Clashes Between Turkish and Syrian Forces in Idlib
Turkey’s Ministry of Defense said yesterday an observation post in Idlib was attacked from an area controlled by Syrian government forces and that Turkish troops retaliated with heavy weapons, the second incident in the past week (Reuters)
Idlib Bombing Interrupts UN Food Delivery in Syria
The World Food Program said it has been unable to deliver food aid to parts of northeastern Syria since late April because of an ongoing bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian government forces. More than 1,500 people, at least half of them civilians, have been killed in the campaign, according to rescue groups (Al Jazeera)
Moscow Rebuffs Trump’s Call to End Strikes in Syria
A Kremlin spokesperson signaled that a Russian and Syrian military campaign in Idlib Governorate, the last major rebel-held region in Syria, will continue until rebel attacks stop and said Turkey was responsible for ensuring a cease-fire in the area. U.S. President Donald J. Trump accused Russia and Syria in a Sunday tweet of “indiscriminately killing many innocent civilians” (Reuters)
Israel Attacks Syrian Military Sites
Syrian state media reported that at least one soldier was killed in an attack yesterday on an air base in Homs. Israel earlier said it carried out attacks in southern Syria in response to two rockets launched from Syria on Saturday (Associated Press)
U.S., Russia Discuss Ending Syrian War
The U.S. special envoy for Syria said U.S. and Russian diplomats are discussing a step-by-step approach to implementing a 2012 roadmap that would lead to UN-supervised elections in Syria (Associated Press)
U.S. Says Chemical Weapons May Have Been Used Again in Syria
The U.S. State Department said yesterday it observed signs that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime may have used chemical weapons, citing a possible chlorine attack in the country’s northwest over the weekend. The Trump administration twice carried out strikes against Syria over alleged chemical weapons use (Reuters)
Government Forces and Rebels Clash in Syria’s Hama Province
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad entered a rebel-held village in northwest Syria, clashing with armed groups and seizing control of a village in the Hama province. The clashes killed at least nine soldiers and eighteen rebels (Al Jazeera)
Russian and Syrian Airstrikes Violate Demilitarization Agreement
Local residents and medics reported that Russian and Syrian forces intensified overnight air strikes in northwestern Syria, the largest such assault since the area was designated a demilitarized zone under a Russian-Turkish agreement (Reuters)
UN Envoy: Syrian Constitutional Committee Within Reach
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said there was “tangible progress” toward forming a committee to rewrite Syria’s constitution in recent talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the Syrian opposition. Pedersen said he hopes a committee could meet this summer and “help unlock a broader political process” leading to a UN-supervised election (Associated Press)
New Report Documents Civilian Deaths in Syria
A new report released by Amnesty International and the monitoring group Airwars found that more than 1,600 civilians were killed by U.S., UK, and French air strikes and artillery fire during the 2017 campaign to oust the Islamic State from the city of Raqqa (Amnesty International)
Seventeen Killed in Explosion in Rebel-Held Syria
At least seventeen people were killed and nearly thirty others injured in an explosion in a town in rebel-held Idlib province. The explosion inside the “de-escalation zone” came a day after heavy Russian air strikes in the area and amid an escalation of attacks by the Syrian military (Reuters)
Militant Rockets Kill Eleven in Syria
According to a human rights organization, jihadists fired twenty rockets into several neighborhoods in Aleppo yesterday, killing at least eleven people (Agence France-Presse)
Escalating Violence in Northwestern Syria Strains Truce
This weekend, Syrian government forces and insurgents exchanged fire in the country’s northwest, killing at least thirteen people and targeting a government-run hospital. The escalating violence strained a truce that was reached between Russia and Turkey in September that called for the creation of a demilitarized zone in Syria’s Idlib (Associated Press)
Israel Targets Iranian Forces in Syria
According to members of the Syrian military, Israel allegedly carried out airstrikes on an industrial zone in northern Aleppo where a faction of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are located (Reuters)
Syrian Kurds Call for International Tribunal
The U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces called for the creation of an international court in Syria to try the more than five thousand suspected militants from the Islamic State who are now in their custody (Kurdistan24)
Separately, three Russian soldiers were killed in an ambush in eastern Syria late last month, Russia’s defense ministry said yesterday. The incident brings the official death toll of Russian forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to 115 (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Syrian Kurds Say ISIS Defeated in Final Enclave
U.S.-backed Kurdish forces declared victory over the Islamic State as dozens of militants surrendered in the eastern city of Baghouz (Al Jazeera)
A top Syrian Kurdish official said thousands of Islamic State fighters, women, and children from dozens of countries are being held and that they pose a “serious burden and danger for us and for the international community” (Agence France-Presse)
Pentagon Denies Report on U.S. Troop Levels in Syria
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford called a report that the United States is considering keeping one thousand troops in Syria “factually incorrect” (CNN)
President Donald J. Trump has vowed to withdraw all of the United States’ roughly two thousand forces from the country (Wall Street Journal)
Syrian Kurds: Islamic State Fighters Surrender
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said some three thousand suspected militants surrendered between Monday and Tuesday as international coalition and local forces lay siege to the militant group’s final enclave in the eastern city of Baghouz (Al Jazeera)
Air Strikes Pummel Final Islamic State Enclave in Syria
Heavy fighting, including air strikes, mortar fire, and explosions, between the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the last militants from the Islamic State in the country was reported in the eastern town of Baghouz yesterday (CNN)
Syrian Kurds Say ISIS Not Yet Defeated
The head of the Syrian Democratic Forces said he expects to announce victory over the Islamic State after reclaiming a small area of land in eastern Syria in the coming days (Deutsche Welle)
U.S. President Donald J. Trump said yesterday that the U.S.-backed forces “just took over 100 percent” of the caliphate (CNN)
SDF Discovers Mass Grave in Last Islamic State Enclave in Syria
U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) discovered a mass grave in Baghouz that is believed to contain the bodies of Yazidis held captive by the Islamic State (Reuters)
Syria’s Assad Visits Iran
President Bashar al-Assad visited Iran to meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. It was Assad’s first foreign trip to a country other than Russia since the Syrian war began in 2011 (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
U.S. Says Two Hundred Troops to Stay in Syria
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said a “small peacekeeping group” of about two hundred forces will remain in Syria, though she did not specify how long they will stay there. The rest of the roughly two thousand U.S. troops in Syria are set to withdraw (Voice of America)
Kurdish-Led Forces Advance on Last ISIS Stronghold in Syria
The U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said there is “significant resistance” in the small Syrian-Iraqi border town of Baghuz, where hundreds of fighters from the Islamic State remain. The SDF said militants are using tunnels and suicide bombings to attack their troops (Agence France-Presse)
Russia Holds Trilateral Summit on Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for a meeting to discuss the presence of foreign military forces in Syria and action against militants in Syria’s northern Idlib province. During the summit, Russia informed Turkey that President Bashar al-Assad must grant consent in order create a safe zone inside Syria (Al Jazeera)