John Allen

Through a public website, Stefanos Kasselakis and Tyler Macbeth are collecting from friends and relatives monetary gifts for their wedding, which will take place at the end of August in Chania.

Combined joint special forces operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq could be a possibility in the coming days, said John Allen, who has just handed over his position as the anti-ISIL coordinator for U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at a security conference in Halifax, Canada on Nov. 21.

The U.S. special envoy for countering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), retired Gen. John Allen, plans to step down for personal reasons, a U.S. official said Sept. 22.
   

U.S. President Barack Obama?s Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Anti-ISIL Coalition, Brett McGurk, who was in Ankara this week to finalize the Incirlik agreement between Turkey and U.S., has said Washington ?can?t succeed against Daesh without Turkey,? speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News in an exclusive interview via Skype. 

Turkey remains distant on a United Nations plan to establish buffer zones inside Syria that would be backed with a cease-fire in some particular regions, according to sources who commented on an Ankara meeting between Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, and Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlio?lu.  

The United States does not support the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish entity in northern Syria, the US special envoy for the coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) extremists said on July 14.

Turkey and the United States are continuing to mull over options to intensify ongoing cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), after the jihadists started to advance along the populous Mare-Jarablus line, pushing Turkey to reinforce its military presence on the Syrian border. 

General John Allen visited Kosovo on Thursday, meeting top officials on a mission to strengthen cooperation within the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, of which Kosovo is a part.

President Atifete Jahjaga said in a meeting with the US General that mainly Muslim Kosovo was determined "never to become a haven for terrorist groups or a source of extremism".

More than 10,000 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters have been killed since the international coalition started its campaign against the militant group nine months ago in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 3.

Talks between the United States and Turkey on efforts to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been ?productive,? the White House?s special envoy for the campaign against the ISIL said on May 16.