Idlib

Russia continued air strikes for a third day on Oct. 2, prompting Turkey and its partners in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to demand that Moscow cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and focus on fighting Islamic militants. 

A Shiite militia group that abducted 18 Turkish workers on Sept. 2 has released a video of them for the first time, reading the names of the abducted workers and a list of the group's demands, Al Jazeera Türk has reported.

The group calling itself the "Death Squads," listed its conditions to release the workers, addressing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. 

Days after the world's conscience was shocked by the image of a dead toddler washed up on a Turkish beach, the only thing holding back more Syrian refugees from attempting the same crossing was a media frenzy of journalists crowding the shore. Meanwhile, a Turkish court has remanded in custody four Syrians over the deaths of at least 12 migrants, including the three-year-old Aylan Kurdi.

The U.S. Department of Defense has indications that members of the train-and-equip program for Syrian fighters have been detained by the al-Nusra Front in Syria, a Pentagon official admitted Aug. 4.
      
Since last week, reports from inside Syria have been claiming that al-Nusra has captured at least five fighters trained by the U.S. and coalition forces.
    

Syrian President Bashar Assad says he supports any political dialogue to end his country's civil war - even if its effects are limited. But he says any initiative that is not based on fighting "terrorism" will be "hollow" and "meaningless."

Turkey?s always dynamic, always changing agenda does not permit many of us to follow and cover foreign policy issues in the necessary depth. This is especially the case amid the tense internal political climate on the eve of the June 7 parliamentary elections.

Islamist rebels and the Syrian army fought fierce battles in Latakia province overnight close to President Bashar al-Assad's ancestral home, the army and rebels said, after weeks of insurgent gains in the country's northwest. 

Turkish officials have expressed their satisfaction at the seizure of the northern Syrian city of Idlib by opposition forces, stressing that the Ankara-supported Free Syrian Army (FSA) was part of the winning side.

The coalition that seized Idlib city on March 28 was composed of the al-Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, as well as several Islamist factions. 

Six people, including three young children, were killed in an alleged regime gas attack in northwestern Syria late Monday, a monitoring group and opposition activists said.
      

An estimated 12.2 million Syrians need assistance because of increasing violence and deteriorating conditions in the country, up from 10.8 million in July, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Nov. 25.