the Islamic State group.
