National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces

A new cease-fire in an area of northwestern Syria rocked by violence is set to start just after midnight on Jan. 12, Turkey announced.

Turkey had pushed hard for the cease-fire, coming after Idlib, Syria endured months of battering by the Assad regime and its allies, sending about a million war-weary civilian refugees flocking to the Turkish border.

Over 20,000 civilians have fled Syria's northwestern region of Idlib to places near the Turkish border in the last two days, amid heightened bombardments by the Syrian regime and Russia, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 9.

Turkey will definitely stay at its observation posts monitoring a cease-fire in northwestern Syria, and its soldiers there have orders to respond to any acts of hostility, said Turkey's defense chief on Dec. 28.

Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga fighters will return to Syria after receiving training in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, a Kurdish politician said on Jan. 24.

The leader of the main exile Syrian opposition group will visit China this week, Beijing said Jan. 4, despite the country repeatedly blocking UN Security Council resolutions on the conflict.

A group of high ranking Syrian rebel commanders convened in the Reyhanl? town in Turkey's southern province of Hatay to found a High Military Council to coordinate their actions, Anadolu Agency reported on July 19. 

Members of the 30-man council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were reportedly present at the meeting. 

Syria's Western-backed political opposition group, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, has elected a new presidential committee and a president widely seen as not tied to any of the body's international sponsors.

The United Nations peace envoy to Syria is holding talks with the Syrian opposition in Turkey to promote a cease-fire proposal for the northern city of Aleppo, opposition sources said on Dec. 8.

Staffan de Mistura hopes the plan will establish truces in Aleppo, once Syria's commercial center and second-most-populous city, and allow aid into rebel districts.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara said on Dec. 3 it had received reports that "extremist groups" may be planning an attack against a Syrian opposition group in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep.