The Turkish military killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia must disband and called on the US to stop supporting it.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.

In the past week, the Pentagon has acknowledged that its footprint in Iraq and Syria is bigger than it has claimed for years

The number of US troops in Syria has regularly surged higher than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed since at least 2020, and in recent months increased to more than double the roughly 900 troops the US has long said are in Syria,

Israeli forces advanced into Sweisah in the Quneitra countryside of southwestern Syria, establishing military positions near Al-Mantara Dam and opening fire on protesters opposing the incursion, injuring three civilians.

Daniel Sulaiman, 25, canceled his plans to return from Dubai to his Syrian hometown of Tartous to celebrate the first Christmas, following the ouster of the iron-fisted President Bashar al-Assad, with his loved ones.

Sammy Ketz & Maher al MounesA lightning rebel offensive early this month caught Syria's ruling clan off guard. President Bashar al Assad fled

With the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and an uncertain future, U.S. troops in the region must navigate a geopolitical minefield.

President Trump’s dilemma in Syria is to let a terrorist state emerge at the heart of the Middle East on his watch or to violate his campaign promise of “no more foreign wars."

The camps are run by the SDF. The United States backs the SDF, providing it with weapons and training, in an effort to combat the Islamic State. The Pentagon disclosed this month that there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, as part of an effort to contain regrouping Islamic State remnants.

Blinken said he spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani about the situation in Syria after the Assad regime's fall.