Syrian civil war

A Syrian official said May 17 that the situation is "fully under control" in Palmyra despite breaches by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who pushed into the historic town a day earlier.
     

Syrian government troops and militia put up fierce resistance on May 17 to an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group assault on one of the jewels of the country's heritage, ancient Palmyra.

Turkey has announced that Turkish jets on May 16 shot down a Syrian helicopter violating its airspace, while Syrian state TV reported that it was a surveillance drone that was
shot down.

Turkey has shot down another Syrian regime aircraft for violating its airspace.

A Turkish F-16 that took off from the Incirlik airbase in the southern province of Adana shot down the Syrian aircraft with two missiles on May 16, military officials told daily Hürriyet.

It was not immediately clear what kind of aircraft was shot down.

U.S. special operations forces have carried out a raid inside Syria, killing a man identified as a senior Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) leader who helped direct the group's oil, gas and financial operations, the Pentagon and White House said on May 16.

Talks between the United States and Turkey on efforts to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been "productive," the White House's special envoy for the campaign against the group said on May 16.

?The train-equip program started in Turkey. 300 Syrian rebels already arrived on May 9.? 

These words were uttered by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu this week.

The chances of anyone being prosecuted for Syrian war crimes are today smaller than ever, experts say, as realpolitik smothers an increasingly solid mountain of evidence accumulated during the often barbaric four-year conflict.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists battled Syrian troops near ancient Palmyra May 14, threatening the UNESCO world heritage site with destruction like that which it has already wreaked in Iraq, a monitoring group said.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters killed dozens in an attack on Syrian army-held areas in Homs province overnight, an organisation monitoring the war said, as the group intensifies efforts to expand beyond its strongholds.