Syrian opposition sources said Russian jets bombed rebel-held northwestern Syria on Sunday in the most extensive strikes since a Turkish-Russian deal halted major fighting with a ceasefire nearly six months ago. Witnesses said the warplanes struck the western outskirts of Idlib city and that there was heavy artillery shelling in …
Read More »US heading for confrontation with Russia as reinforcements sent to Syria
The US has ramped up its military presence in Syria after a number of skirmishes with Russian forces intensified tensions in the country. US officials said six Bradley Fighting Vehicles and about 100 troops were part of the deployment to north-east Syria. Incidents between US and Russian forces that patrol …
Read More »Syrian rebels okay Turkish plans for their country
Turkey-backed Syrian rebels pledged on Friday to back a potential cross-border offensive that Ankara has threatened to mount against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. Ankara and Washington have agreed to set up a zone in northeast Syria along the border with Turkey, which wants to expel the Syrian Kurdish YPG …
Read More »Interview with Musa Ozugurlu – Turkey, the Kurds and Syria
Interview with Turkish journalist, political scientist and publicist Musa Ozugurlu. In 2010, he started working as TRT Turk’s representative in Syria. He is one of the few foreign journalists in Syria to follow the process, which began in 2011, on-site until 2016. He currently presents the weekly program âMedia criticalâ …
Read More »Trump Moves to Quickly Exit Syria
Those who thought that the US was doomed to stay in Syria indefinitely (as was mentioned by the Pentagon last week) were surprised when the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article saying that the US military had been ordered to leave Syria as soon as possible. The WSJ revealed …
Read More »US forces to stay in Syria, even after ISIS defeat
The Trump administration hopes that the U.S.-backed fight against Islamic State in its last foothold in northeastern Syria will end within months but American forces will remain to ensure the âenduring defeatâ of the militant group, a top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday. Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative …
Read More »Joint patrols between Turkish and US forces in Syria
Turkish and U.S. forces began joint patrols on Thursday in the Manbij region of northern Syria, which has been a source of friction between Ankara and Washington in recent years. Turkeyâs Defence Minister Hulusi Akar confirmed the start of the patrols in Manbij, about 30 km (19 miles) from the …
Read More »Syriaâs war could be entering its last and most dangerous phase
As Syriaâs war enters what could be its last and most dangerous stretch, the Syrian government and its allies will have to contend for the first time with the presence of foreign troops in the quest to bring the rest of the country back under President Bashar al-Assadâs control. The …
Read More »Leader of Pakistani Taliban killed by U.S. drone strike, Afghanistan says
The leader of the Pakistani Taliban was killed by a U.S. drone strike, an Afghan official said Friday. Mullah Fazlullah Khorasani was Pakistan’s most-wanted militant and blamed for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded …
Read More »Assad threatens to expel U.S. troops from Syria by âforceâ
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned in comments broadcast Thursday that he would wage war to expel U.S. troops from northeastern Syria if dialogue fails to bring the area back under government control. It was not the first time that Assad has threatened to attack U.S. troops, but it was his …
Read More »Even as Trump urges Syria exit, the military says itâs not finished with ISIS
The Pentagonâs mission against the Islamic State in Syria remains open-ended despite President Trumpâs promise of a quick U.S. withdrawal. Military leaders are focusing on pushing the once-powerful group out of the small foothold it controls in eastern Syria and ensuring that it cannot plot attacks against the United States, …
Read More »Trump Hates âArbitrary Timelines,â Yet Gave Military 6 Months to Exit Syria: Report
In an aside during what was supposed to be a speech about infrastructure last week, President Trump announced, âWeâre coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon â very soon weâre coming out.â This was at odds with what basically …
Read More »Trump: Saudi Arabia might have to pay US for military presence in Syria
President Trump said Tuesday that ally Saudi Arabia might have to pay if it wants a continuing U.S. military presence in Syria. âWeâve almost completed that task[of defeating ISIS] and weâll be making a determination very quickly, in coordination with others in the area, as to what weâll do,â Trump …
Read More »Graham to Trump: Donât mimic Obama on Syria
Appearing on âFox News Sunday,â Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) went after President Trump for suggesting that weâll be pulling our troops (about 2,000) out of Syria âvery soon.â Trump, apparently referring to Russia and Iran (but who knows?), declared at a campaign-style rally, âLet the other people take care of it …
