When taxi and bus drivers take journalists into Syria via the Beirut-Damascus Highway these days, there's a common greeting that has become a kind of local tradition as the drivers pull into their Damascus area destinations.
Turkey have sent its troops across the Syrian border and advanced 700 meters towards Aleppo, increasing chances of a war with Russia. Russia have previously pledged to defend Kurdish militia in Syria in the event of a Turkish invasion, and so the military advancement by Turkish soldiers into Syria may trigger a larger war between the two countries. “Russia will respond to the invasion. It goes about not only the Kurds – Russia will defend the territorial integrity of Syria,” the head of the Syrian Kurdistan in Moscow, Rodi Osman, told Bloomberg back in February.
Authorities in Aleppo have reportedly seized a truck transporting 25 tons of medical supplies from Turkey for ISIS terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. Syrian security forces confiscated the truck that belonged to the Turkish al-Yaman medical company as it was carrying $100,000 worth supplies in the northwestern Syrian province of Aleppo.
Turkey shelled Syria for a fourth consecutive day on Tuesday as Ankara steps up efforts to bolster rebels in the face of an advance by the Kurdish YPG. “As many as 150 terrorists were killed during the 4-day-long shelling targeting PYD points,” the pro-government Yeni Safak wrote today, adding that “the PYD, backed by both the US and Russia, is working with President Bashar al-Assad to control areas along the Turkish border.”
Tomorrow, John Kerry will meet Sergei Lavrov and several of his other counterparts from Europe and the Mid-East in Munich in a last ditch effort to revive Syrian peace talks, which fell apart amid an intense Russian air assault on rebel positions in Aleppo.