Syria's government

Syria's air force carried out the September 2016 raid that killed at least 10 aid workers in Aleppo province by deliberately targeting a humanitarian convoy, a U.N.-backed probe said on March 1.  

A new Syrian constitution was not discussed at talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana on Feb. 16, the head of Syria's government delegation has said.

Two days of talks in Astana that brought Syria's government and opposition groups around the same table helped in surpassing four key thresholds in efforts to resolve the five years of unrest in the war-torn country, according to Turkish officials, which believe the upcoming Geneva negotiations will be based on a more solid ground. 

The crucial Syria summit, which will bring Syria's government and rebel fighters to a negotiating table for the first time after nearly six years of war, following 23 days of cease-fire, is set to start in Kazakhstan's capital on Jan. 23. 

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and Syria's Russian-backed army fought over the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on Dec. 11, with both sides claiming the upper hand. 

Russia said its jets had helped force the militants out of the city center overnight, and its allies in the Syrian army were now fighting off another assault by the hardline Islamists. 

Syrian government forces and rebels fought battles north of Aleppo and in the city center on Sept. 30, a week into a Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian army to take the entire city, while the U.S. and Russia continued blaming each other over the situation in Syria. 

When two Polish heritage experts first restored the famed lion statue in Syria's Palmyra in 2005, they never imagined they would see it smashed to pieces only a decade later.    

Syria's ruling Baath party and its allies won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections last week across government-held parts of the country, the national electoral commission announced late on April 16.
 

The U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will begin holding "substantive" peace talks with both Syria's government officials and opposition representatives no later than March 14, a spokeswoman for the envoy said on March 8.

U.N. convoys delivering aid to thousands of besieged Syrians were due to set out on Feb. 17, after  Syria's government approved access to seven besieged areas, including the city of Madaya, U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's office said on Feb. 16 in Damascus following a meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.