Syria Conflict

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Kobane speaks during a press conference in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakeh on Dec. 6, 2024.

Explainer

SDF chief Kobane’s Damascus visit a high wire act for Syria’s Kurds

The SDF says its integration with Damascus is complete, but major questions remain over its fighters, weapons and the future of Kurdish self-rule.

ANKARA, TURKEY - JULY 08: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Ahmed al-Sharaa, President of Syria (L) for bilateral talks at Beştepe Presidential Compound during the NATO Summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defense industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

US lifts Syria's terror designation after 47 years

The Trump administration also took Hayat Tahrir al-Sham off its blacklist of Specially Designated Global Terrorist organizations.

A Turkish soldier from the 1st Border Regiment Command looks out over the border wall to Syria during alert drills at a military outpost on the Turkey/Syria border on March 2, 2017 in Kilis, Turkey.

Analysis

Why Turkey sees Israeli strikes in Syria as warning over its military role, Mecca Pact

Ankara views Israel’s latest strikes in Syria as part of a broader effort to curb Turkey’s military influence in Damascus and a challenge to its regional defense partnerships.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Turkey/Syria border

Analysis

Turkey bets on US deconfliction as Israel widens Syria red lines

As Washington pushes a new deconfliction mechanism between Turkey and Israel, the Jewish state shows little incentive to accept tighter constraints on its freedom of action in Syria, experts say.

Ezgi Akin

Rina Bassist

By Ezgi Akin , Rina Bassist

Latest News

Analysis

Israel fears Turkey’s Syria ambitions and doubts Trump will stop them

ANKARA, TURKEY - JULY 7: U.S. President Donald Trump (L)shakes hands with with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) during a formal arrival at the Bestepe Presidential Palace during the NATO summit on July 7, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defense industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics. (Photo by Emrah Gurel - Pool/Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Turkey signals restraint as war of words with Israel escalates over Syria

Burhaanettin Duran

Syria’s FM pays Pakistan first visit in 19 years amid new regional alignments

Islamabad

Turkey looks to expand Syria energy footprint into oil, gas

President Ahmad al-Sharaa meets Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar at the People’s Palace in Damascus, Syria, on Aug. 19, 2026.

Members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group bring reinforcements.

Is Turkey using HTS to strengthen its hand in Syria?

Amid Ankara’s overtures to Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the radical group controlling Idlib — has seized Afrin and is seeking a deal to expand its control further into territories held by factions allied with Turkey.

Members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadi group advance toward the village of Jindayris.

Are Syria’s HTS jihadis Turkey’s new friends?

After Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the jihadi faction that runs the northwestern province of Idlib, moved into Afrin, the question of where Turkey stands in this power grab is of critical importance.

People take part in a funeral in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province.

Islamic State claims over 125 people killed in Syrian operations in 2 months

The Islamic State announced the largest number of operations it has so far carried out in the span of two months in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor, which is under the control of Kurdish forces in northeast Syria.

Syrians take part in the funeral of 10 fighters with the Turkey-backed Faylaq al-Sham rebel faction in Syria, in the northwestern city of Idlib, following their death in a Russian airstrike, Syria, Oct. 26, 2020.

Russian warplanes hit targets in northwest Syria

Russian warplanes escalated their shelling of Idlib amid field clashes between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Syrian government forces in the countryside of Aleppo.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.

Turkey bullish about F-16 deal with Washington, despite Menendez's vow to block it

The New Jersey senator has vowed to block any deal until the Turkish president "halts his campaign of aggression against the region."

A fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) walks past shops with their fronts painted with the Arabic phrases "beware a sniper" and "caliphate state," after the Kurdish-led and US-backed SDF retook the city from Islamic State fighters, Hajin, Deir ez-Zor province, Syria, Jan. 27, 2019.

Islamic State terrorizes business owners in northeast Syria

Islamic State cells have been active in the areas controlled by the Kurdish forces in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor, forcing business owners to pay taxes under the pretext of zakat.

Daily workers harvest onions near Turkey’s border wall with Syria, Sept. 29, 2022.

Syrian farmers trapped by 'Erdogan's wall'

Military unrest combined with drought is making it much harder to draw a living from the soil along the Turkish-Syrian border.

A girl walks while holding water containers in her hands and mouth at the Washukanni camp for the internally displaced near the town of Tuwaynah, near the city of Hasakah, Syria, Oct. 8, 2020.

Turkish-backed Syrian group cuts off water to Hasakah

Hasakah residents in northeast Syria have relied on buying water from private suppliers as their underground wells have dried up, while the Turkish-backed factions suspended pumping operations from the only water station supplying the city.

Members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham attend a graduation for a new batch of fighters in the countryside near the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, Sept. 13, 2022.

Rare clashes erupt between jihadist group, Turkey-backed faction in Syria's Idlib

Clashes erupted between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Faylaq al-Sham, affiliated with the Turkish-backed FSA, due to differences over the alleged opening of a commercial crossing with the Syrian government-held areas in the eastern Idlib countryside.

A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), made up of an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, removes an Islamic State group flag in the town of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of Raqa city, on April 30, 2017, as they advance in their battle for the group's de facto capital.

US military kills three senior Islamic State leaders in Syria strikes

US strikes knocked off the jihadist group's second-highest Syrian commander and a smuggler believed to have helped kidnap and behead Kurdish officials.

A woman suffering from cholera receives treatment at the Al-Kasrah hospital in Syria.

Cholera spreads in Syria as displacement camps on high alert

Fears of a cholera outbreak in Syria are growing after authorities revealed that part of the Euphrates River has been contaminated.

This picture shows the damage in a street in the central Syrian town of al-Qaryatain in Homs province.

Syrian government gears up for major military operation against IS in the desert

Syrian government forces are deployed in the Syrian desert in preparation for a large campaign against the Islamic State.