Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck Iranian and Syrian military installations after militants placed improvised explosive devices near the Israeli border, an IDF statement said Wednesday. 
Two senior al Qaeda operatives were reportedly killed in an American drone strike in Syria’s Idlib Governorate on Thursday.
Military officials announced a slight uptick in American troop presence in Syria as a bulwark against increasing Russian aggression and revitalized signs from ISIS in the region, the New York Times reported Friday.
Online retailer Amazon has agreed to pay the U.S. government $134, 523 for violating sanctions on Iran, Syria, and Crimea, according to the Treasury Department. 
The Trump administration issued on Wednesday wide-ranging new sanctions on Syrian president Bashar al Assad, a message to international companies that if they work with Assad’s regime they face crippling U.S. penalties, according to senior U.S. officials. 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday stepped up warnings to Russia over its Syria policy, saying Moscow was trying to challenge the U.S. presence in northeastern Syria by violating the terms of a de-confliction agreement and was also helping escalate the fighting in the northwestern province of Idlib. 
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.