Read More »The oil field carnage that Moscow doesn’t want to talk about
There are growing indications that US airstrikes killed and injured dozens of Russian military contractors in northern Syria earlier this month. But in stark contrast to the death of a Russian pilot shot down by rebels in Syria In January, when the airman was hailed as a hero by the …
Read More »Pro-government forces attack U.S., Kurdish troops in eastern Syria
Pro-government forces in Syria launched an assault on a base where U.S. troops were operating in support of local partner units, triggering a counterattack from U.S. aircraft, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. In a statement, the U.S.-led military coalition tasked with battling the Islamic State called the attack southeast of the city of Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria âunprovoked.â âThe …
Read More »US starts Iraq drawdown after declaration of victory over Daesh
American troops have started to draw down from Iraq following Baghdadâs declaration of victory over the Islamic State group last year, according to Western contractors at a U.S.-led coalition base in Iraq. In Baghdad, an Iraqi government spokesman on Monday confirmed to The Associated Press that the drawdown has begun, …
Read More »U.S. extends protected status for Syrians but caps enrollment
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it would allow nearly 7,000 Syrians to remain in the United States for another 18 months but won’t let more Syrian citizens apply for the special protection program. The decision was a partial relief for aid organizations and advocates for displaced Syrians who had …
Read More »Turkish attack in northern Syria threatens to ignite broader conflict
Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria against Kurdish militia opens yet another front in the seven-year Syrian conflict, and risks giving ISIS breathing room just as it was being suffocated. Turkey has long warned that it will not tolerate control of much of its border with Syria by the “terrorist” …
Read More »Turkish forces push into Syria, Kurdish militia says attacks repulsed
Turkish ground forces pushed into northern Syriaâs Afrin province on Sunday, the army said, after Turkey launched artillery and air strikes on a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia it aims to sweep from its border. The Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia, supported by the United States but seen as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, …
Read More »Syria ‘ready to down Turkish jets attacking Kurds Afrin’
Syria has threatened to shoot down Turkish warplanes in its airspace, as Turkey prepares to carry out a possible assault on a Kurdish enclave. Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said any incursion into Afrin would be considered an act of aggression. It came as Turkey sought clearance for an air …
Read More »U.S. troops will stay in Syria to counter âstrategicâ threat from Iran
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday committed the United States to an indefinite military presence in Syria, citing a range of policy goals that extend far beyond the defeat of the Islamic State as conditions for American troops to go home. But a crisis unfolding on the Syria-Turkey border …
Read More »Iran Says Trump Fanning ‘Flames of War’ with New Syria Force
Iran has condemned the U.S. plan to create a 30,000-strong force inside Syria to protect territory held by the Kurdish-Arab coalition that helped oust the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) from most of northeastern Syria. The U.S.-led coalition worked with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), made up of the Kurdish Peopleâs …
Read More »US-led coalition forces won’t go after remaining ISIS fighters fleeing to Syria, British official says
U.S military or coalition forces will not go after the remaining Islamic State militants fleeing to western Syria, a British military official said Wednesday. Following the success U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq â who lost 98 percent of the territory they once held â the fighters …
Read More »Pentagon likely to announce US has 2,000 troops in Syria, not 500 â officials
The Pentagon is likely to announce in the coming days that there are about 2,000 US troops in Syria, rather than the 500 the military has said are in the war-torn country. ‘Facing disaster’: children starve in siege of Syria’s former breadbasket Read more Two US officials detailed the new figure …
Read More »Syrian regime forces enter buffer zone surrounding US base
Forces aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made an incursion Wednesday into the 55km “de-confliction zone” surrounding the US base located at the At Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, according to the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS. “There was an incursion into the de-confliction zone,” coalition spokesman US Army Col. …
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