Russia threatens retaliatory strikes against U.S. troops and their allies in Syria

Russia on Thursday raised the threat of a direct confrontation with U.S. forces in ­Syria, saying that it would target areas occupied by American units and U.S.-backed militias if its troops came under fire.
The warning was issued amid rising tensions in the Syrian desert between the United States and its Kurdish and Arab allies on the one hand, and Russia, the Syrian regime and Iranian-backed militias on the other, as both converge on territory held by the Islamic State in eastern Syria.
A Russian military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, had twice in recent days shelled Syrian government positions outside Deir al-Zour, a strategic city in the region.

Syrian Kurds vote as part of move toward federal system

Thousands were voting Friday in the predominantly Kurdish regions in northern Syria to elect heads of local communities as part of the minority Kurds' efforts to move closer to a federal system within Syria.
The vote comes days before Iraqi Kurds are to vote on their independence from Baghdad but the two elections are not related.
The vote in Syria is likely to anger Turkey, which has been concerned about increasing Kurdish power in northern Syria since the country's crisis began in 2011. Turkey considers the Kurdish forces a terrorist organization, linked to its home-grown Kurdish insurgency.
The Syrian government hasn't commented on the Kurdish vote but Kurdish officials see it as a step toward enshrining their project of a decentralized system — one they say hasn't faced the same objections as the Iraqi vote.
The elections are backed by the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, the country's most powerful Kurdish group and opposed by other smaller factions in the region who object to setting up an autonomous region.

US opposes elections in Syria's Kurdish enclaves

The United States explained that it does not support Kurdish independence in the greater region, as the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria, also known as Rojava, has elections scheduled for Friday.

Turkey starts to deploy troops to northern Syrian province

Turkey has stepped up the deployment of troops to a northern Syrian province dominated by a jihadist group, deepening both its military involvement in the conflict and its co-operation with Russia, according to two Turkish officials.
Troops with artillery and earthmoving equipment used to set up temporary bases started crossing into a buffer zone on the border between Turkey and Syria this week, according to one official.
The move is part of Ankara’s efforts to enforce a de-escalation agreement in Idlib, a rebel-held northern province controlled by an al-Qaeda offshoot, that was part of a deal brokered between Turkey, Russia and Iran.

Barzani on the Kurdish referendum: 'We refuse to be subordinates'

Iraq’s Kurdish leader, Masoud Barzani, is on the edge of defying overwhelming international opposition to take the Kurds to a landmark referendum he says will end the region’s role in a broken, sectarian Iraq, and pave the way to independence.
Speaking days before the ballot, scheduled for Monday, Barzani said the majority of the global community had underestimated the determination of the Kurds. It had also, he claimed, made a miscalculation in believing that his intention to hold the ballot was a “pressure card” designed to draw concessions, rather than a tangible first step towards a long-held goal of sovereignty.

U.S., NATO still trying to map out Afghanistan strategy

Even though President Trump announced his strategy for the war in Afghanistan in August, the Pentagon and NATO are still trying to map their way forward in the nearly 16-year-old conflict, according to U.S. officials.

Trump Could Be Guilty of War Crimes After an American Bomb Killed Yemeni Children

A bomb made and supplied by the United States was used in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike that killed 16 civilians, including seven children, in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, on August 25, Amnesty International revealed on Thursday.
The bombing of residential buildings, which horrified much of the Arab world even before the link to the U.S., was due to a "technical mistake," said the Saudi government, which is fighting Iran-backed rebels in a larger Saudi-Iran battle for control of the Gulf region.
The human rights group is calling on the U.S. government to immediately cease selling arms to Saudi Arabia.