Israel is believed to have carried out several raids inside Syria since 2013, mostly targeting its Lebanese arch-foe Hezbollah, a key ally of the Syrian government.

Al-Qaida's global network remains "remarkably resilient," posing more of a threat in some regions than the Islamic State group, UN sanctions monitors said in a report seen by AFP on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump delivered his maiden State of the Union address on Tuesday, calling for national unity, strong borders and a powerful U.S. military to repel threats to America.

Syria's Kurds, whose Afrin enclave in the north of the country has been bombarded for the past week by Turkey, spent years carefully building a system of self-rule amid the chaos of war.

Turkey's assault against Kurdish forces in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin has further complicated the bloody and complex war raging in Syria since 2011. 

Since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011, the belligerents -- in particular the regime of President Bashar al-Assad -- have been accused on numerous occasions of using chemical weapons.

The Turkish military has started an air and ground operation against Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia whom Ankara views as "terrorists" linked to outlawed militants.

Turkey's last such cross-border operation -- against the Islamic State extremist group and the Kurdish militia -- was between August 2016 and March 2017. 

Donald Trump said during his election campaign he wanted to improve relations between the US and Vladimir Putin's Russia. But a year on from his inauguration, ties between Washington and Moscow are at Cold War lows.

The U.S. government has frozen tens of millions of dollars in contributions to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. What is UNRWA and what will the impact be?

The Berbers -- descendants of pre-Arab populations across North Africa -- are currently celebrating their New Year festivities.