Syria

BELGRADE - The authorities arrested on Saturday the driver of the van that overturned on the motorway near Leskovac while transporting illegal migrants four days ago, Tanjug learnt in the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After a major police action, the driver was arrested in Pancevo near Belgrade as he was trying to hide from the authorities.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is set to embark on a one-day trip to Saudi Arabia on Feb. 28 to meet new Saudi King Salman, who assumed his post last month. Erdo?an had attended the former king?s funeral, along with other world leaders, and is now paying an official visit to Riyadh.
 

The southern and eastern borders of an ISIS stronghold have been taken over by Peshmerga Kurdish fighters, in northeastern Syria, according to the OSDH.

According to the OSDH, the YPG (Kurdish forces) invaded Tal Hamis and took over parts of the city after six days of fighting against ISIS jihadists.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry disapproves of British parliamentarians' call for Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil to appear before them about three Londoner schoolgirls believed to have joined Islamists in Syria after flying to Turkey last week, a spokesperson has said.

A non-commissioned officer has been arrested in the southern Turkish province of Hatay for informing the gendarmerie about trucks belonging to the National Intelligence Organization (M?T), which were stopped and searched by soldiers two years ago.

Syria's main domestic and exiled opposition groups has said they had agreed a joint draft roadmap for the first time, calling for a transitional governing body and an end to the brutal conflict.

Turkish Central Bank Governor Erdem Ba?ç? sought to calm jittery investors on Feb. 27, dismissing rumors that he would resign and giving a brief lift to the lira currency after it tumbled to a record low.
   

Turkey and the United States will begin training and equipping moderate Syrian opposition fighters on March 1 within the framework of a Feb. 19 agreement signed by the two countries, Ankara has announced.

"I can say that it will begin as of March 1," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç briefly told reporters at a press conference on Feb. 27.

Police find another group of illegal migrants

BELGRADE -- The Serbian police have discovered a group of 15 foreign nationals who carried no personal documents on a highway near the town of Velika Plana.

The daily Blic writes that they are citizens of Syria, who told the officers that they avoided border crossings and crossed to Serbia from Macedonia on foot.

Turkey has said its financial burden emanating from the Syrian conflict has reached $6 billion, calling for more help from the international community. The United Nations, meanwhile, said Turkey has become the largest refugee host in the world.