Syrian Democratic Forces

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday urged the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi rebels who toppled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to consider teaming up with Turkish forces against the Kurds.

Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said during an online forum on Wednesday that he is concerned about a resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria’s prison camps. McKenzie recommended repatriating foreign ISIS prisoners as quickly as possible and working to deradicalize them once they have returned to their countries of origin.

A Pentagon spokesman told reporters on Thursday that revenues from Syrian oil secured by U.S. troops will go to the majority Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), not to the United States.

The general commander of the majority Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused Turkish soldiers and their allies Thursday of “occupying Christian villages” in northern Syria, where Turkish officials claimed this week their military operation had ended.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-allied coalition of mostly Kurdish fighters, blamed Turkey on Sunday for delaying a five-month-long operation to capture Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State.

Turkey “is continuing its genocide war” in northern Syria despite an allegedly “permanent” ceasefire, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-allied coalition largely made up of Kurdish fighters, alleged on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based NGO tracking abuses in the country, published a video Tuesday showing jihadis allied with Turkey shouting “Allahu Akbar” and kicking around the dead body of a Kurdish woman fighting the Turkish invasion.

An Iraqi bishop says there is a “strong fear” among the people that the Islamic State may return thanks to the Turkish offensive against the Kurds in the north of Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a formerly U.S.-allied coalition largely made up of Kurdish fighters, accused the Turkish military and its proxies of genocide against the Kurdish people on Wednesday and using tactics “similar to ISIS.”

The United States will not allow NATO member Turkey to attack U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper declared this week.

Italy has repatriated one of its citizens from Syria who has been accused of fighting for the Islamic State.

An Islamic State fighter captured in Syria described a plan by the intelligence wing of ISIS to sneak terrorists across the U.S.-Mexico border to attack financial targets and “cripple the U.S. economy,” according to a report published this week by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE).

Baghouz (Syria) — Islamic State group jihadists emerged from tunnels to surrender to US-backed forces in eastern Syria on Sunday, a Kurdish spokesman said, a day after their “caliphate” was declared defeated.

Fox News reported on Thursday that the final Islamic State stronghold in Syria, the village of Baghouz, has been liberated by the Kurdish-led, U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces. The report has not been officially confirmed as of Thursday evening, but if Fox’s information is solid, the ISIS “caliphate” has been destroyed.

Thousands of Islamic State militants have surrendered to the U.S.-Syrian Democratic Forces as the caliphate nears complete defeat, according to the group’s spokesman. 

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will announce their victory over Islamic State in one week, the army’s commander-in-chief Mazloum Kobani said in a video released on Thursday. 

NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria — US-backed forces said several jihadists and dozens of civilians quit the Islamic State group’s last patch of territory in Syria Tuesday, and warned remaining fighters should surrender or face death.

Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition in Syria bombed elements of dictator Bashar Assad’s army on Saturday. The coalition said the airstrike was conducted in defense of local allies after Syrian forces fired upon them.

A suspected Islamic State fighter who was captured by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who was known to Irish police.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday announced the capture of two American citizens fighting for the Islamic State. The SDF named the two men and provided photographs. The Pentagon would not immediately confirm the report, describing it as “open source” unverified information.

Turkey has sent reinforcements to the border with Syria, Turkish media reported on Monday, after Washington ordered the withdrawal of its ground forces from the war-ravaged nation.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), reportedly took back the last town held by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) on Friday, further cementing the complete fall of the group’s so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

France plans to repatriate more than 100 children of Islamic State fighters held by Kurdish forces in Syria.

Trump administration officials and European diplomats told NBC News on Thursday that hundreds of captured Islamic State fighters may be sent to Iraq for incarceration, with a few of the highest-value prisoners detained in the American facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) sold illegally obtained gas and oil to the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian regime as well as to Turkey while it ruled Iraq and Syria, Kurdistan 24 learned from a jailed senior commander from the jihadist group.

The Islamic State group may have lost most of its territory in Syria but recent deadly attacks against pro-regime fighters are a foretaste of more to come, analysts say.

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad gave an interview to Russia’s RT television on Thursday in which he said the United States is “losing its cards” on the civil war battlefield and must withdraw all forces from his country or risk a conflict with the Syrian military and Russian forces.

BEIRUT – A US-led coalition air strike on Syrian army positions overnight killed at least 12 pro-regime fighters in an area where both sides have been battling holdout jihadists, a monitor said Thursday.

BEIRUT — Syrian government and Russian airstrikes killed at least 46 people in a besieged town outside of Damascus on Friday, while Turkish shelling and attacks on a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria left at least 22 dead there, monitors and officials said.

U.S. officials confirmed on Tuesday that an American MQ-9 Reaper drone destroyed a Russian-made T-72 battle tank in Syria on Sunday, after U.S. special operations troops and their Syrian allies came under attack by forces supporting dictator Bashar Assad.

Contents: US in Syria announces a Border Security Force to prevent repeat of Iraq withdrawal blunder; Turkey, Russia and Syria infuriated by the Border Security Force announcement

Contents: With ISIS collapsing, US forces will remain in Syria to restore ‘normalcy’; US warns Assad regime to stay west of Euphrates river

Contents: BBC reports hoax by US-led coalition about ISIS evacuation from Raqqa Syria; Syria war violence surges as Bashar al-Assad repeats Aleppo genocide in Ghouta; Apparent coup is in progress in Zimbabwe against 93-year-old Robert Mugabe

Islamic State militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria’s remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab coalition supported by the U.S. government, captured Syria’s largest oil field from the Islamic State on Sunday.

RAQQA, Syria — Tears streaming down her freckled face, 35-year-old Asya took in the shattered glass, gutted storefronts and crumbling cafes — all that remain of her favorite shopping street in Syria’s Raqqa.