The Islamic State has been showing renewed vigor in Syria, attracting new fighters and increasing the number of its attacks last year, according to the United Nations and U.S. officials, further raising the threat of instability in a country that is already volatile after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. The group is still nowhere…
Turkey’s military has kept up deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq on fighters linked to the Kurdish insurgent group P.K.K. in the two weeks since the movement’s founder called on his followers to lay down their arms and disband. The P.K.K. leadership, which is based in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, responded…
By Orhan Qereman QAMISHLI, Syria (Reuters) – The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria said on Sunday the country’s interim president must hold the perpetrators of communal violence in Syria’s coastal areas to account, accusing Turkey-backed factions of being primarily behind the killings. The head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, said…
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the country’s new leader has hosted a national unity conference and welcomed foreign dignitaries as crowds gather at cafes, speaking out freely for the first time in decades. But 400 miles away in northeastern Syria, a region beyond the control of the Damascus government, battles that have been going on…
Syria’s interim president called on Tuesday for unity and the rebuilding of his fractured nation during a two-day conference meant to chart a path forward after decades of dictatorship. Hundreds of participants attended the long-awaited “national dialogue” to bring together the country’s many religions and sects in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Monday and Tuesday….
President Trump’s funding freeze has thrown into confusion the future of a Syrian desert camp holding thousands of Islamic State members and their families, the camp’s director and people familiar with it said, describing it as a potential security threat in the region. The camp, Al Hol, which houses some 39,000 people, has been whipsawed…
President Trump’s sweeping executive order to halt foreign aid threatens to freeze a U.S. program supporting security forces inside a notorious camp in the Syrian desert that holds tens of thousands of Islamic State members and their families, Syrian and U.S. officials said. The order has also wreaked havoc on another U.S. organization in Syria…
(Reuters) – Syrian rebels’ capture of Aleppo from President Bashar al-Assad has brought the Syrian civil war back into focus, jolting frontlines that had been dormant for years with implications for the region and beyond. WHAT IS GOING ON? The rebels launched their surprise offensive on Nov. 26, attacking from areas to the north and…