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The U.S. and Russia struck a deal for a cease-fire in southwest Syria, according to reports, marking a major breakthrough in the six-year civil war as President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first face-to-face meeting. Details were sketchy but the cease-fire was scheduled to take effect Sunday at noon Damascus time, The Associated Press reported, citing U.S. officials. The deal reflects a new level of involvement by the U.S. in Syria’s civil war. Mr. Trump had previously stepped up U.S. actions with airstrikes against chemical weapon stashes of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Jordan and Israel...

However, the media-driven PR campaign backfired as the news of the opening of the Berlin 'liberal mosque' reached Muslim communities in Germany and abroad. The liberal utopian dream quickly turned into an Islamist nightmare. [snip] The newly unveiled 'liberal mosque' in Berlin was supposed to showcase a 'gentler' Islam. An Islam that could be reformed and modernized while it emerges as the dominant demographic force in Europe. German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle touted the opening of the mosque as a "world event in the heart of Berlin." [snip] However, the media-driven PR campaign backfired, as the news of the opening...

U.S. forces have been instructed to take all measures needed to protect American interests in Syria, including military measures, as part of an effort that comes after top officials in the Trump administration assessed that Iran is deliberately probing American weaknesses and reactions on the Syrian battlefield, according to senior Trump administration officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah, have already initiated multiple encounters with the United States by violating agreements worked out between Washington and Moscow aimed at preventing the various factions targeting ISIS inside Syria from coming into conflict. This is part of...

Numan Kurtulmus, Deputy Prime Minister and Government Spokesperson The recent negotiations between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Istanbul have been positive, with Turkey expressing its concerns over rising activity of the Kurdish armed groups in Syria, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday.On Sunday, the Turkish presidential press service reported that Erdogan received Shoigu, however without clarifying additional details. On Monday, Erdogan’s spokesman said that the officials discussed a number of issues, including the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria and a conflict settlement road map.“The groups in Syria receiving political and...

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would introduce a law which would focus immigration on trained professionals, if she is re-elected in September. Speaking at the presentation of her party program in Berlin, Merkel said that the CDU, along with Bavarian sister party the CSU, would introduce a “skilled employee migration law.” The Chancellor said that the goal of the law would be that “no job vacancy remains unfilled,” Spiegel reports. A booming economy and an aging population have put pressure on the German government to increase the levels of immigration into the country...

The dean of foreign correspondents at the Washington Post, David Ignatius, just returned from a week in Syria. He went on MSNBC to talk about his trip and - reluctantly - report on the popularity of Donald Trump with fighters who are battling ISIS in Syria. Legal Insurrection: WaPo’s David Ignatius has just returned from a week in Syria. He was almost apologetic in prefacing his remarks: “I’m going to say something that in some ways is sympathetic to Trump.” He then proceeded to say that he was told by top US commanders that “the most daring and decisive” attack...

Russian President Vladimir Putin's Syrian gambit was a fatal mistake that may soon destroy Russia and Putin himself. Putin’s strategy in Syria makes the Titanic look watertight. It’s gotten so bad for Putin in the Syrian quicksand that a Russian analyst, Leonid Issaev, who actually lives in Russia, just published an article in al-Jazeera entitled, “Russia is at a dead-end in Syria, Russia is struggling and failing to find a way out of the Syrian quagmire.” Mr. Issaev’s thesis is that “the Kremlin’s gamble to use the conflict in Syria to normalize relations with the West after the disaster in...

The parents of Austin Tice, the journalist and former Marine from Texas who was abducted in Syria in August 2012, said on Wednesday that they had reason to believe that their son was alive. “We wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you if we didn’t — weren’t completely positive that Austin’s going to come home safely,” his father, Marc Tice, told Lester Holt in an interview on “NBC Nightly News.” The Syrian government insists it does not know what happened to Mr. Tice or where he is. And his parents said that they had seen no proof that he was...

On a morning when you would have expected the Morning Joe panel to be all about Trump’s CNN wrestling tweet, a Washington Post editor/columnist painted an amazingly positive portrait of the president’s actions in Syria. WaPo’s David Ignatius has just returned from a week in Syria. He was almost apologetic in prefacing his remarks: “I’m going to say something that in some ways is sympathetic to Trump.” He then proceeded to say that he was told by top US commanders that “the most daring and decisive” attack in the battle of Raqqa would not have happened if it hadn’t been...

FSA militants backed by Turkish tanks enter Jarablus in August, 2016. Around 20,000 members of opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), composed mostly of Islamic fundamentalist groups, and Turkish troops will participate in a new military operation in the northwestern Syrian Afrin region, which is under control of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Turkish media reported on Sunday.The first targets of the operation will be the town of Tall Rifat and the Minaq airbase, the Sabah newspaper reported citing its sources. The offensive will be launched from the towns of A’zaz, Kaljibrin and Marea eastward and from Idlib westward.Ankara...

