The Turkish military killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

In the past week, the Pentagon has acknowledged that its footprint in Iraq and Syria is bigger than it has claimed for years

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.

Daniel Sulaiman, 25, canceled his plans to return from Dubai to his Syrian hometown of Tartous to celebrate the first Christmas, following the ouster of the iron-fisted President Bashar al-Assad, with his loved ones.

The number of US troops in Syria has regularly surged higher than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed since at least 2020, and in recent months increased to more than double the roughly 900 troops the US has long said are in Syria,

Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi deploys troops and equipment to the Syrian border after Assad’s fall. The move aims to secure Iraq’s sovereignty and prevent militant threats amid rising regional tensions.#Ira

Assad, old alliances have crumbled, and global powers are figuring out their relationships with Syria’s new de facto leaders.

President Trump’s dilemma in Syria is to let a terrorist state emerge at the heart of the Middle East on his watch or to violate his campaign promise of “no more foreign wars."

A Pentagon spokesman said the increase was unrelated to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad to rebel forces in early December.

The camps are run by the SDF. The United States backs the SDF, providing it with weapons and training, in an effort to combat the Islamic State. The Pentagon disclosed this month that there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, as part of an effort to contain regrouping Islamic State remnants.

Assad’s ouster has raised urgent questions about the 2,000 troops who serve as a bulwark against ISIS and Iran.

As a former Al Qaeda fighter with a U.S. bounty on his head, experts say Abu Mohammad al-Jolani's first challenge has been proving to the world that he himself is a changed man.