BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin met Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, the Russian leader's second trip to Syria since Moscow intervened decisively on the Syrian president's behalf in a civil war. 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic U.S. senators asked President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday to let them know - and to respond with tough sanctions - if reports are true that Turkey is violating a ceasefire agreement in Syria. 
Former secretary of defense James Mattis’s office slammed a former Pentagon aide in reaction to reports about his new memoir coming out next week. 
Washington Free Beacon founding editor Matthew Continetti on Friday said that former secretary of defense James Mattis’s resignation gave Turkey the “green light” for its offensive against the Kurds in Syria.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will set up a dozen observation posts across northeast Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, insisting that a planned "safe zone" will extend much further than U.S. officials said was covered under a fragile ceasefire deal. 
Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) offered a stinging rebuke of the Trump administration's decision to withdraw American forces from Syria, telling his colleagues on the Senate floor that the move is "a bloodstain in the annals of American history." 
The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence. It's a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values.
—Pete Buttigieg, October 15
Mr. Mayor has a point. For 75 years, from Fulda Gap to the 38th Parallel, the American soldier has been the last line of defense against violence, chaos, and oppression. From Kosovo to Anbar, he has kept a lid on cauldrons of bloodlust. Remove him, and the poison boils over. 
ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday he had reached a deal with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for a ceasefire in northern Syria to end an eight-day-old Turkish offensive against Kurdish-led forces. 
A delegation of senior Trump administration officials will depart for Turkey "as soon as possible" to negotiate a ceasefire following Ankara's bloody offensive into Syria that killed civilians and helped to reinvigorate the ISIS terror group, according to senior administration officials. 
ABC News aired footage claiming to show a Turkish attack on a Syrian border town that was actually from a 2017 video of an American shooting range. 