U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States would get out of Syria slowly ‘over a period of time’ and would protect the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was not worried that pulling troops out of Syria could endanger Israel, citing vast American military aid to the Jewish state and saying it could defend itself.
Turkey vowed on Monday that the fight against Islamic State would not be slowed by the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, where Ankara-backed rebels reinforced their positions around the potential flashpoint town of Manbij.
Israel moved quickly Thursday to fill the coming power vacuum after President Trump said U.S. troops were being withdrawn from Syria, vowing to ramp up its own military campaign against Iranian-backed proxy groups in the country — a clear sign that the war between Jerusalem and Tehran will continue with or without U.S. involvement.
France will keep troops in northern Syria for now because Islamic State militants have not been wiped out, contrary to the U.S. view, and has started talks with the United States on the conditions and calendar of its withdrawal, officials said.
France and allies fighting Islamic State are discussing with the United States the timeframe and conditions for the withdrawal of American troops from Syria, but Washington must consider the stability of the region to avoid a new humanitarian crisis.
In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a move that throws the American strategy in the Middle East into turmoil.
Turkey’s leader said Monday he received ‘positive answers’ from President Donald Trump on the situation in northeastern Syria, where Turkey has threatened to launch a new operation against American-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.
Turkey will start a new military operation in Syria east of the Euphrates river ‘in a few days,’ Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, a move that could further complicate relations with the United States.
Israel is moving quickly to fill a security vacuum in Africa as the United States reassigns forces from the terror-plagued continent to focus on rivals such as China and Russia.
Iran said Sunday that it would continue to develop its missile program after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Islamic state of testing a medium-range ballistic missile capable of ‘carrying multiple warheads,’ which he said could strike ‘anywhere’ in the Middle East and even parts of Europe.
The United States is laying the groundwork for a long-term commitment to eastern Syria that will include ‘stabilization’ after the defeat of Islamic State and also the demand that “Iranian-commanded forces” leave Syria before the US withdraws. Over the last six months, this policy has increasingly crystalized. It was finally spelled out by US special representative for Syria engagement James Jeffrey at the end of last week.
ts vaunted ‘caliphate’ is in shambles, but the brutal legacy of the Islamic State is only now coming into clearer focus as rebuilding efforts across Iraq and Syria uncover hundreds of mass graves and fully pull back the curtain on four years of death, destruction and unspeakable atrocities by the radical Islamist terrorist group.
Iranian forces in Syria may present a threat to the US and in Iraq the Iranian threat is increasing, according to a new report from the US Department of Defense. The Lead Inspector General report on Operation Inherent Resolve was released on Tuesday and reviews the US role fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has lost the vast majority of physical territory it once held, but fully defeating the terrorist group and rooting out sleeper cells that have spread across the Middle East and Africa ‘could take years,’ the Defense Department inspector general said in a sweeping report Monday that suggests final victory remains far off.
At least seven people have been killed in Egypt by gunmen who opened fire on a bus carrying a group of Coptic Christians, officials say.
Turkish and American troops could begin conducting joint patrols in a matter of days around the northern Syrian city of Manbij within the coming days, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East said Sunday.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces and issued an ultimatum promising to execute 10 people every day.
The Islamic State remains ‘far from defeated,’ one of the nation’s top generals warned Tuesday, seeming to break with President Trump’s assertion that the terrorist group was ’99 percent’ beaten after four years of U.S.-led military action in Syria and Iraq.
Islamic State fighters trapped in Syria are putting up fierce resistance, using civilians as human shields, setting deadly booby traps, and hiding in underground tunnels, all the while frustrating efforts by U.S.-backed Syrian fighters to deal a final blow to the terrorist caliphate.