People's Protection Unit

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has expressed his wish that his upcoming talks with U.S. President Donald Trump will constitute a new beginning in Turkey-U.S. ties, hoping that Washington will reverse its decision to arm Syrian Kurdish groups that Ankara sees as terrorist organizations. 

The United States retains its commitment to providing Turkey with security, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said May 11 in London during a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım that came in the wake of a U.S. decision to arm Kurdish militants in Syria.

The United States is mulling over starting the much-anticipated Raqqa operation to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) immediately after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's first in-person meeting with President Donald Trump in mid-May, amid reports that the White House may give a green light for providing weapons to the Syrian Kurds in a more direct way. 

Manbij in Syria's north is under the protection of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Kurdish-allied militia that controls the city said, raising fresh questions over who controls the border town, which is described as "critical" by Turkey. 

Syrian regime forces will take over Manbij, which has been under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces since its liberation from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists, Russia stated on March 3, amid repeated calls from Turkey for Kurdish forces to leave the town. 

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that a new page in U.S.-Turkey relations is being opened with the new administration at the White House. 

"We are opening a new page with the U.S. administration; they call it 'new day,'" state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Yıldırım as saying on Feb. 19 in Munich, where he attended the Munich Security Conference. 

Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels are conducting a cleaning up operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in al-Bab, which Turkey has been trying to liberate since December 2016 as part of its ongoing Euphrates Shield Operation, officials have said.

Russian and Turkish warplanes hit Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in al-Bab on Jan. 18 in what is the first such joint operation featuring both countries' air forces, the Russian Interfax news agency has reported.

The U.S. military said on Jan. 17 that it had carried out air strikes in Syria against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets of interest to both Washington and Ankara near the town of al-Bab, following Turkish criticism of insufficient U.S. support for its ground offensive.

Former Exxon-Mobil CEO and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, has urged the United States to re-engage with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to acquire a seat at the Syria and Middle East table.