Al-Assad family

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has secured a landslide victory in a wartime election that was condemned as a sham by his opponents but demonstrated his tenacious hold on power after three years of brutal civil war.

Syrians are voting in a presidential election on Tuesday, with incumbent Bashar al-Assad in pole position to win a third term.

The opposition has labeled the vote as a "farce", manipulated by the ruling party. Polling stations have only been opened in the government-controlled areas, while people in the rebel-held regions will not be able to have their say, the BBC reports.

Syrians voted as fighting raged June 3 in a presidential election in which Bashar al-Assad is looking to tighten his grip as his forces battle rebels in a devastating three-year war.

Assad is facing two little-known challengers and is expected to win, despite a massive rebellion and a war which the U.N. has warned is likely to drag on even longer as a result of the vote.

Voting offices opened June 3 in Syrian regime-held areas for a presidential election that Bashar al-Assad is expected to win, and that has been slammed as a "farce" by the opposition.

A car bomb killed at least 10 people in a Syrian government-held area of the central province of Homs on Monday, state media said, the eve of an election expected to be won easily by President Bashar al-Assad.
  
Syrian television said the explosion caused major damage in nearby houses.
   

Almost 2000 people lost their lives in air attacks in Aleppo committed by government forces in 2014, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) argues.

As many as 283 woman and 567 children are included in the death toll, the organization reports as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Iran said Friday that next week's presidential election in Syria, branded a farce by Western governments, will boost the legitimacy of its ally Bashar al-Assad.
      
"God willing, the elections in Syria will be carried out without a hitch," said Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
      

The European Union said Thursday it was renewing economic sanctions against Syria, including an oil embargo and asset freezes against allies of President Bashar al-Assad, for another year.
      

The death toll from Syrian air raids on rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo has topped 40 over a 24-hour period, a monitoring group said Wednesday.
      
Barrel bombs killed 22 people Tuesday in the eastern districts of Hay Qataneh, Tariq al-Bab, Bustan al-Qasr, Bani Zeid, Mghayer and Lairamoun, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
      

A twin suicide attack in Syria's province of Hama took the lives of at least 18 people, 11 of which children, according to state media reports.

The two explosions, which were described as "terrorist"-originated, were in villages which are presently under government control, as the BBC reports.