SYRIANS FLEE ALEPPO AMID FIGHTING
Up to 70,000 Syrians may be heading north to Turkey as a consequence of heavy fighting near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the figure was more likely around 40,000. “Now 10,000 new refugees are waiting in front of the door of Kilis (Turkey’s border town) because of air bombardment and attacks against Aleppo,” the BBC quotes Davutoglu as saying.
- Saudi Arabia, an enemy of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, may be preparing to send ground troops to fight ISIS in Syria in coordination with Turkey, The Guardian reports.
- The Financial Times warns that Europe’s Mediterranean ports are vulnerable because ships are free to sail without any oversight. According to the newspaper, 540 cargo ships entered European waters after “suspiciously” sailing through “the territorial waters of terrorist hotspots Syria and Libya.”
- A report in The New York Times shows that thousands of Iraqi refugees are returning home, disappointed with a life in Europe that’s “was not what we were expecting.”
