al-Assad's government

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hailed the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's government as "a victory for humanity."

"Humanity won, compassion won, solidarity won, generosity won," Erdoğan said at an event in Ankara on Dec. 11, following the regime's collapse this weekend.

Israel has attacked locations in Syria where chemical weapons and long-range missiles are believed to be stored, aiming to prevent them from falling into the hands of adversaries, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said today, as reported by the Associated Press.

The Syrian government still possesses a chemical weapons capacity, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said April 11, urging measures to prevent Damascus' potential usage of the weapons.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cannot stay in power after a suspected chemical attack last week prompted the first direct U.S. military action against his government, Washington's ambassador to the United Nations has said.

Russia stood by its ally Damascus on April 5 ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting to address accusations the Syrian government launched a chemical weapons attack that killed scores of civilians.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met in Moscow on March 10 for a bilateral high-level cooperation council summit. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Dec. 8 he was "hopeful" about reaching an agreement with Russia over the Syrian city of Aleppo as government forces continued their advance in the city. 

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has expressed her concern about reports of "new Syrian regime offensives near Aleppo and east of Damascus." 

"The EU strongly supports the U.N. efforts to resume Syrian talks and push for the political transition for the sake of Syrians, the region and the world," Mogherini said in a statement.

Five people have starved to death in the last week in the Syrian town of Madaya, where a single biscuit sells for $15 and baby milk costs $313 per kilo, despite two emergency United Nations aid deliveries to the besieged town, a UN report said.

Syrian authorities have released two prominent members of the domestic opposition who were arrested on Dec. 30 as they travelled to Riyadh to meet other regime opponents, their party said.