A December 1 New York Times investigation found that Russian aircraft were responsible for an August strike in the last anti-government held area in Syria. Two months ago, my colleague and I investigated the same attack, finding that it amounted to an apparent war crime. On the evening...

Practice makes perfect, and the Russian air force has gotten a lot of practice striking Syrian rebels. The Russian Air Force has learned valuable lessons during the recent campaign in Syria, according to a former senior Russian air commander. In fact, Russian air operations in support...

Even among hardliners in Iran, there seems to be an acknowledgment of one fact after widespread protests, violence and a security force crackdown following a spike in government-set gasoline prices: This will not be the last time demonstrators come out on the street. As Iran struggles...

I’ve spent months these past eight years in Syria’s amputated cities. They are a scar on all our lives – the Russians, the Syrians, the armed Islamists, the western powers that spent more time trying to destroy Syria than the Syrian regime. The bodies buried deep within these heaps of...

On a Sunday night in early October, 24-year-old Sherin Zadah was working on her graduate school application at her San Diego home when her father, who had been watching the nightly news, called out: “Oh, my God, what is Trump doing?” The White House had just announced a pullout of U.S....

A Pentagon Inspector General report says President Donald Trump's decision to retreat from northeastern Syria and allow a Turkish incursion there gives ISIS the ability to rebuild and plan attacks on the West. Prior to the Turkish incursion in early October, a Pentagon report indicated that...

In recent weeks, some American troops have moved from Syria to Iraq. Airmen have moved from the United States to an airbase in the UAE, and up to two thousand more U.S. soldiers are headed to Saudi Arabia. All of this is on top of the continued presence in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia,...

That wars end very differently to our own expectations – or our plans – was established long ago. Because “we” won the Second World War did not mean that the Americans would win the Vietnam war, or that France would vanquish its enemies in Algeria. Yet the moment we decide who the good guys...

Last Sunday in northeast Syria was a day fraught with geopolitical symbolism. As Russian forces raised their flag over a former school that had been used by American troops in the town of Ain Issa, about 100 miles to the east on the M4 highway a U.S. patrol watched as Turkish or Turkish-backed...

Islamic State (IS) group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was found and killed over the weekend in northern Syria just a few miles from the Turkish border in a US raid that evaded the Turkey’s Incirlik base, in a sign of the increasing distrust between US and Turkish militaries. The compound...

President Trump is renewing his push for U.S. control of Syrian oil. But experts say there's not much oil there, and what there is belongs to the Syrian government. Still, the idea of controlling the oil fields is one that has long appealed to Trump. And it may provide a rationale for...

After deals negotiated with both the United States and Russia which put an end to its offensive in Syria, Turkey has won a key demand: the removal of Kurdish fighters from along its border. But these deals, and the US's withdrawal from the zone, are also a huge boost for Russia, which is...

The prospect that thousands of the world's most fanatic jihadists could break out in the chaos caused by Turkey's invasion of northeastern Syria is causing widespread alarm. The Kurdish administration guarding those suspected members of the Islamic State group is crumbling and their fate...

After years of working towards autonomy, Syria's Kurds have been dropped by their US ally and forced to call in the Damascus regime to stem a six-day Turkish offensive. But as President Bashar al-Assad's forces deploy towards the northern border, is the Kurdish minority giving up on...

Russian military specialists are flying to Venezuela, Iran is increasing its drone threats to Saudi Arabia, and Turkey is blustering about a new military operation in eastern Syria. Across the Middle East and among U.S. global adversaries, there is a desire to test the Trump administration in...

Despite the defeat of the Islamic State, Washington justifies weaponizing and safeguarding the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which are the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Washington officials do this because they think that the Kurdish-dominated YPG would be an...

U.S. officials can use an emerging rift in Syria to push Turkey and Russia toward a divorce and renew U.S.-Turkish relations, said an analysis in conservative U.S. outlet The National Interest.  Turkish observation posts in and around Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province have in...

New weapons always have trouble, but especially when they weren't built with hotter climates in mind.  Russian missiles had problems operating in Syria. Why? Because parts of Syria are desert, and Russia lacked experience with designing weapons for such climates. That startling...

The leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran have announced the formation of a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution as the first step in a political solution to Syria's eight-year conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday hosted his Russian and Iranian counterparts,...

A Moscow-backed regime offensive in northwest Syria is undermining an arrangement by Russia and Turkey for the anti-government bastion, but their own interests should prevent a total falling-out, analysts say. Syrian government forces launched a ground offensive against the jihadist-run...