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<p>Turkey says the Kurds are allied with the butcher of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad — the man whose power Russia fights to preserve.</p> <p>The Turks are angry with us for supporting the Kurds, but it’s Russia’s air bombardments that keep them awake at night. Putin, meanwhile, won’t easily forget that Turkey shot down a Russian plane earlier this winter, and now tells pilots not to await orders when they encounter suspicious aircraft near the Syrian-Turkish border.</p>

Turkey's presidency said U.S. President Barack Obama had shared his concerns over the Syrian conflict and promised his support on Friday, hours after a tense exchange between the two NATO allies over the role of Kurdish militants. In a phone conversation that lasted one hour and 20 minutes, Ankara said Obama had told his counterpart President Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey had a right to self-defense, and expressed worries over advances by Syrian Kurdish militias near Turkey's border. Obama stressed to Erdogan that Syrian Kurdish YPG forces should not seek to exploit recent gains by the Syrian government to seize additional...

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, said today that NATO allies will not support Turkey in case of a conflict with Russia, according to Der Spiegel. According to Asselborn, the country of the North Atlantic Alliance does not intend to participate in an escalation in the conflict between Russia and Turkey. The Foreign Minister of Luxembourg underlined that the authorities of all state-members of NATO have a common stance on this issue. "The Alliance should not be drawn into the escalating conflict between Turkey and Russia. The NATO Charter that guarantees mutual defense applies only in the...

If anywhere can show the consequences of American foreign policy under President Barack Obama, it may be the small town of Marea, north of Aleppo. In the course of the last five years, it has seen Assad regime tanks roll through from the south, firing shells through its houses. It has been repeatedly attacked from the east by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). On occasion it has been bombed from the air by the regime and shelled from the ground by Isil on the same day. Now its rebel defenders are fighting Isil, the regime, Russian bombers,...

According to Turkish Ulke TV station, the victims of the February 17 terrorist attack in Ankara include 22 Turkish Air Force pilots, out of 28 total fatalities. Turkish government has not issued an official confirmation but, according to Turkish media, Erdogan is deliberately trying to conceal that fact. The explosion took place next to the Turkish Armed Forces headquarters building, as well as the parliament and government buildings. The fatalities included 26 military and 2 civilians. Another 60 people were wounded. No terrorist organization accepted responsibility.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said three Israeli rockets had hit Syrian army outposts south of Damascus. Foreign reports attributing strikes against the Syrian regime to the IDF may only rarely elicit a military response, such as a barrage of rockets; however, they certainly result in a direct threat to Israel’s security systems.

Saudi Arabia has commenced a massive military drill in which 20 nations are participating. The move comes amid ongoing deadly conflicts in the Middle East. More than 2,500 warplanes, 20,000 tanks and 450 helicopters will be part of the exercise. Riyadh has billed the manoeuvre as "the largest and most important" drill ever staged in the region. Up to 350,000 troops from various Gulf nations, and other allies such as Pakistan, Jordan, Chad and Sudan will take part in the drill, the Saudi Press Agency said. The exercises would involve ground, naval and air forces personnel.

Islamic State (ISIS) fighters are feeling the heat from intensified coalition airstrikes to such an extent that they have resorted to shaving their beards and seizing civilian homes in their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa for fear of being targeted by armed drones and other coalition aircraft. The information came from residents who managed to flee Raqqa and fled to the Turkish city of Urfa, NBC News reported. "If your family is in a house, they take your house and they put their family in there," said Abu Baraa, 19, who fled last month from Raqqa to Turkey. "They've started taking...

<p>President Obama declared last year that “There is no military solution in Syria.” Sadly, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has now proved him wrong by imposing one.</p> <p>Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and the last rebel stronghold, is about to fall, thanks to withering Russian air bombardment backing government and Iranian troops. That effectively secures Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power in at least a large rump of Syria.</p>

Turkey 'seizes suicide vests and explosives' from Syrian border Army says they found the haul while searching a group trying to cross into Turkey Louisa Loveluck in Gaziantep 9:21AM GMT 10 Feb 2016 Turkey has claimed that its soldiers had seized explosives and suicide vests from the closed border with Syria. The army said in a statement that the hardware had been found in the baggage of a group of 34 people stopped near the Syrian border. "Between 12 and 15 kilos of explosives and four belts that could be used for suicide attacks were found in two bags," it...

