Forty thousand people living in the Syrian town of Madaya in Damascus province are reportedly dying from starvation as the world watches in complicit silence, say activists.

The small town, located in the Qalamoun mountain range 40km south of Damascus in an area adjacent to the Lebanese border, has been besieged since July 2015 by Assad's forces, backed by mercenaries from the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia, who continue to prevent any food or humanitarian aid from reaching residents. .

Assad preparing to hand over Damascus to Daesh: FSA chief

01-06-2015: The Secretary-General of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Captain Ammar al-Wawi said yesterday, “Bashar al-Assad’s regime is preparing to hand over Damascus to elements of the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’ (Daesh) in the event of its fall, but the rebels are aware of this,” adding that “preparations for this began more than a month-and-a-half ago.”

Druze youths studying at a Latakia university were severely beaten in a sectarian attack reportedly spurred by Druze opposition to the regime’s mandatory military service

“A number of Suweida youth were severely beaten by a group of attackers calling themselves the ‘Shabiha of the Coast’,” the pro-opposition Siraj Press reported Friday.

Several anti-regime media outlets covered the attack, which happened in Teshrin University’s Technical Institute for Veterinary Studies in the southern Latakia suburb of Sanawbar.

The Syrian regime has lost control of the Idlib province following swift rebel advances, making it the second province to fall out of the regime’s hands.

Late Thursday, the Army of Conquest coalition of rebels stormed into Ariha, the last sizeable town in the northwest region, sending regime troops fleeing in the direction of the Al-Ghab Plain that straddles the Latakia province to the south.

A military chief of the Revolutionary Command Council of Syria has blamed the plight of people on the intervention of the Iranian regime's paramilitary forces in the war-torn country.

Brigadier General Mithghal al-Batish said Iran's aim was to 'annihilate or displace' the Syrian people, but that the regime would fail and 'victory is near'.