The Syrian civil war is far from over, and the participants aren’t shy to apply the quid pro quo principle to the ongoing fighting. In 2016, Turkey was allowed to take control of Syria’s northern Aleppo province and the city of al-Bab in exchange for turning eastern Aleppo over to the troops of Syrian President…
Operation Olive Branch along Syria’s northern border, which has already resulted in military casualties suffered by both the Turkish and Kurdish sides, came as a surprise for those following the conflict carefully. There’s also no denying the fact that the bloody Turkish-Kurdish confrontation already resulting in a considerable civilian death toll is an avid example…
Last June a US Navy F/A-18 fighter plane shot down a Syrian Su-22 ground attack plane over central Syria. The Americans said the Syrian army jet had endangered “US partner forces” by dropping its bomb load “near SDF fighters” and their actions were therefore justified and “defensive”. In reality the Syrian jet had been on…
Turkey is hoping for a quick victory in Afrin, but its soldiers and allied Syrian militiamen are facing counter-attacks by Kurdish forces on villages close to the border. The Kurds are reported to be readying reinforcements to join the battle from their bases in north east Syria where they have thousands of troops who until…
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been left flailing as Washington desperately struggles to avoid being shut out of Syria by its own allies – following a crisis it helped provoke just days ago. For all the backpedaling and reframing the US officials are now doing, the chronology of the volte-face from Afrin to…
It has happened. After almost a year of threatening to invade the Kurdish-held Afrin pocket in north-western Syria Erdogan has invaded for real. Attacking forces have already taken a number of villages on the Turkish-Syrian border. In one place they have advanced 5 kilometers into Syria. Turkish military already poured over the Syrian border in…