Foreign and defence ministers of the leading international states are meeting in Munich and Brussels following the collapse of the latest round of peace talks Russia warned of “a new world war" starting in Syria on Thursday after a dramatic day in which Gulf states threatened to send in ground forces. Foreign and defence ministers of the leading international states backing different factions in the war-torn country met in separate meetings in Munich and Brussels following the collapse of the latest round of peace talks. Both Russia and the United States demanded ceasefires in the long-running civil war so that...

Not long ago, U.S. jets and Shia militias worked together to battle ISIS. Today, those militias are trying to take down American proxies in Syria. Iraqi militias who once fought ISIS with U.S. help are now working with Russian and Iranian forces to crush American-backed rebels in the strategic Syrian city of Aleppo, two defense officials have told The Daily Beast.

Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been “almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago. In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy...

Bahrain's king hands 'sword of victory' to Putin after Syria talks MEE staff Tuesday 9 February 2016 15:40 UTC Last update: Tuesday 9 February 2016 17:20 UTC King Hamad expresses hope for 'imminent victory' after presenting Russian president with sword made of Damascus steel Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa presented Russian President Vladimir Putin with a "sword of victory” made from Damascus steel during a visit to Russia that included talks with his host about the crisis in Syria. King Hamad and Putin exchanged gifts during a meeting at the Russian leader's residence in Sochi on the Black Sea...

The reason Russia is possibly building a new airbase on the Turkish border inside Syria became clearer today as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Turkey could enter the war on the side of the anti-Assad forces who Russia has been primarily targeting. The Syrian government made major gains against the Sunni opposition in recent weeks as the Syrian city of Aleppo looked to fall from the opposition’s control. Turkey has repeatedly urged the American-led coalition against ISIS to do more to help the anti-Assad forces. “We don’t want to fall into the same mistake in Syria as in Iraq,”...

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian rebels battled for their survival in and around Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Thursday after a blitz of Russian airstrikes helped government loyalists sever a vital supply route and sent a new surge of refugees fleeing toward the border with Turkey. The Russian-backed onslaught against rebel positions in Aleppo coincided with the failure of peace talks in Geneva, and helped reinforce opposition suspicions that Russia and its Syrian government allies are more interested in securing a military victory over the rebels than negotiating a settlement. After two days of what rebel fighters described as the...

Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence in the war-torn country have amassed on the Turkish border, with more compatriots also expected to head toward the frontier. The increased refugee flow from northern Syria amid the conflict in Syria’s Azaz and Aleppo regions – two strongholds of the Syrian opposition – reached the Turkey border on Feb. 5 as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said they expected around 70,000 refugees, including Turkmens, to flock to the Turkey-Syria border. Around 10,000 refugees have already been placed in tent cities on the Syrian side of the border, having reached the region after...

Wed Feb 3, 2016 4:18am EST Lavrov: Russia won't stop Syria strikes until 'terrorists' defeated Russia will not stop its air strikes on Syria until armed groups, such as al Qaeda's wing there, are defeated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Russia should stop bombing opposition forces in Syria now that U.N.-led peace talks have started. "Russian strikes will not cease until we really defeat terrorist organisations like Jabhat al-Nusra. And I don't see why these air strikes should be stopped," he said at a news conference in...

Shortly before Syria peace talks begin, Turkey infiltrates Syria By MAAYAN GROISMAN \ 01/20/2016 17:26 Eyewitnesses to the incursion reported that the Turkish forces have not encountered any resistance from ISIS fighters, which raises the question of possible collaboration between ISIS and Turkey. In what appears to be a well-planned strategic move committed in light of the upcoming Syria peace talks, a large number of Turkish forces crossed the border and entered the Syrian town of Jarablus on Tuesday, according to Turkish media reports. Eyewitnesses to the incursion reported that the Turkish forces have not encountered any resistance from ISIS...

President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said on Friday that Turkey will not allow Russia to build a base in northern Syria. President ErdoÄŸan was asked by reporters after the Friday prayer of what he thinks about claims that Russia will build a base in Northern Syria. ErdoÄŸan said that Turkey is aware that there are around 100 Russian soldiers deployed in northern Syria. ErdoÄŸan said that the PYD terror organization, which is known to be supported by Russia, is no different than the Daesh terror organization. "There is no difference between them. We will also talk with Mr. Biden about this...