APRNEWS - Israel on Monday said its air defences fired at rockets that approached its territory from neighbouring Syria, where regime troops are advancing on opposition forces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"Syrian rockets were identified as having been launched as part of the internal fighting in Syria," an Israeli army statement said in English.

APRNEWS - The foreign ministry in Damascus condemned on Monday the evacuation of hundreds of trapped White Helmets rescue workers and their relatives from Syria's south through its arch-foe and neighbour, Israel.

APRNEWS - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrived in Libya on Monday to push a Paris deal which paves the way for elections in the war-torn country.

Le Drian met the head of Libya's UN-backed government, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, in the capital Tripoli ahead of a series of talks with various political actors.

APRNEWS - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Moscow's military chief of staff will arrive in Israel later Monday for talks on the conflict in neighbouring Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

REUTERS - Dozens of Syrians approached the Israeli frontier on the Golan Heights on Tuesday in an apparent attempt to seek help or sanctuary from a Russian-backed Syrian army offensive, before turning back after a warning from Israeli forces.

REUTERS - Syrian state vehicles, accompanied by Russian military police, entered an area of Deraa city on Thursday to raise the national flag over an area held by rebels for years, witnesses said, leaving President Bashar al-Assad poised for another big victory in the seven-year-long Syrian conflict.

REUTERS - Government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the city of Deraa on Monday for the first time in nearly a year, a rebel and a war monitor said, extending an assault in southwest Syria.

REUTERS - Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed political ructions in the United States for difficulties in arranging a summit with President Donald Trump, in remarks broadcast on Monday.

GUARDIAN - Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Thursday and said the situation in Syria is now favourable for the beginning of a “political process” which would lead to the withdrawal of foreign forces.

REUTERS - The remaining fighters started to withdraw from the last rebel-held enclave in central Syria on Wednesday, state television reported, sealing the government’s control over the area and opening a major stretch of the country’s most important highway.