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Turkey's National Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, right, arrives to inspect troops at the border with Syria, in Hatay, Turkey, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020. Turkey hit targets in northern Syria, responding to shelling by Syrian government forces that killed at least eight Turkish military personnel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. A Syrian war monitor said 13 Syrian troops were also killed.(Turkish Defence Ministry via AP, Pool)

Turkey-backed fighters push Syrian forces out of key town

By SUZAN FRASER and SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press

Syrians drive through the city of al-Mastouma, in Idlib province, as they flee a government offensive, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. Syrian government forces have been on the offensive for more than a month in the northwestern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the country. But in recent days, the government captured more than a dozen villages in the area as the insurgents' defenses began to crumble. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian troops capture key town in rebel-held Idlib province

By Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

This image released by the Syrian Presidency shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, in Damascus, Syria on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020. Putin's visit is the second to the war-torn country where his troops have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces since 2015. (Syrian Presidency via AP)

Russia’s Putin visits Syria to meet Assad, a key Iran ally

By ALBERT AJI and DARIA LITVINOVA - Associated Press

Syrian group: Israeli strike kills 3, most likely Iranians

Associated Press

Syrian state media says Israel is firing missiles into Syria

Associated Press

FILE - In this July 24, 2019 file photo, a man stands in front of an ATM machine outside a branch of the International Bank for Trade and Finance, in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian pound has hit a record low amid the country’s grinding war and as a financial and political crisis roils neighboring Lebanon, Syria’s economic lung. The dollar was worth 920 Syrian pounds at some exchange shops on Monday, Dec. 2, 2019, in the capital, Damascus, a sharp drop from recent days. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Syrian pound at new low as crisis roils neighboring Lebanon

By ALBERT AJI - Associated Press

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a paramedic treats an injured woman wounded by Israeli missile strikes at a hospital in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019. The Israeli military on Wednesday said it struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria, carrying out a &quot;wide-scale&quot; strike in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before. (SANA via AP)

Israel strikes Iranian targets in Syria; 11 reported killed

By Tia Goldenberg and Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

Palestinians check the damage of a house targeted by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza City, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. The Israeli military says it has struck a Gaza City house, targeting a commander from the Islamic Jihad group in a resumption of pinpointed killing. The Iranian-backed Palestinian group confirmed Tuesday that Bahaa Abu el-Atta, it's north Gaza Strip commander, was killed. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Israeli airstrike kills Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza home

By Fares Akram and Aron Heller - Associated Press

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 28, 2019 file photo, U.S. forces patrol Syrian oil fields, in eastern Syria.President Donald Trump's decision to dispatch new U.S. forces to eastern Syria to secure oil fields is being criticized by some experts as ill-defined and ambiguous. But the residents of the area, one of the country's most remote and richest regions, hope the U.S. focus on eastern Syria would bring an economic boon and eliminate what remains of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

For east Syria, US troops are about much more than oil

By SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, Alvin, an 11-year-old Albanian boy who was taken to Syria by his mother when she joined the Islamic State group, is accompanied to Damascus airport by Red Cross and Red Crescent officials, after he was freed from a crowded detention camp. The boy, who found himself with no family in the al-Hol camp run by Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria after his mother and siblings died amid fighting, is heading home, to Italy, where his father lives. (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent photo via AP)

Albanian boy freed from IS camp on way home to Italy

By JAMEY KEATEN and ZEINA KARAM - Associated Press

Rubble fills a street in Douma, the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack, near Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 16, 2018. Faisal Mekdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, said on Monday that his country is &quot;fully ready&quot; to cooperate with the fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that's in Syria to investigate the alleged chemical attack that triggered U.S.-led airstrikes. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Syria and chemical weapons: The horror continues

By Peter Brookes

In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019, photo, chef Diaa Alhanoun sharpens his knives between serving customers, while skewered pieces of cooked chicken and beef known, or &quot;shawarma,&quot; are kept warm at his restaurant Sakib, in New York. A Syrian refugee fleeing civil war at home, Alhanoun, his wife and four children arrived in the U.S. from Jordan in 2016. Less than three years later Alhanoun and a partner opened a small restaurant in Brooklyn's trendy Williamsburg neighborhood. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Syrian refugee turns to food to rebuild his life in US

By DEEPTI HAJELA - Associated Press

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2014, file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, speaks with Syrian troops during his visit to the front line in the eastern Damascus district of Jobar, Syria. Assad has snapped up a prize from world powers that have been maneuvering in his country’s multifront wars. Without firing a shot, his forces are returning to towns and villages in northeastern Syria where they haven’t set foot for years. (SANA via AP, File)

Syria’s Assad gets a prize with US withdrawal, Russia deal

By ZEINA KARAM - Associated Press

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks to reporters before traveling to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Ankara, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Erdogan says up to 1,300 Syrian Kurdish militia have yet to vacate areas in northeast Syria, as the clock a Turkish-U.S. cease-fire agreement runs. (Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool )

Russia, Turkey seal power in northeast Syria with new accord

By SUZAN FRASER and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV - Associated Press

President Donald Trump speaks about Turkey as he arrives at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Donald Trump Syria withdrawal ‘not only appropriate, but overdue,’ foreign policy ‘realists’ say

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times

In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, smoke billows from targets in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, caused by bombardment by Turkish forces, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019. Turkish artillery on Tuesday pounded suspected Syrian Kurdish positions near the town in northeast Syria amid reports that Kurdish fighters had retaken the town as Turkey pressed ahead with a military incursion that has drawn widespread condemnation. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Syrian forces enter key border town, blocking Turkish plans

By ELENA BECATOROS and BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press

Turkish tanks and troops stationed near Syrian town of Manbij, Syria, Tuesday. Oct. 15, 2019. Russia moved to fill the void left by the United States in northern Syria on Tuesday, deploying troops to keep apart advancing Syrian government and Turkish forces.(Ugur Can/DHA via AP)

Fearing US abandonment, Kurds kept back channels wide open

By MATTHEW LEE and SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press

In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, a flag of Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, flies on a building in the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Turkey says it won’t bow to U.S. threat over its Syria plans

By Bassem Mroue and Suzan Fraser - Associated Press

Israel says it thwarts imminent Iranian attack from Syria

By JOSEF FEDERMAN - Associated Press

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, forth right, prays on the first day of the the Eid al-Adha, at Afram Mosque in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019. State news agency SANA showed Assad attending the payers early Sunday at Afram Mosque along with top officials including the prime minister and the country's grand mufti. (SANA via AP)

Syrian troops capture key village in rebel-held Idlib

Associated Press