Military

Locals in the southern province of Kilis, on the border with Syria, have rallied in front of the Governor's Office to demand greater security measures, as the conflict in Syria continues to have spillover effects. 

There are no plans to storm the Syrian city of Aleppo despite thousands of Al-Nusra militants massing around the city, the Russian military general staff, which is providing air support to the Syrian army, said on April 11. 

Monday marks 17 years since the murder of journalist and publisher Slavko Curuvija.

Curuvija was killed during the NATO bombing, on Easter, April 11, 1999, in front of the building where he lived and where the marketing service of his publications Dnevni Telegraf was located in Belgrade's Svetogorska St.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants took back a stronghold in Syria near the border with Turkey on April 11, four days after losing it to a grouping of rebels, a monitoring group said. 

The NATO-Russia Council will meet in the next two weeks for the first time since 2014 to duscuss the Ukraine crisis.

"Following consultations with Russia, we have agreed to hold a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at Ambassadorial level," NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said in a statement on Friday.

U.N. special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said April 7 that the next round of Syria peace talks will begin on April 13 after he completes a diplomatic tour, including stops in Damascus and Tehran, a push back from the formerly announced date of April 11.  

In a brazen assault near the Syrian capital, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants on April 7 abducted 300 cement workers and contractors in an area northeast of Damascus, Syrian state TV reported as fighting elsewhere in the country also worsened.
     

Around 250 Syrian civilians are feared kidnapped after an attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group on a cement factory east of Damascus, residents told AFP on April 7.  

Turkey's assistance has been critical in efforts to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said April 6.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the two main challenges faced by the western military alliance are "Islamic State and Russia."