ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Over 100 Iraqis, who had fled to Syria in the face of the Islamic State (ISIS) attack a decade ago, were repatriated through Kurdistan Region’s main border crossing with Turkey on Thursday.

The primary rebel force that led the lightning offensive against the regime of President Bashar Assad is the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which had ties to al-Qaida. But the leader of the transitional Syrian government -- Mohammad al-Bashir -- has promised to respect the rights "of all people and all sects in Syria."

The Turkish military killed 21 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

While the victory against Bashar Assad’s forces is a triumph, the jihadist-turned-statesman who is now in charge has a lengthy to-do list.

In the past week, the Pentagon has acknowledged that its footprint in Iraq and Syria is bigger than it has claimed for years

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria's new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.

The Arab Spring hit Syria in 2011 as demonstrations broke out against Assad, who responded violently, yielding a multi-sided civil war. Although Syria was never a serious American security interest, the Obama administration leaped into the fray, assuming that it could micro-manage a brutal, multi-sided civil war.

As the US works with its key regional partners like Iraq, there is particular focus on ensuring that “any interim government also makes sure that Syria is not used as a base for terrorism ...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised Friday to work with Iraq to ensure no resurgence of the Islamic State group after Bashar al-Assad's overthrow in neighbouring Syria.The Islamic State group (IS) overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014,

The announcement comes after Kurdish groups said they had launched a counteroffensive against Turkish forces that entered Syria and taken territory

Blinken said he spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani about the situation in Syria after the Assad regime's fall.