U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected reported assertions by U.S. intelligence officials that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election in a bid to help his reelection campaign.

The Kremlin was scrambling Friday to reach a stopgap agreement with Ankara to halt fighting in northwest Syria amid growing fears that Russia and Turkey are on the brink of open warfare.

The road to Zabol province is specked with craters. Army outposts line a raw landscape of mountains and open steppe. Winds snap hard; signs warn of minefields. The Taliban has blown up most of the bridges.