northern Syria

A senior State Department envoy has written a highly critical assessment of the Trump administration’s abrupt withdrawal of troops from northeast Syria, U.S. officials said Thursday. Two officials familiar with the matter said the internal memo by the top American diplomat in northern Syria, William Roebuck, takes the administration to task for not doing enough to prevent Turkey’s invasion of...

The Islamic State group declared a new leader Thursday after it confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi days earlier in a U.S raid in Syria. In its audio release by the ISIS central media arm, al-Furqan Foundation, a new spokesman for ISIS identifies the successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — tracing his lineage, like al-Baghdadi, to...

U.S troops withdrawing from northeastern Syria to Iraq are “transiting” and will leave the country within four weeks, Iraq’s defense minister said Wednesday. Najah al-Shammari made the remarks to The Associated Press following a meeting in Baghdad with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who arrived as Iraqi leaders chafed over reports the U.S. may want to increase the number...

Angry over the U.S. withdrawal, residents of a Kurdish-dominated Syrian city hurled potatoes at departing American military vehicles as they drove by on Monday. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. is considering leaving some troops in eastern Syria to protect Kurdish-held oil fields for at least the coming weeks and he was discussing options to keep them there. “Like...

While President Donald Trump insists he’s bringing home Americans from “endless wars” in the Mideast, his Pentagon chief says all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the American military will continue operations against the Islamic State group. They aren’t coming home and the United States isn’t leaving the turbulent Middle East, according to current plans outlined...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Syrian government forces to move out of areas near the Turkish border so he can resettle up to 2 million refugees there, his spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday. The request will top Erdogan’s talks next week with Syria’s ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Arrangements along the Syrian-Turkish border were thrown into disarray...

Frayed U.S. relations with Turkey over its incursion in Syria raise a sensitive question rarely discussed in public: Should the United States remove the nuclear bombs it has long stored at a Turkish air base? It’s a tricky matter for several reasons, including the fact that by longstanding policy, the U.S. government does not publicly acknowledge locations of nuclear weapons...

President Donald Trump framed the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal with Turkey as “a great day for civilization” but its effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of his own making. After hours of negotiation in Ankara, the two nations on Thursday agreed to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks’ deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in...

President Donald Trump wrote Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan an extraordinary letter warning him not to be “a tough guy” or “a fool” as his forces launched their attack on northern Syria, a White House official confirmed to NBC News. “Dear Mr. President,” the Oct. 9 letter began, “Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for...

Syrian government troops moved into towns and villages in northeastern Syria on Monday, including the flashpoint region of Manbij, setting up a potential clash with Turkish-led forces advancing in the area as long-standing alliances in the region began to shift or crumble following the pullback of U.S. forces. The Syrian military’s deployment near the Turkish border came after Syrian Kurdish...

Syria’s Kurds said Syrian government forces agreed Sunday to help them fend off Turkey’s invasion — a major shift in alliances that came after President Donald Trump ordered all U.S. troops withdrawn from the northern border area amid the rapidly deepening chaos. The shift could lead to clashes between Turkey and Syria and raises the specter of a resurgent Islamic...

A group of protesters tried to disrupt a Turkish Airlines flight leaving from SFO in protest of Turkey’s recent military invasion of Syria — 49% of Turkish Airlines is owned by the government of Turkey. Sergio Quintana reports.

About 100 people turned out to protest at the Turkish Airlines ticket counter at San Francisco International Airport, an airport manager confirmed. The protest, blocked the Turkish Airlines ticket counter in the international terminal, was in response to Turkey’s recent military invasion of northern Syria.

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who led the Pentagon through the first two years of the Trump administration, warned during an exclusive interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the president’s decision to pull troops from Syria’s border in advance of a Turkish incursion could have dire consequences and lead to ISIS’s resurgence, NBC News reports. “We have got to...

Turkey’s military said it captured a key Syrian border town under heavy bombardment Saturday in its most significant gain since an offensive against Kurdish fighters began four days ago, with no sign of relenting despite mounting international criticism. Turkish troops entered central Ras al-Ayn, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry and a war monitor group. The ministry tweeted: “Ras al-Ayn’s residential...

Turkey pressed its air and ground assault against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria on Thursday for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out. Amid the fierce fighting, residents fled with their belongings loaded into cars, pickup...

A bipartisan Senate bill would halt U.S. military assistance to NATO ally Turkey and clamp sanctions on the U.S. assets of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because of his country’s invasion Wednesday of northern Syria. The measure effectively rebukes President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to pull U.S. troops from the region. Soon after their withdrawal, Erdogan commenced air and ground...

Turkey said Tuesday it will go ahead with a military operation in northeastern Syria and won’t bow to threats over its Syria plans, an apparent reply to U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning to limit the scope of its expected assault. Trump said earlier this week the United States would step aside for an expected Turkish attack on Syrian Kurdish fighters,...

For Syria’s Kurds, the United States’ abrupt pull-back from positions in northeast Syria carries a sharp sting, reviving the community’s memories over being abandoned in the past by the Americans and other international allies on whose support they had pinned their aspirations. The Kurdish-led forces have been the U.S.’ partner in fighting the Islamic State group for nearly four years....

They came from around the world, four women drawn to the Islamic State group’s “caliphate.” They said it was out of misguided religious faith or naivety or youthful rebellion, but whatever the reason, they tied their lives to a group that became notorious for its atrocities. Now after the militants’ defeat, they say they made a mistake and are pleading...