Syrian civil war

Syria's military shot down a U.S. drone over the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, state media said March 17.

The Syrian government killed more than 100 civilians in a series of "ruthless air strikes" on a bastion of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) last year, Amnesty International said on March 17.
      

The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a political transition in Syria and is exploring ways to pressure him into agreeing to talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CBS News in an interview.

Three British teenagers who were planning to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria were detained in the Turkish city of Istanbul, Turkish officials said on March 15.
   
The three, who have not been named, were detained on Friday, Turkish sources told Reuters. They said arrangements were being made with British authorities to deport them this week.

Turkish and American diplomats on March 14 vowed to fight international threats together, as they spoke at the 35th Annual Convention of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) in Washington.

Ambassadors from both countries said the relationship between the two nations has never been more important than it is today.

The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar Assad, US Secretary of State John Kerry told CBS News on Sunday.

"We have to negotiate in the end. We've always been willing to negotiate in the context of the Geneva I process," the US top diplomat said in an interview broadcast on Sunday, referring to the June 30, 2012 conference on Syria.

Turkish fighter jets intercepted a Russian plane which was flying parallel to Turkish air space over the Black Sea on March 15.

Turkish F-16 jets which took off from Band?rma and Merzifon air bases intercepted a Russian IL-20 plane, which later left Black Sea air space near Georgia, the General Staff said in a statement released pm its website.

CIA Director John Brennan said on March 13 the United States does not want to see a chaotic collapse of the Syrian regime as it could open the way to Islamist extremists taking power.

FM Çavu?o?lu exhorts the EU to share more intelligence with Ankara on potential jihadists while lamenting the unfair press Turkey is receiving abroad Turkey is facing unfair accusations over the flow of foreign fighters into Syria even though it has been doing its best to close its borders, Turkey's foreign minister has said, urging the European Union to share more intelligence over pote

U.K. Ambassador to Turkey Richard Moore has stressed the ongoing close cooperation between his country and Turkey, upon Ankara?s announcement that a spy who worked for a country in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) helped three British girls cross into Syria to join the militants and has been caught.