Kurdish media reports that latest Turkish airstrikes have killed three Syrian NDF fighters on the Turkish-Kurdish frontline in northwestern Syria near the Kurdish-held town of Afrin. Earlier this week hundreds of Syrian NDF militiamen from the nearby Shia Arab area of Nubl and Zahraa crossed over into YPG-held Afrin enclave and put themselves at the…
The United States has been forced down from its attempt to persuade the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to label Pakistan a state which finances terrorism. As a country that has suffered more at the hands of multiple terrorist groups than almost any other in the region and the world as a whole, Pakistan has repeatedly…
The Kurds aren’t playing Damascus like a fiddle just yet, but they’re coming dangerously close. Conflict Context The past week has seen a flurry of conflicting reports about the true status of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allied militias in Afrin, with the general conclusion being that Damascus is playing a dangerous game…
With the exception of the United States which has mastered the art of becoming the airforce and strategic leader of non-state guerrilla/terrorist groups in Syria, the remaining parties to the conflict all stand united against non-state entities. Groups like Daesh, FSA and al-Qaeda are uniformly opposed by the states of Syria, Russia and Iran, while Turkey…
Syria reportedly agreed to the Kurdish PYD-YPG “federalist” militia’s request to enter Afrin and stop the Turks’ military advance, though it still remains to be seen whether Damascus will actually carry through on this decision or not. There have been conflicting reports on this topic all across the past week, but the official “Syrian Arab…
A chain of events, allegedly beginning with an Iranian drone penetrating Israeli airspace on Saturday followed by the downing of an Israeli F-16 fighter by Syrian forces, led to a large-scale military strike in which Israel bombed a dozen of Syrian and Iranian targets on Syrian soil. Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Iranian…
