Nytimes.com | By Peter Baker, Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper

President Trump said in a nationally televised address that American forces targeted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State, in an operation in Syria this weekend.

Nytimes.com | It’s certainly special for Erdogan, Putin and al-Assad.

The Times | By Anthony Loyd | October 24 2019

Most guards have been called away in the face of Turkey’s invasion, writes Anthony Loyd

nybooks.com | Bye Peter W. Galbraith | October 24, 2019

The full consequences of President Trump’s decision on October 6 to withdraw American troops and give Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a green light to invade northeast Syria are not yet clear. Erdoğan claimed that he wanted to create a twenty-mile buffer zone in which perhaps one million Syrian refugees living in Turkey could be resettled, but he may have had the ambition of turning all of northeast Syria over to the Islamists whom Turkey had sponsored in western Syria during the country’s civil war and who were largely defeated there.

The Times | By Tom Parfitt (Moscow), and Hannah Lucinda Smith (Istanbul) | October 23, 2019

The leaders of Russia and Turkey have agreed to enforce the removal of Kurdish fighters from northeastern Syria and conduct joint patrols, in a deal that secured Moscow’s dominance in the region.

independent.co.uk  | By Slavoj Zizek | 22/10/2019

Must they sacrifice themselves on the altar of anti-imperialist solidarity? While the sovereign states around them are gradually sinking into a new barbarism, Kurds are the only glimmer of hope

CNN.com | "This article was written by the wife of a Special Operations soldier, who has served throughout the Middle East. CNN is not revealing her identity at her request. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion at CNN."

nytimes.com | By Ben Hubbard | Oct. 20, 2019

Mazlum Kobani, whose Kurdish-led force fought the Islamic State in Syria, fears that a complete United States withdrawal could endanger his people and allow the jihadists to regroup

Nytimes.com | By Ian Buruma

The sudden decision to pull about 1,000 American troops out of northern Syria, and leave Kurdish allies in the lurch after they did so much to fight off the Islamic State, has already had terrible consequences. The Kurds have been forced to make a deal with the murderous regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, hoping it will protect them against being massacred by incoming Turkish troops who regard them as mortal enemies. Russia and Iran, without whose support Mr. Assad’s government would not have survived, are quick to benefit from America’s sudden retreat. Violence in an already ghastly Syrian civil war could get a great deal worse.