RAQA, SYRIA (AFP) – An ivory-coloured rosary swings from the rearview mirror of Abboud Seryan’s pickup truck as he speeds through Syria’s Raqa, inspecting the positions of fellow Christian fighters taking on the Islamic State group. Lively music blasts through the car speakers while the thin 23-year-old, wearing a military-style cap and a revolver tucked into his waist, waves to comrades in the western district of Al-Romaniya. IS was ousted from the neighbourhood earlier this month as part of the US-backed offensive to defeat the jihadists in their northern Syrian bastion. The ground assault is being carried out by the...

Al-Raqqa – Mercenaries are applied to civilians in the city of Al-Raqqa and prevent them to leave to  being used as human shields. They are taken to the center of the city for use them in battles in the city center.Since June 6, the city of Raqqa has been the scene of fierce clashes between fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces and IS-mercenaries. After 24 days of fierce fighting, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) managed to tighten the siege on mercenaries within the city from four sides.The SDF-fighters continue to destroy the defense lines, fortifications and strategic positions of the mercenaries on...

The Israeli army struck a Syrian army target in the Golan Heights late on Saturday after errant fire spilled over into Israel. marking the third such incident in a week. A mortar shell hit near the border fence in the northern Golan Heights on Saturday afternoon, followed by another one shortly after. The Israeli army said no casualties or damage were caused........

The Syrian army has denied using chlorine gas against rebels in battles east of Damascus Beirut, July 1 (Reuters)-A Syrian rebel group accused the Syrian army of using chlorine gas against its fighters on Saturday in battles east of Damascus-an accusation the military swiftly denied as a fabrication. The Faliq al-Rahman group said more than 30 people suffered suffocation as a result of the attack in Ain Tarma in the Eastern Ghouta region, which government forces have been battling to take back from insurgents......

The international chemical weapons watchdog confirmed Friday that sarin gas was used in the deadly April attack on a Syria town that left more than 80 people dead. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it deployed a team within 24 hours to collect samples, attend autopsies and interview witnesses. Due to security risks, the team was not able to be on the ground in the Khan Shaykhun area where the attack took place, but traveled to a "neighboring country" to conduct its work.

The People’s Defense Units (YPG) released a statement concerning the recent attacks and violations by the Turkish military on and around the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwestern of Syria. In the statement, the YPG disclosed that, in the past week, Turkish-backed armed groups and the Turkish military attacked the outskirts of Afrin numerous times. The attacks targeted several villages of four districts in Afrin using mortars, tanks, and machine guns. In this statement, the YPG also said that Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flew over the west of Kobani city. Mehmud Berxwedan, the commander of the YPG forces in...

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad stands in front of the BMPT-72 at the Russian air base at Hmeymim on June 27, 2017. Source: Reuters On June 27, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited the Khmeimim Russian base, where he was shown the newest Russian BMPT-72 (aka Terminator-2) armored fighting vehicle. The vehicle was invented to protect tanks from rocket attacks in an urban environment. The Russian Ministry of Defense recently sent a single combat BMPT-72 to Syria to test the vehicle and decide its future. Details of the Terminator-2’s mission in Syria are unclear. It may participate both in guarding Khmeimim, and...

The US-led coalition now estimates that 2500 ISIS fighters remain in Raqqa — and that they won’t go anywhere else. CBS News quotes Brett McGurk, the envoy for the anti-ISIS fight, as saying that the US intends to make sure every last one of them dies in the so-called capital of the so-called Islamic State: The last remaining ISIS fighters in Raqqa are surrounded by U.S.-backed forces. @HollyMAWilliams met with a group of former ISIS fighters: pic.twitter.com/q1sXHkDnLK— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 30, 2017 With Iraq declaring an end to the caliphate and promising to have secured Mosul in the...

Turkish army forces (R), and Kurdish YPG fighters (L). Photo: Jinda Ibrahim/ARA News Kurdish officials have called on the international coalition to stop Turkey’s military operation against Rojava-Northern Syria.The Syrian Kurds say that the operation, which targets Afrin (Efrîn) District, could imperil the ongoing Raqqa campaign. Sihanok Dibo, a senior official in the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said on Thursday that Turkey and its proxy forces had been bombing Afrin in order “to disrupt liberation of Raqqa.”The Kurdish official added that ending Turkey’s aggression was “the responsibility of the international coalition.”Sharvan Darwish, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic...

In line with the Turkish state’s invasion policies, Kurdish villages on the Shehba and Efrîn border line and Marea on the Til Rifat line are being evacuated in preparation for the declaration of a military zone. The Turkish state continues to stockpile weapons and forces in Azaz, Rai, Exterîn and Marea to invade Efrîn and Shehba and they are trying to open up new areas for stockpiling. The Turkish state had already built extensions on their existing outposts in the area, and now they have declared some villages “military zones”. KURDISH VILLAGES EVACUATED The villagers have been given time to...