Syrian forces win new victories after West's failed attack

Syrian troops and allies have opened several new fronts and won a string of victories against terrorists despite Saturday's missile raid by the Western powers.

On Thursday night the Syrian Arab Army and allied Palestinian refugee militia launched an offensive against Islamic State (ISIS) and the al-Qaida affiliated Nusra Front in Yarmouk, a southern suburb of Damascus, Lebanon's Al Masdar News reported.

That was after the extremists rejected an offer of safe passage for them and their families to parts of the country still held by their fellows.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said only that air strikes had been launched against the two groups in al-Hajar al-Aswad, a neighbouring district to Yarmouk in the last terrorist-occupied area of the capital. But claimed video footage of the fighting emerged on social media.

Foreign-backed sectarians seized the heavily urbanised Palestinian refugee camp since soon after the attempted 2011 coup against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Dumayr liberated

The start of the offensive coincided with the raising of the Syrian flag over the town of Dumayr, northeast of the capital, for the first time in years. Two days earlier some 1,500 militants from the Saudi-backed Army of Islam agreed to surrender and board buses to Jarabulus on the northern border with Turkey, along with around 3,500 of their wives and children.

The same group finally gave up the northeastern Douma suburb of Damascus last week, despite claims by so-called White Helmets propaganda outfit of a chemical weapon attack there, since debunked by veteran news correspondent Robert Fisk.

Britain, France and the US responded with a barrage of 103 cruise missiles ― of which Syria's 30-year-old air defences shot down 71, according to Russia's Ministry of Defence.

Syria said Israel launched its missile raid on Dumayr air base, outside the town and firmly under government control, on Sunday and again on Tuesday, but all were shot down ― like the dozen fired at the base on Saturday.

Just north of Dumayr, the crack Tiger Forces brigade surrounded more sectarians in al-Ruhaybah on the western tip of the large, mountainous East Qalamoun pocket.

And in the Talbiseh pocket north of the central city of Homs, a ceasefire to allow surrender talks with Russian military representatives was announced on Wednesday after an army offensive there liberated a dozen settlements.

The mystery of the Guanches

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Los Gigantes Beach Landslide Tragedy - Three Days of Mourning for Victims

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Ex-pats hail extinction of ‘mammoth’ development

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Venezuelan opposition declares "Zero Hour" for regime change

Venezuela’s opposition declared “Zero Hour” in its putsch against the socialist government on Monday — emboldened by US support. Leaders of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition gathered for the announcement of their takeover plan a day after their unauthorised referendum seeking a mandate for regime change. National Assembly vice-president and Popular Will (VP) acting leader Freddy Guevara said the Mud-controlled parliament would announce the results of the plebiscite on Tuesday. It asked voters to reject President Nicolas Maduro’s calling of a constitutional reform assembly demand the army support the opposition and back a “national unity government.” But before the announcement of the result Mr Guevara said the national Assembly would form a new government on Tuesday — a move beyond its constitutional powers — along with 1,020 local “Zero Hour committees.” He called a “national general strike” for Thursday while on Friday the assembly would again exceed its powe

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