Turkey analyst Aaron Stein offers this insight into the situation in northern Aleppo province, as Syrian rebel fighters say that Turkey is bringing reinforcements and weapons across its border to reinforce rebel ranks as they battle Syrian Kurdish forces.
Turkish forces facilitating Syria rebel reinforcements, rebels say
Syrian rebels have brought at least 2,000 reinforcements through Turkey over the past week told boost their fight against Kurdish-led militias in northern Syria, rebel sources told Reuters today.
Turkish forces facilitated the transfer from one front to another over several nights, covertly escorting rebels as they exited Syria's Idlib [province], travelled four hours across Turkey, and re-entered Syria to support the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said.
"We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment, mortars and missiles and our tanks," Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salama, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity.
YPG denies that alleged Ankara bomb perpetrator belonged to its ranks
A YPG spokesman has denied that the individual Turkey says was responsible for yesterday's deadly bombing in Ankara belonged to the group.
Turkey said that a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants in Turkey was responsible for the attack and named the bomber as Salih Necar, a Syrian national and member of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
But the YPG say that they have never heard of Necar and that forged Syrian passports are "everywhere" and they cannot be blamed for the bombing.
More from the Syrian Kurdish YPG spokesman on the Ankara bombing.
Turkey has blamed the YPG for the deadly bombing in Ankara yesterday but the YPG and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have refuted the accusations and condemned the bombing.
Official YPG statement in English on Ankara bombing
Kurdish forces say IS used chemical shells
IS militants recently fired mortar shells filled with a chemical substance, possibly chlorine, at Kurdish Peshmerga militiamen near the Iraqi town of Sinjar, a Kurdish officer and a medical official have said, AP reports.
Nine Kurdish soldiers, known as Peshmerga, were admitted to Azadi Teaching Hospital in the city of Dohuk last Friday with symptoms including vomiting, nausea, shortness of breath and itching, the director of the hospital, Dr. Afrasiab Mussa Yones, told The Associated Press.
He said that the symptoms suggested that chlorine had been used, but that further analysis was needed. Yones said he would send samples taken from the soldiers' clothes for analysis.
MSF President calls Syria a 'kill box'
Dr Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has called Syria a "kill box" and said that deliberate attacks against civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, are "now routine."
Liu's full statement, made in the wake of a deadly airstrike on a MSF-supported hospital in Syria's Idlib province earlier this week, is here. Here are some excerpts.
Today in Syria, the abnormal is now normal. The unacceptable is accepted.
Relentless, brutal, and targeted attacks on civilians are the dominant feature of this war. In addition to the countless numbers of dead, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing for their lives. Many of them trapped, and denied the fundamental right to flight.
Deliberate attacks against civilian infrastructure, including hospitals struggling to provide lifesaving assistance, are routine.
Healthcare in Syria is in the crosshair of bombs and missiles. It has collapsed.
Let me be clear: attacks on civilians and hospitals must stop. The normalisation of such attacks is intolerable.
The latest attack came just three days ago, on 15 February, in Maraat al-Numan, Idlib Province. At 9:00 a.m., airstrikes destroyed a hospital supported by MSF. At least 25 people were killed, among them nine medical personnel and 16 patients. Ten others were wounded.
According to accounts from medical staff onsite, four missiles struck the hospital in an attack lasting about two minutes. Forty minutes later, after rescuers arrived, the site was bombed again.
These secondary strikes- in military jargon – known as “double taps” – that target rescue and medical personnel trying to save the injured are outrageous.
Swedish teen arrested in Austria found guilty of planning to join IS
A 17-year-old Swedish girl arrested in Austria has been found guilty of planning to join IS militants, TheLocal.se reports.
The teenager has been sentenced to 12 months in prison in Vienna but told that she will not have to serve any more time in jail because she has been remanded in custody since her arrest in December.
The girl's mobile phone records formed a core part of the evidence given at the trial. They included messages such as "but if they cannot be converted, they must be killed" and texts in which she expressed happiness about the Paris terror attacks in November 2015.
[IS] propaganda photos were also discovered, including images of beheadings.
IS Twitter reach 'declining' report says
The IS group's English-language reach on Twitter has stalled in recent months, according to a new report from George Washington University's Program on Extremism.
Accounts being suspended by the social network have limited the group's growth and in some cases devastated the viral reach of users, the report claims.