U.S. Central Command

The United States military will take part in a biennial joint military exercise with Egypt called Bright Star 2017 -- marking the first time the U.S. has participated in the joint exercise since the toppling of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, CNN reported on Aug. 15. 

Turkey has been at odds with its biggest military ally the U.S. for some time over Washington's selection for a partner in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), or DAESH in Arabic initials. 

The rift between Turkey and its biggest military ally the U.S. is continuing over two major issues. One is the ongoing activities of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-resident Islamist preacher accused of being behind the military coup attempt of July 15, 2016.

In the latest display of Turkish anger at U.S. policy in Syria, the state news agency has divulged the locations of 10 U.S. military bases and outposts in northern Syria where the U.S. is leading an operation to destroy the so-called Islamic State in its self-styled capital of Raqqa.

Brett McGurk, the Special Envoy of the U.S. President for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), arrived in Ankara on June 30 after carrying out inspections in the north of Syria on June 28-29. 

The map of the Middle East was radically changed almost 100 years ago at the end of the First World War. 

Kurdish activists claim Turkey is building up its military forces in northern Syria for an assault on the Kurdish held district of Afrin, a development that could cause serious setbacks in the ongoing American-backed operation to liberate the defacto capital of ISIS, Raqqa.

The downing of a Syrian Su-22 jet on June 18 by a U.S. F-18 near the Syrian city of Raqqa triggered an unexpected escalation of tension between the U.S. and Russia.

It was December in northern Syria and the temperature was dropping fast. Local militias fighting the Islamic State had suffered heavy casualties after a tough battle, and U.S. special operations forces urgently needed to get blankets to their partners. They turned to a small charity run by Jim Hake, a former venture capitalist who made his fortune on tech startups in California.

In a last-minute effort on May 31, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu urged the U.S.