Eurasia

Turkey has escalated drone attacks on Kurdish-held regions of north and northeast Syria this week, killing 16 people including one civilian in a single day, a war monitor said Thursday. The strikes mostly targeted Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat and Manbij in the country’s north near the Turkish border, areas Ankara has …

A Detroit-area man who was captured on a Syrian battlefield in 2018 fighting for Islamic State was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison. Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli of Dearborn was convicted in January of providing support to a designated terrorist organization. “For his betrayal of our nation and his fellow …

U.S. allies in northeastern Syria are intent on prosecuting hundreds of Islamic State foreign fighters for war crimes despite a lack of support from the international community. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced Thursday it would begin judicial proceedings for about 2,000 IS foreign fighters …

Iran-Russia relations have entered a new era of mutual cooperation. Thanks to the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Tehran’s interests — whether military, economic or geopolitical — have aligned to an extent not seen for many decades. The contrast with the period before the Russian invasion of Ukraine is striking. …

The war in Ukraine has brought the Wagner Group, Russia’s largest private military company, or PMC, out of the shadows. Before the February 2022 invasion, it operated mostly covertly in Ukraine, Africa and Syria. Its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, even denied the group’s existence and his role until last fall. Today, …

Alexei Yermolaev hardly expected that he’d be proposing to his girlfriend Anna Volshuva in the dead of night, surrounded by packed bags. It was a few days after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Yermolaev had just bought a one-way ticket to Tbilisi in …

The family of Tanzanian-born Nemes Raymond Taremo first heard rumors that their beloved relative had been killed on the frontlines in faraway Ukraine in December last year. They received their last message from Taremo, 37, two months earlier — on Oct. 17 — shortly after he joined Russia’s Wagner mercenary …

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), often called the “Russian Davos,” opened Wednesday in what is predicted to be the least impressive showing in the event’s 25-year history. Russia’s annual four-day economic showcase, which had once drawn crowds of foreign investors to President Vladimir Putin’s hometown, has been boycotted …

Iran’s goal is to modernize its transport infrastructure using Russian money, and Moscow has little choice but to foot the bill. The North–South Corridor, a planned railway route that will connect Russia to the Indian Ocean via Iran, is gaining relevance as a means for Moscow to move goods around …

For years, the Kremlin diminished the role of regional governors. But the war and the president’s self-isolation from real problems have changed everything. Now the enforced publicity of regional leaders may serve to restore their genuine popularity and authority.For many Russians, their country’s war against neighboring Ukraine is no longer …