Hizballah

Lebanese Hezbollah militant leader Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus early on Dec. 20, the Lebanese group and Syrian government sources said.

Israel welcomed his death, saying he had been preparing attacks on it from Syrian soil, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him. 

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has praised a new "Saudi-led Islamic anti-terrorism alliance" as being "in line with U.S. calls for a greater Sunni role" in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). He was speaking during a visit to Turkey's ?ncirlik air base on Dec. 15, which came only a day after the Pentagon gave a conceptual briefing about the front to U.S.

Syrian troops recaptured a military airport and nearby town east of Damascus on Dec. 14, more than three years after they were overrun by rebel groups, a military source said. 

"The Syrian army has taken full control of the town of Marj al-Sultan and its airport in Eastern Ghouta," a rebel bastion east of the capital, the military source said, according to Reuters. 

A Russian warplane recently entered Israeli-controlled airspace from Syria but the intrusion was resolved without incident, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Nov. 29.

Russia is ready to coordinate a set of measures in cooperation with Syria’s government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after meeting with Syrian counterpart Valid Muallim.

The Turkmens of the Bay?rbucak region in northwest Syria are subject to the attacks of Bashar al-Assad and Russian forces not only because they are Turkmens but also because their strategic location is extremely important. 

Turkey will not hesitate to take required measures on Syrian soil to protect the Turkmen people, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu said, while noting that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is not active in the region.

Dan Stoenescu was born on November 4, 1980, in Constanta.

He has graduated the Austin College in Texas, USA, holding a bachelor's degree in International Studies (2003), while in 2005 he became the holder of a master's degree in Globalization and Development from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Burj al-Barajneh, a mainly Shia southern suburb and Hezbollah stronghold where Hezbollah forces are fighting IS in neighbouring Syria. The attack left 41 dead, in the deadliest bombing in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, cince the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990.

Turkey has "strongly condemned" a twin bombing by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that claimed the lives of 43 people in South Beirut, while pledging to continue its support for the people and the state of Lebanon for maintaining peace, stability and security in the volatile country.