Kurdish-led SDF: Turkish strikes won't stop us advancing to Azaz -- Syria Direct
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia are gaining ground in their advance toward the Syrian border city of Azaz despite Turkish shelling on its positions to halt it, an SDF commander has told Syria Direct today.
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren calls today's strikes on a MSF-supported hospital in Marat al-Numan in Syria's Idlib province "terrible news," says the only U.S.-led air strikes in Syria today were near Raqqa and Hasakah.
Bulgaria charges three Syrians with trying to join IS group
Prosecutors in Bulgaria have charged three Syrians with trying to join the IS group after border patrols arrested them attempting to cross into Turkey from Bulgaria, the interior ministry has said according to Reuters.
The three Syrians had refugee status from Germany.
Kurdish, Arab forces advance in Tel Rifaat
Al Aan reporter Jenan Moussa says that the Kurdish YPG militia and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish, Arab, Turkoman, Armenian and Assyrian militias, have advanced in the town of Tel Rifaat in northern Syria.
Some opposition groups have pulled out of the town and Turkish shelling on Kurdish targets around Tel Rifaat is much less today, Moussa reports.
Russia to continue air strikes around Aleppo even if ceasefire is agreed
Reuters is quoting Interfax as saying that Russia intends to continue its air strikes around Aleppo even if a ceasefire is agreed.
Samples confirm Islamic State used mustard gas in Iraq: Reuters
IS militants attacked Kurdish forces in Iraq with mustard gas last year, the first known use of chemical weapons in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a diplomat has told Reuters.
A source at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed to Reuters that laboratory tests had come back positive for the sulfur mustard, after around 35 Kurdish troops were sickened on the battlefield last August. The OPCW will not identify who used the mustard gas, but the diplomat told Reuters that the results showed the agent had been used by IS militants.
Turkey issues new threats to Kurdish militias in northern Syria
The BBC has more on the threats made this morning by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Aleppo province.
Davutoglu said that if the YPG advanced again towards the Syrian border town of Azaz, "they will see the harshest reaction. We will not allow Azaz to fall."
Davutoglu also pledged to make the Syrian Menagh air base "unusable" if the militia did not withdraw from the area, and that the YPG would not be allowed to move east of its Afrin region or west of the Euphrates.
Davutoglu's comments came as Turkey ignored international calls and shelled parts of northern Syria again today.