DefenceTalkTurkey on Thursday accused the US State Department of making false claims about rows during a meeting between the top US and Turkish diplomats, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he stood by the account. The NATO allies are at odds over issues including US support for a Syrian Kurdish militia viewed as terrorists […]https://www.defencetalk.com/turkey-says-us-distorted-meeting-but-pompeo-stands-by-it-72251/

DefenceTalkPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel had at the weekend carried out an air strike on Iranian weapons in Syria, a rare public confirmation of such attacks. “Just in the last 36 hours the air force attacked Iranian warehouses containing Iranian weapons in the Damascus international airport,” Netanyahu said at the start of […]https://www.defencetalk.com/netanyahu-confirms-weekend-strike-by-israel-on-iran-target-in-syria-72034/

DefenceTalkTroops from Turkey and the United States launched joint patrols in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Thursday, the Turkish defence minister said, part of a bid to ease tensions between the NATO allies. “The joint patrol in Manbij between Turkish armed forces and the US began today at 3.53pm (1253 GMT),” Defence Minister […]https://www.defencetalk.com/joint-turkey-us-patrols-begin-in-syrias-manbij-71926/

DefenceTalkAir strikes by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group in eastern Syria have killed at least 32 civilians in less than 24 hours, a monitor said Friday. Strikes on the village of Sousa killed 18 civilians including seven children late Thursday and 14 more civilians on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for […]https://www.defencetalk.com/32-civilians-killed-in-coalition-strikes-in-east-syria-monitor-71910/

DefenceTalkMoscow on Monday announced new security measures to protect its military in Syria, including supplying the Syrian army with an S-300 air defence system and jamming radars of nearby warplanes following the downing of a Russian plane last week. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said President Vladimir Putin ordered additional security measures after a Syrian Soviet-era […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-boosts-syrian-air-defence-after-plane-shot-down-71878/

DefenceTalkMore than 3,000 civilians have been killed in US-led coalition air strikes against the Daesh group in Syria since they began four years ago, a monitor said on Sunday. The Washington-led alliance puts the toll at just over 1,000 civilians in both Syria and neighboring Iraq, and says it does all it can to prevent […]https://www.defencetalk.com/four-years-of-coalition-strikes-on-syria-kill-3300-civilians-monitor-71864/

DefenceTalkDutch F-16 fighter jets will end bombing missions against Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria at the end of the year, the Netherlands government said Friday. “Cabinet has decided not to prolong the use of F-16’s in the fight against Islamic State past Dec. 31,” the Dutch cabinet said in a statement. Four Dutch F-16s […]https://www.defencetalk.com/dutch-soon-to-pull-fighter-jets-striking-is-targets-71854/

DefenceTalkRussian warplanes battered Syria’s rebel-controlled Idlib on Tuesday for the first time in three weeks, a war monitor said, as expectations mount of a government offensive in the northwestern province. Regime ally Moscow and rebel backer Ankara have held several rounds of talks aimed at averting an assault, but government troops have been massing near […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russian-air-strikes-batter-syrias-idlib-monitor-71833/

DefenceTalkPENTAGON: The United States maintains a base in southern Syria that limits Iranian forces’ ability to move through Syria’s al-Tanf border crossing, U.S. officials and experts tell VOA. “Our mere presence there accomplishes that, whether it’s a goal or not,” Army Maj. Josh Jacques, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said. The base was […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-base-in-southern-syria-sends-signal-to-iran-71766/

DefenceTalkIsrael shot down a Syrian fighter jet with surface-to-air missiles Tuesday after the plane infiltrated airspace it controls, the military said, in a rare incident that could provoke tensions. Israel signalled that the plane’s infiltration may have been the result of internal fighting in Syria’s civil war, but stressed it would enforce the ceasefire lines […]https://www.defencetalk.com/israel-says-shoots-down-syrian-warplane-71758/