U.S. Central Command

Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık announced on Feb. 23 that the Syrian town of al-Bab had been largely captured from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), or DEASH, by Turkish-backed Free Syria Army (FSA) forces during the Euphrates Shield operation, as a new round of talks were set to start in Geneva for the political future of the war-torn country.

U.S. Chief of Joint Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford is set to visit Turkey on Feb. 17. Following the Feb. 9 visit of CIA head Michael Pompeo, Dunford is the second high-ranking U.S. official's visit to Turkey, as part of a Middle Eastern tour. 

The US President Donald Trump is considering offering the job of White House national security adviser to Vice Admiral Robert Harward.

Moscow hosted a Kurdish conference on Feb. 15 that drew Kurdish political figures from four neighboring Kurdish-populated countries: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

Kurdish media outlets called it a "Kurdish National Conference," though Russian officials refrained from labeling it.

As soon as U.S. President Donald Trump said he was considering the formation of safe zones for Syrians trying to escape the six-year-old civil war, there was a reaction from Russia.

Dimitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the U.S. had not consulted with them on the project, adding that "probably all the consequences ought to be weighed up."

The first concrete words that Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan wants to hear from the Donald Trump administration, scheduled to take office on Jan. 20, came from Trump's pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, during his Jan. 11 testimony to the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has reacted against U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) after it posted a statement from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on its Twitter account that said the force was not part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Dec. 1 that he has picked the tough-talking retired general James Mattis to be his defense secretary as he kicked off his post-election "thank you tour" by railing against globalization, promising the return of manufacturing jobs to American workers, and vowing to shut U.S. borders to some Middle East migrants.

A string of miscommunications, intelligence shortcomings and human errors resulted in a U.S.-led coalition air strike in Syria in September that reportedly killed around 90 regime forces, the Pentagon said Nov. 29, AFP reported.

A U.S. official, appointed to coordinate between Turkey and the U.S. for their operations in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has come to Ankara for an official visit, private broadcaster CNN Türk reported on Nov. 20.