The risks and rewards of Erdogan’s next military operation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled his intent to soon launch the ground phase of Operation Claw-Sword, a military operation designed to clear areas along Turkey’s southern borders of fighters from affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization.

Turkey vows to expand effort to end ‘terrorist’ threat beyond its borders

The Turkish ministry of defense claims to have killed 471 Kurdish militants in 271 separate attacks in Syria and Iraq since the start of the operation

The Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, visited the Turkish troops on the border with Iraq on 27 November to inspect the ongoing operations as part of the country’s military effort against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria.

The role of UK intelligence services in the abduction, murder of James Foley

On 19 August, 2014, ISIS released a video of the beheading of American journalist James Foley who was kidnapped by the terrorist organization in 2012 while reporting on the conflict in Syria.

Foley’s shocking execution became one of the most widely followed news stories of the Syrian war. Foley’s killer, Mohammed Emwazi, popularly known as “Jihadi John” by the western media, was a Kuwaiti-born Brit from West London. In the Foley execution video, Emwazi’s unmistakable London accent can be heard.

Turkey’s strikes in Syria put US troops in danger, Pentagon says

A Turkish drone strike on a top Kurdish commander’s headquarters came within 130 meters of US troops in Syria on Tuesday.

The Pentagon warned on Wednesday that Turkey’s airstrikes against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria endanger US troops and threaten to undermine years of progress in the war against the Islamic State.

Erdogan says meeting with Syria’s Assad is ‘possible’

The Turkish president adds that “there is no resentment or bitterness in politics.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has aired fresh interest in a possible meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as Ankara is doubling down on its threat for a ground operation against Syrian Kurdish groups. 

Syrian National Army police clashes with peaceful protesters in al-Bab

The police of the Syrian National Army assaulted protesters near the city of al-Bab following civil protests calling for controlling the security situation in the city and holding the killers of a prominent activist accountable.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense said on its official Twitter page, “It’s payback time,” in reference to last week’s attack in Istanbul that Turkey blamed on Syrian Kurdish forces, threatening more escalation.

Turkey strikes near US base in Syria after Pentagon calls for de-escalation

The US military says it opposes Ankara’s plans to send ground troops against Syria’s Kurds, but it has stood down in the face of similar attacks in the past.

A suspected Turkish drone strike hit a Kurdish-led militia base in northeast Syria on Tuesday, killing two members of a local US-backed Syrian counterterrorism unit and wounding three others, spokespeople for the group told Al-Monitor.