The White House envoy coordinating the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group was holding talks in Ankara on Friday a day after visiting a Syrian Kurdish militia deemed by Turkey to be “terrorists”. The visit by Brett McGurk, which was not announced in advance, comes a month after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called … Read more
Syria’s Kurds were once a marginalised minority, but now they are leading the charge for the Islamic State group’s Raqa bastion and hoping to cement their gains in the war. The surprise turnaround in their fortunes is the result of several factors, including the Syrian regime’s decision to focus attention elsewhere and a key alliance … Read more
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has accused a senior US diplomat of backing Kurdish militants and said he should be sent home. He said Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition against so-called Islamic State, was “definitely” supporting the YPG in Syria and the separatist PKK. The minister was in Washington with President Recep … Read more
Turkey called Thursday for the removal of the US diplomat coordinating the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, accusing him of backing Syrian Kurdish militia. Washington and Ankara are bitterly at odds over US support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, a group that Turkey considers a … Read more
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Thursday he had “no doubt” that Turkey and the United States would work out any differences arising from the US decision to arm Kurdish fighters in Syria. That decision, announced Tuesday, has led to public statements of anger from Turkey, which says the US-backed Kurdish YPG fighters battling the Islamic … Read more
US-backed fighters hunted for jihadist holdouts in Syria’s Tabqa on Thursday after overrunning the city and nearby dam in a step forward for their advance on Islamic State group stronghold Raqa. The Syrian Democratic Forces scored one of their biggest victories against IS as controversy intensified over a US decision to arm the alliance’s Kurdish … Read more
By launching air strikes against Syrian Kurdish fighters and threatening more action, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to send a tough message to Donald Trump in the hope of bringing about a major U-turn in US Syria policy. Turkey last week bombed targets of the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, earning … Read more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday his government is ‘seriously saddened’ by television footage showing US military forces operating alongside Syrian Kurdish fighters that Ankara views as terrorists and Washington believes are the most effective fighting force against Islamic State jihadists. Turkish forces last week launched airstrikes on Syrian Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), … Read more
Fighting erupted on Wednesday along Syria’s northeastern border between Turkish forces and Kurdish militiamen, as tensions boiled over in the aftermath of deadly Turkish air strikes the previous day. The strikes against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have thrown the complexity of Syria’s war into sharp relief and even sparked calls for a no-fly … Read more
The toll in Turkish air raids on Kurdish positions in northeastern Syria rose to 28 killed, a monitor said Wednesday, a day after Ankara said it had targeted “terrorist havens” near its border. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of those killed were members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is … Read more
Turkish warplanes killed more than 20 Kurdish fighters Tuesday in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group. The deadliest bombardment was on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are leading the US-backed fight for the important IS-held town of Tabqa in northern … Read more
The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group vowed to crush the jihadists Wednesday at a meeting overshadowed by an attack in London and civilian deaths in Syria. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed his counterparts from the mainly Western and Arab 68-nation alliance to Washington with a promise to hunt down IS leader Abu … Read more
Russia is setting up a military base in northwestern Syria in agreement with the Syrian-Kurdish YPG armed group that controls the area and will train fighters, a YPG spokesman said on Monday. The agreement with Russia was concluded on Sunday and Russian troops have already arrived at the village of Kafr Jina, in the northwestern … Read more
Russia’s military will train Kurdish forces in Syria, a spokesman said Monday, in the first agreement of its kind with the militia that controls large parts of the country’s north. The move by Russia, a longtime ally of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, is likely to anger Turkey, which considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) … Read more
Captivated by the idea of fighting jihadists, or dedicated to starting a “revolution,” foreigners have diverse reasons for joining the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria. The group is the key component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces alliance, now advancing on the Islamic State group’s stronghold of Raqa. Hundreds of foreign fighters … Read more
Leaders of the Islamic State group are leaving their Syrian stronghold of Raqa, fleeing in the face of the Arab-Kurd offensive backed by the international coalition, the US Defense Department said Friday. “We are starting to see now that a lot of senior ISIS leaders, a lot of their bureaucrats… are beginning the process of … Read more
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, the Islamic State is on the defensive in three countries and has been all but wiped out in another. Two and a half years after the extremists rolled across northern Iraq, Pentagon and diplomatic officials say a military victory, at least in their major strongholds, is within … Read more
The relations between unpredictable allies, Russia and Turkey, appear to have deteriorated in the past few years. The relationship between Moscow and Ankara have deteriorated since the Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot a Russian Su-24 bomber out of the Syrian skies, citing an airspace violation that did not take place. This is one … Read more