President Trump has executed a policy U-turn on Syria. He’s now tasking U.S. forces that he’d promised to withdraw from there with a new mission: securing the oil fields of southeastern Syria. And it’s raising questions about just what he intends to do with that oil. Trump has appeared fixated on Syria’s largely defunct oil fields in the weeks since his Oct. 9 …

Take any words from US politicians with a grain of salt, Syria’s Bashar Assad has urged, as he cast doubt on the story of the Islamic State leader being killed in US a raid, and compared it to the shady killing of Osama Bin Laden. The widely publicized US special forces raid that allegedly killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader …

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he is resigning, amid protests that have gripped the country for two weeks. Mr Hariri said Lebanon had reached a deadlock and needed a shock to break the crisis. The protests began against now-scrapped plans to tax WhatsApp calls, but quickly widened to target political corruption and the economic turmoil. Lebanon has one …

Even by the standards of this unconventional, chaotic White House, the announcement of the killing of Islamic State terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was certainly one to remember. Donald Trump previewed it in a taunting Saturday night tweet to ensure he’d captured the entire world’s attention. “Something very big has just happened!” he exclaimed. Where past US presidents would have been …

US special forces have killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the world’s most wanted terrorist, according to unconfirmed US reports. Newsweek is reporting that US President Donald Trump approved the mission nearly a week before it took place and tweeted “Something very big has happened!” at 12.23pm (AEST) on Sunday. Mr Trump is scheduled to make a major announcement on Sunday at …

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the Kurdish PKK militia, who have waged a decades-long insurgency against Ankara, was “probably” a bigger terror threat than ISIS. “The PKK, which is a part of the Kurds, as you know, is probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than ISIS,” Trump told a news conference at …

“Don’t be a fool,” Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into northeastern Syria – warning history risked branding him a “devil.” Three days after appearing to greenlight an invasion by pulling US troops from the Kurdish-dominated region, Trump told the Turkish president he would wreck Ankara’s economy …

The Kurds in Syria say the Syrian government has agreed to send its army to the northern border to try to halt Turkey’s offensive against them. Syrian state media earlier reported that government forces had been deployed to the north. It follows the US decision to pull all its remaining troops from the area over the “untenable” situation there. The …

The US won’t fight fellow NATO member Turkey over the Kurds in Syria, President Donald Trump has said, while also suggesting the Kurds may be releasing terrorist prisoners just to get the US involved. In early Monday tweets, Trump defended his decision to hastily pull American troops and negotiators from the north of Syria, where a Turkish military operation against …

Syrian government troops have reportedly entered Tell Tamer, a town in the middle of the Kurdish-controlled part of the country, amid a continuing Turkish offensive against Kurdish militias. Syrian Arab Army troops entered the town early on Monday, according to SANA. Tell Tamer is a relatively small town, but it’s located on an intersection of several major roads and is …