The US has sanctioned two Turkish ministries and three senior government officials in response to the country’s military offensive in northern Syria. President Donald Trump also phoned his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand an immediate truce, Vice-President Mike Pence said. Mr Pence said he would travel to the region “as quickly as possible”. […]

Tens of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee fighting in northern Syria and are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, the UN has said. Turkey launched a cross-border military operation against Kurdish-led forces in the region last week, days after previously allied US troops pulled back from the border. Dozens of civilians and […]

Saudi Arabia says it has evidence showing Iran sponsored Saturday’s drone and missile attacks on two of its oil facilities, and called on the international community to take action. The question is whether there could be a war. The scale of the attacks means that Saudi Arabia cannot overlook what happened, and its decision to […]

Tens of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee fighting in northern Syria and are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, the UN has said. Turkey launched a cross-border military operation against Kurdish-led forces in the region last week, days after previously allied US troops pulled back from the border. Dozens of civilians and […]

It has taken a week to reshape the map of the Syrian war, in the seven days since President Donald Trump used what he called his “great and unmatched wisdom” to order the withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria. He set off a chain of events that betrayed America’s ally, the Syrian Kurds, and […]

The Kurds in Syria say the Syrian government has agreed to send its army to the northern border to try to halt Turkey’s offensive against them. Syrian state media earlier reported that government forces had been deployed to the north. It follows the US decision to pull all its remaining troops from the area over […]

The US is pulling out all of its troops from northern Syria as Turkey advances its operation against the Kurds. Defence Secretary Mark Esper said Turkey “likely intends” to extend its attack further than originally planned. The assault is aimed at forcing out Kurdish forces – the main US ally in the area. They may […]

President Trump’s surprise acquiescence to a Turkish incursion into northern Syria this week has shaken American allies, and not just because it was a betrayal of a loyal partner. What alarmed them even more was his sheer unpredictability. His inconsistent and rapidly shifting positions in the Middle East have injected a new element of chaos […]

Iran has released photos of an oil tanker that it says was attacked off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The photos show two large holes in the Sabiti tanker, which Tehran says was hit twice in the Red Sea on 11 October by an unknown assailant. The United States has blamed Iran for a series […]

By Evan Hill and Christiaan Triebert The Russian Air Force has repeatedly bombed hospitals in Syria in order to crush the last pockets of resistance to President Bashar al-Assad, according to an investigation by The New York Times. An analysis of previously unpublished Russian Air Force radio recordings, plane spotter logs and witness accounts allowed […]