Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed Ankara's planned military operation in northern Syria and the war in Ukraine with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

In recent days Erdogan has said Turkey will launch a cross-border incursion against Kurdish militants in Syria to create a 30-kilometer (19-mile) deep buffer zone. He told Putin in a phone call that the frontier zone was agreed in 2019 but had not been implemented, the Turkish presidency said on Monday.

Ankara carried out an operation against the People's Protection Units, or YPG, in October 2019. Russia, the Syrian regime and the United States also have troops in the border region.

U.S. President Joe Biden has renewed calls for the safe return of American Journalist Austin Tice who went missing in Syria over a decade ago.

On Wednesday Biden urged leaders in Damascus to help secure the repatriation of Tice as pressure continues to increase on the White House by families of hostages and detainees, Reuters reported.

Biden said that the U.S. government knows now "with certainty" that the U.S. journalist has been held by the Syrian government and called on the Syrian government to release him after 10 years in captivity, CNN reported.

Biden said, "We know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime." The president said, "We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home."

Biden urged movement on the case for Tice's family, saying, "On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, I am calling on Syria to end this and help us bring him home." He said, "Tice family deserves answers, and more importantly, they deserve to be swiftly reunited with Austin."
 
According to CNN, the Syrian government and leader Bashar al-Assad, have not publicly acknowledged that Tice is being detained there.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday, "Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens will continue to engage with the Syrian government in close coordination with the White House, Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, and our team here at the State Department."

Carstens secretly traveled to Damascus to meet with government officials there in 2020 while under then president Donald Trump. Then in May, he met with a top Lebanese security official in Washington to "discuss US citizens who are missing or detained in Syria." 

A top priority for the Tice family and U.S. officials is to continue to engage with the Syrian government and keep that engagement sustained.

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors in the rubble in cities and towns across the area. At least 234 were killed and hundreds injured, and the toll was expected to rise.

On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night, as buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued.

Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of their homes in multiple cities, working through tangles of metal and chunks of concrete.

In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. "I don't have the strength anymore," one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble, as rescue workers tried to reach him, said the resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus. Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.

On the Syrian side of the border, the quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country's long civil war. Many of them live in decrepit conditions with little health care, with Russian-backed Syrian forces surrounding the area and sometimes carrying out airstrikes. Rescue workers said hospitals in the area were packed.

"We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds," Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh, referring to the entire rebel-held area. Raed Salah, the head of the White Helmets, the emergency organization in opposition areas, said whole neighborhoods were collapsed in some areas.

The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, was centered about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border, just north of the city of Gaziantep, a major Turkish provincial capital of more than 2 million people. The region has been shaped by more than a decade of war in Syria. Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The swath of Syria affected by the quake is divided between government-held and opposition-held areas.

At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that "search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched" to the areas hit by the quake.

"We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage," he wrote.

Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management agency said at least 76 people in seven Turkish provinces. The agency said 440 people were injured. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 111 with at least 516 injured, according to Syrian state media. Earlier, 47 people were reported killed in rebel-held areas.

Buildings were reported collapsed in a swath from Syria's cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey's Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles to the northeast.

In Turkey, people trying to leave the quake-stricken regions caused traffic jams, hampering efforts of emergency teams trying to reach the affected areas. Authorities urged residents not to take to the roads. Mosques around the region were being opened up as a shelter for people unable to return to damaged homes amid temperatures that hovered around freezing.

In Diyarbakir, rescue teams called for silence as they tried to listen for survivors under the wreckage of an 11-story building. Rescue workers pulled out one man, carrying him on a stretcher through a dense crowd of hundreds of people anxiously watching the rescue efforts. A gray-haired woman wailed before being escorted away by a man, while a rescue worker wearing a white helmet tried to calm a crying girl, who was also being cuddled by two friends.

In northwest Syria, the opposition's Syrian Civil Defense described the situation in the rebel-held region as "disastrous" adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble. The civil defense urged people to evacuate buildings to gather in open areas. Emergency rooms were full of injured, said Amjad Rass, president of the Syrian American Medical Society.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep. It was centered 11 miles deep.

In Damascus, buildings shook and many people went down to the streets in fear.

The quake jolted residents in Lebanon from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings.

The earthquake came as the Middle East is experiencing a snowstorm that is expected to continue until Thursday.

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.

Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.

___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Related video above: How long can people survive in earthquake rubble?

The death toll from the catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria rose to more than 15,000 as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed homes in the stricken zone, Turkey's disaster management agency said Thursday.

The agency said 12,391 people had been confirmed killed in Turkey after Monday's early morning earthquake and series of aftershocks, which brought down thousands of buildings in southeastern Turkey.

On the other side of the border in Syria, another 2,902 people have been reported to have been killed.

