Middle Orient

Former US Defense Secretary James Mattis has said that Daesh “will resurge” in Syria, following President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of troops from the region.

Syrian government forces will deploy along the Turkish border to help repel the Turkish military incursion against Syrian Kurds, Kurdish officials announced Sunday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says threats of sanctions and arms embargoes by Western powers will not halt his country’s cross-border military offensive against Kurdish militants in Syria’s northeast.

The U.S. is withdrawing all remaining troops from northern Syria, as President Donald Trump said Sunday it was “very smart… for a change” to not be involved in the fighting sparked by Turkey’s onslaught against the U.S.’s long-time battlefield ally, Kurdish fighters.

Tuesday night, two small Islamic State sleeper cells inside Syria’s Raqqa governorate, which is held by the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), targeted two separate SDF positions in region.

“We have more work to do to keep ISIS from coming back,” the spokesperson for the Kurdish-led forces said. “If America leaves, all will be erased.”

In an attempt to draw European support for Lebanon as it grapples with financial unease, Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raed threatened the bloc with the sensitive issue of Syrian refugees.

The United States is unhappy with the Lebanese government for tolerating Hezbollah, a western diplomatic source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.

Germany on Wednesday urged Turkey to halt a military operation in northern Syria, saying the incursion would destabilise the country and risked helping a resurgence of the Islamic State militant group.

Fears are growing among American officials that thousands of ISIS fighters may escape from prisons in Syria as the Kurdish personnel guarding them gear up for a fight with Turkey, which launched a military offensive in northeastern Syria on Wednesday.