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Ethnic groups in Syria

A semicircle of Kurdish female fighters of the Women's Protection Unit (YPJ) gesturing V for Victory symbols in the Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2018.

Who are the Kurds?

Conflict

Following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will pull out of northeast Syria, the Kurds, an ethnic group split across four countries, could face an attack by Turkey. They’ve been fighting for autonomy for a century.

women stand in a row, chanting and clapping their hands

Syrian Kurds left behind as Trump pulls out US troops

Islamic State has expanded its propaganda program into English language radio

Thanks for listening to ISIS radio in English

Conflict
The view across the Kawar Gosk refugee camp for Syrian refugees in Northern Iraq.

Refugees who have escaped ISIS will soon have to battle winter weather

Conflict
A Syrian woman holding her infant waits near an informal border crossing to go back to Kobane, Syria, despite ongoing clashes between ISIS and Kurdish fighters. Many Syrian Kurds are finding Turkey expensive and inhospitable.

Kurds threaten dark days for Turkey if Kobane falls

Conflict
Kurdish protesters set fire to a barricade blocking the street as they clash with riot police in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on October 7, 2014.

‘The Kurds have no friends but the mountains’

Conflict

With Kurdish fighters in the city of Kobane trapped between ISIS attacks and Turkish indifference, anger inside Turkey is building. Nineteen Kurdish protesters were killed overnight, and it looks like Kobane may still surrender to ISIS despite US airstrikes.

Kobane sits right on the border with Turkey

US airstrikes are ‘not enough’ to save a besieged Syrian city from ISIS

Conflict

The US and its allies have stepped up their airstrikes around the besieged Syrian city of Kobane. But officials in the city say they are ‘not enough’ to save the city from the Islamic State. Catherine James of Britain’s Guardian newspaper is just across the frontier from Kobane, in Turkey.

Baby hyenas

A zoo finally figures out why it failed to get two spotted hyenas to mate

Global Scan

One of the most important things zoos do is ensure the continued viability of a species. So a Japanese zoo took very seriously its efforts to get its pair of hyenas to mate. But it was foiled by nature. Both hyenas were male and that, surprisingly, wasn’t obvious. Meanwhile in Dubai, the city police plan to outfit officers with pairs of Google glass to help them catch criminals. And in Syria, ISIS makes a big gain, all in today’s Global Scan.

Turkish tanks taking up position on the Turkish-Syrian border on September 29, 2014, after stray fire landed on Turkish territory. Turkey is concentrating forces along the border ahead of a parliamentary debate on authorizing military intervention in Syri

Turkey prepares to make a military move into Syria, but NATO needs convincing

Conflict

The Turkish government has asked parliament to authorize military action in Syria and Iraq, hoping to provide safe spaces for Kurds and keeping them on their side of the Turkey-Syria border. But Turkey’s NATO allies aren’t convinced the intervention is a good idea.

Scores of Syrian refugees from Kobane - under threat of capture by Islamic State - sit in the sun waiting to be allowed to cross into Turkey. Sept. 26, 2014. The outskirts of the village are visible in the background.

Turkey’s Kurds are outraged that they’re being prevented from fighting ISIS in Syria

Conflict

Turkey has shut its border with Syria, near a Kurdish village at risk of being overrun by ISIS. Turkish Kurds are desperate to cross and help fellow their Kurds in Syria.