Free Syrian Army

Turkey has extradited a French Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant, who is believed to have been a key figure in recruiting French nationals to the terror group, to France this week, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MİT) and police have brought three female Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) militants, who wished to surrender to the Turkish security forces, from an Aleppo neighborhood controlled by the PYD to Turkey's southeastern border province of Kilis, daily Habertürk reported on Sept. 21.

The US-backed coalition liberated more than 90 percent of the Syrian city of Raqqa, which was under the control of the Islamic State, the agencies said.

"After stronger attacks, the US-led coalition released at least five key neighborhoods just in the last 48 hours," Syrian Human Rights Director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Several dozen Syrian extremists linked to both al-Nusra Front and ISIS, who committed "numerous massacres" of civilians and captives, have sought asylum in Germany, Der Spiegel reports.

U.S.-led coalition forces returned fire after being repeatedly shot at near Manbij in northern Syria, where they are patrolling near areas held by Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon stated late on Aug. 29.

Turkey has limited cross-border movements at its Cilvegözü crossing on the Syrian border because the area "has been taken by a group that we consider a terrorist group," Customs Minister Bülent Tüfenkci stated on Aug. 10. 

Around 100,000 refugees are expected to return to Syria from Turkey by the end of 2017, according to a project started as part of cooperation between the Family and Social Policies Ministry and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

On Aug. 24, 2016 the Turkish Armed Forces along with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) began a cross-border operation into northern Syria, in a bid to clear its borders from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) elements between the country's Azaz and Mare provinces.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday left open the possibility of longer-term assistance to Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, saying the U.S. may need to supply them weapons and equipment even after the capture of Raqqa from Islamic State.

In a speech over the weekend, President Tayyip Erdoğan complained that the ongoing Qatar crisis came out of the blue, at a time when Turkey was trying to deal with other serious regional issues like Syria and Iraq.