• Manu Brabo / AP

    A boy runs as he holds a Kurdish flag in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, on Wednesday. The U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed since Syria's civil war started in March 2011.

    A Kurdish flag in the streets of Syrian city, as a nation struggles

    The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

    Officials in the United States and Europe have said the Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully vetted fighters opposed to Syrian President Basher Assad, and Kerry's comments indicated that the Americans are working to make sure that its aid doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Continue reading.

    --The Associated Press

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

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  • Funerals held for 35 civilians killed in Turkish air strikes

    Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images

    Kurds carry the coffins of victims of a Turkish air raid, outside Uludere Hospital in Uludere, Sirnak province, on Dec. 30. The weeping mourners accompanied the coffins to the cemetery in Gulyazi village, near the Iraqi border, from the nearby town of Uludere where a service was held at the mosque.

    Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images

    Women mourn for victims of a Turkish air raid, at the cemetery of Gulyazi Village, Sirnak province, near the Iraqi border, on Dec. 30. Thousands of Kurds buried 35 civilians killed in a Turkish air raid and branded Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a murderer.

     AP reports:

    Thousands of mourners gathered in southeast Turkey on Friday for the funerals of 35 Kurdish civilians who were killed in a botched raid by Turkish military jets that mistook the group for Kurdish rebels based in Iraq.

    Turkish television footage showed people, many weeping and lamenting the dead, as they gathered after the air strikes Wednesday that killed a group of smugglers along the border, one of the deadliest episodes in the conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish rebels who took up arms in 1984. Continue reading...

  • Airstrikes kill 35 Kurds in Turkey, protests ensue

    Turkish warplanes launched airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militants in northern Iraq near the Turkish border overnight, the military said on Thursday, but local officials said the attack killed 35 smugglers who were mistaken for guerrillas. 

    Reuters

    Locals carry a victim killed in airstrikes to the morgue of a hospital in Uludere, Sirnak province on Thursday, Dec. 29. Turkish warplanes launched airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militants in northern Iraq near the Turkish border overnight, the military said on Thursday, but local officials said the attack killed 35 smugglers who were mistaken for guerrillas. The Turkish military confirmed it had launched the strikes after unmanned drones spotted suspected rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but said there were no civilians in the area and it was investigating the incident.

    Reuters

    Locals gather around bodies of people who were killed in airstrikes in Ortasu village near the southeastern Turkish town of Sirnak on Thursday, Dec. 29.

    The attack, which Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish party called a "crime against humanity," sparked clashes between hundreds of stone-throwing protesters and police in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's restive mainly Kurdish southeast.

    Mustafa Ozer / AFP - Getty Images

    Pro-Kurdish demonstrators gesture and chant slogans during a protest in Istanbul on Dec. 29, against the Turkish government and the Turkish airstrike which killed 35 in southeast Turkey.

    Tolga Bozoglu / EPA

    Pro Kurdish demonstrators clash with riot police during a demonstration, in Istanbul, Turkey on Dec. 29.

     Continue reading the full story...

    

  • Turkey mourns the loss of 24 soldiers killed in recent Kurdish conflict

    Umit Bektas / Reuters

    The Turkish honour guard carry the flag-draped coffin of Turkish soldier Yunus Yilmaz during a funeral ceremony at Kocatepe mosque in Ankara, Oct. 20. Turkish commandos have launched air-backed ground operations against Kurdish militants in five different areas in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq after guerrillas attacked Turkish forces on Wednesday in which 24 Turkish soldiers were killed.

    Evrim Aydin / Anadolu Agnecy via EPA

    Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, right, father of Turkish soldier Yunus Yilmaz, Hasan Yilmaz, second from right, and President Abdullah Gul, third from right, pray during the soldier's funeral ceremony at Kocatepe mosque in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 20.

    Adem Altan / AFP - Getty Images

    Hasan Yilmaz, second from left, father of Turkish soldier Yunus Yilmaz, and other relatives watch the Turkish honour guard carry the portrait of Yilmaz during a funeral ceremony at Kocatepe mosque in Ankara Oct. 20. Turkey paid its last respects to 24 soldiers killed by Kurdish rebels on the Iraq border as the Turkish air force pounded rebel camps in northern Iraq.

    Murad Sezer / Reuters

    High school students, wearing headbands that read "Martyrs never die, the homeland cannot be separated," shout nationalist slogans during a protest against recent attacks on Turkish military, in Istanbul Oct. 20.

     Full story.

  • Kurds celebrate ancient Persian festival in Turkey

    Reuters

    Demonstrators gather around a bonfire to celebrate Newroz in Ankara, March 21. The Newroz has traditionally been used as an opportunity to highlight separatist demands by Kurdish rebels and police had to intensify security against possible violence as tensions run high ahead of nationwide general elections. Newroz, the Farsi-language word for "new year", is an ancient Persian festival, celebrated on the first day of spring in Central Asian republics, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran.

    AP

    A Turkish Kurd jumps over a bonfire as people gather to celebrate the Newroz in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, March 20.