Fertile Crescent

Syrian migrants who are attempting to enter ?zmir in preparation for journeys to Greece are increasingly being prevented from reaching the Aegean Sea, while others already there are being gathered in a stadium.

Turkey will again push for a no-fly zone over northern Syria to protect civilians fleeing both Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and Syrian government forces, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has told the BBC.

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called for the establishment of a no-fly zne over nothern Syria to to protect civilians fleeing the Islamic State (IS) group and Syrian government forces.

Three explosions, two of them suicide car bombs claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group, killed at least 33 people in Iraq's restive Diyala province on August 10, police and medics said.

At least 11 people, including 10 Syrian nationals and one Turkish citizen, have died and 29 others were injured when an overcrowded minibus they were traveling in hit a wall in the northwestern Turkish province of Bal?kesir on Aug. 8. The Syrians were thought to be migrants on their way to an Aegean seaside town where they would begin an illegal voyage to a Greek island.

19 young girls have been murdered by the self proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) for refusing to be raped by terrorist militants. According to a Kurdish official, the girls were being held captive in jihadist-controlled Mosul, Iraq. A UN report notes that the captive females can be sold or bought as sex slaves by up to six different men.

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.
    

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has expressed its disappointment over the Iraqi prime minister?s reaction to the Turkish military?s aerial operations in northern Iraq.

The European Union?s top diplomat has voiced support for Turkey?s ongoing operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) camps in Iraq, while emphasizing the utmost need for keeping the Kurdish peace process alive.

A shopkeeper in Turkey?s Aegean province of ?zmir has been sued over allegedly beating a Syrian child, the ?zmir Police Department told daily Hürriyet on July 22.

The ?zmir Police Department has opened a case against Adnan Peyi, a shopkeeper accused of beating a young Syrian street seller in Basmane Square in downtown ?zmir, after the boy?s mother filed a complaint.