Kurds

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that President Donald Trump “engaged personally” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) command Mazloum Abdi to halt clashes between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led SDF in late January.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), held a phone call on Tuesday with President Donald Trump shortly before his departure to Moscow to meet with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

A video began circulating on social media on Wednesday, published by the Kurdish news organization Rudaw, of a man identified as a “Damascus-affiliated armed group” member holding hair allegedly cut off the dead body of a Kurdish soldier.

An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday that “about 200 low-level Islamic State fighters” escaped from the al-Shaddadi prison camp on Monday after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdrew from the facility.

President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Monday to discuss the conflict between Sharaa’s forces and the Kurds of northeastern Syria, who have complained of abuses by government troops and blamed them for releasing around 120 Islamic State terrorists from a Kurdish-run prison in Hasakah province.

A torrent of violence, including reported beheadings and a prison break by Islamic State terrorists, erupted in Syria on Monday following the signing of an agreement between the jihadist federal government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The semi-autonomous Kurdish government in northeastern Syria on Sunday accused the Syrian Army and its affiliated militias of committing “war crimes” against Kurdish communities in the city of Aleppo.

Fighting broke out in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday between Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and security troops loyal to President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Syrian security forces used gunfire on Tuesday to disperse feuding groups of protesters in Latakia, a coastal town in the area dominated by the once-influential, but now persecuted, Alawite religious minority.

Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa announced on Monday that his country signed a “political cooperation declaration” with the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, becoming a “partner in combating terrorism and supporting regional stability.”

Three Syrian security personnel and a Druze fighter were reportedly killed on Sunday in renewed clashes across the southern province of Sweida, while the Kurdish-led, U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it fought against government troops in the northern province of Aleppo.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani visited Moscow on Thursday, the first visit to Russia by a high-ranking official of the Syrian “interim government” since Russia-backed dictator Bashar Assad was overthrown in December.

The Iranian theocracy was utterly humiliated by Israel and the United States during what President Donald Trump christened the “12-Day War,” and reports indicated this week that the regime is unsurprisingly taking out its frustrations on its own people.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish separatist organization in Turkey, confirmed Monday it will disband after 40 years of conflict and over 40,000 deaths.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday brushed aside the demands of Syrian Kurds for partial autonomy under a decentralized Syrian government as “nothing more than a dream.” The junta currently in control of Damascus was also unreceptive to Kurdish ambitions for independence.

Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), announced the installment of a formal, 23-person cabinet in which his close HTS allies took the top positions but Christians, Kurds, and Alawites obtained some minor representation. 

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), signed into law a “constitutional declaration” that imposes an Islamist “temporary” constitution on the country intended to create a legal framework that allows it to function while its new rulers rebuild from the civil war.

Syria’s “interim president” Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday created a seven-member committee to draft a new national constitution.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist terror group that has been fighting a violent insurgency against the Turkish government since 1984, announced a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday.

Outlawed Kurdish terrorists on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle.

Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly a high-ranking al-Qaeda leader, said on Tuesday that the one-day “national dialogue summit” he presided over was a “historic” chance for Syria to rebuild after more than a decade of brutal civil war and terrorist insurgency.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda boss who became the “transitional” president of Syria after ousting dictator Bashar Assad, is reportedly looking for a joint defense pact with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The jihadi regime ruling Syria after overthrowing the Assad dynasty in December dispatched its foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday to seek foreign investment for their war-torn and terrorist-haunted land.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Kurdish militias in Syria on Wednesday to either lay down their arms or be “buried.” On the same day, the Turkish military said it killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq – including members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), the leading Syrian Kurdish force allied with the United States against the Islamic State.

Syrian Kurds find themselves in a difficult position after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad, as Islamists seize power in Damascus and Turkey seeks to carve out a slice of Syrian territory along its border.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is urging governments to rescind their terrorist designations of Syrian insurgents Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Western powers, including the United States, are tentatively opening lines of communication to the new rulers of Syria — an alliance of Islamists led by an al-Qaeda splinter group whose boss is, inconveniently, a designated terrorist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia allied with America, confirmed on Monday that a short-lived truce with Islamist Turkish proxies in the country had collapsed due to Turkey’s intransigence.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a brief visit to Turkey on Friday to meet with Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, intended to discuss the collapse of the Assad dynasty in Syria and the ongoing war between Israel and the genocidal jihadists of Hamas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a brief trip to the Middle East on Wednesday with stops in Jordan and Turkey.

The Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkish proxy force in the neighboring country, captured the Kurdish-held city of Manbij, the Kurdish outlet Rudaw confirmed on Tuesday, a day before Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) claimed to take the city of Deir ez-Zor.

Syrian rebels who overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday are reportedly executing their opponents, imposing Islamic sharia law, and threatening non-Muslim minorities, including the Kurdish population in the north.

Russia’s top Kremlin spokesman confirmed on Monday that strongman Vladimir Putin made the ultimate decision to grant political asylum to former Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad and his family.