Rescue workers continued to pull living people from the damaged buildings but hope was starting to fade amid freezing temperatures more than three full days since the quake hit.

Video below: Aerials of collapsed buildings in northern Syria after earthquakes

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the especially hard-hit Hatay province on Wednesday, where residents have criticized the government's efforts, saying rescuers were slow to arrive.

Erdogan, who faces a tough battle for reelection in May, reacted to mounting frustration by acknowledging problems with the emergency response to Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake, but said the winter weather had been a factor. The earthquake also destroyed the runway at Hatay's airport, further disrupting the response.

"It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster," Erdogan said. "We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for." He also hit back at critics, saying "dishonorable people" were spreading "lies and slander" about the government's actions.

Teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in the effort. But the scale of destruction from the quake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense and spread over such a wide area that many people were still awaiting help.

Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble or otherwise unable to obtain basic necessities was closing rapidly. At the same time, they said it was too soon to abandon hope.

"The first 72 hours are considered to be critical," said Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England. "The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%."

___

Alsayed reported from Bab al-Hawa, Syria. Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. Associated Press journalists David Rising in Bangkok and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed.

Four U.S. troops were wounded in a helicopter raid in Syria that killed a senior ISIS leader on Thursday night, according to the U.S. military.The U.S. troops, as well as a working dog, were wounded during the raid when there was an "explosion," U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The raid killed Hamza al-Homsi, a senior ISIS leader.Officials told CNN that U.S. forces were "close to" al-Homsi when the explosion happened, killing al-Homsi and wounding the U.S. service members. It is unclear at this point if the explosion was the result of a suicide vest, a booby trap, or something else, two officials said.Three of the service members are in stable condition, according to another military official familiar with the operation, as is the working dog. The fourth service member suffered minor injuries and has returned to duty, the official said.Three of the troops and the dog are currently receiving treatment in a medical facility in Iraq. The U.S. service members may be transported to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for further treatment, according to the two officials.The joint raid was carried out by U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces, said CENTCOM.No Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) troops were injured in the raid, the two officials told CNN.CENTCOM also announced in a tweet that a separate raid on February 10 killed "Ibrahim Al Qahtani, an ISIS official associated with planning ISIS detention center attacks."The raid also "resulted in the seizure of multiple weapons, ammo, and a suicide belt," according to the tweet.Two other ISIS leaders were killed in Syria in October last year, when the U.S. carried out an airstrike in northern Syria. The strike killed Abu 'Ala, ISIS' deputy leader in Syria and one of the terror group's top five leaders, as well as Abu Mu'Ad al-Qahtani, an ISIS leader in charge of prisoner affairs.Another senior ISIS leader, Bilal al-Sudani, was killed just last month in a U.S. military operation in Somalia.

Four U.S. troops were wounded in a raid that left an ISIS leader dead, according to CENTCOM spokesperson Col. Joe Buccino.

Hamza al-Homsi was the target of the raid. Military officials said he oversaw the group's terrorist network in eastern Syria.

Buccino said the four troops and a working dog were wounded when al-Homsi triggered an explosion during the raid.

No other ISIS fighters were killed or captured in Thursday night's raid, Buccino said. However, he noted that a separate raid on the same night resulted in the death of an ISIS assassination cell leader.

No civilians were injured in the operation, according to Buccino.

The U.S. has about 900 troops in northeast Syria. They are operating in areas controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday announced $100 million in disaster relief aid for Turkey and Syria as the countries grapple with the aftermath of a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 46,000 people.

The top U.S. diplomat, who took a helicopter tour Sunday of some of the hardest-hit areas alongside Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, later told reporters at Incirlik Air Base that it was "really hard to put into words" the devastation he saw during the tour but said, "We are here to stand with the people of Turkey and Syria."

The new round of funding includes $50 million under the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Funds for emergency response efforts and an additional $50 million in humanitarian assistance through the State Department and USAID, according to the State Department.

The latest funding brings the total American assistance to $185 million. Private U.S. nongovernmental organizations have already contributed another $66 million to response efforts thus far, according to a fact sheet provided by the State Department.

"Immediately after the earthquake hit, the United States and other countries jumped in," Blinken said.

Efforts to retrieve survivors have been hampered by a cold winter spell across quake-stricken regions, while authorities grapple with the logistical challenges of transporting aid into northwestern Syria amid an acute humanitarian crisis compounded by years of political strife.

Blinken acknowledged that relief efforts in Syria were "very, very challenging" but vowed, "We'll do everything we can, including making sure, for example, there's absolutely no doubt that whatever sanctions against Syria do not affect the provision of humanitarian assistance."

"They never have, but we're going to make sure that we clear up any doubts about that so that anyone who's able to can make sure they're helping out in getting the aid to the folks who need it in Syria," he said.

Blinken also met Sunday with representatives of the Syria Civil Defense volunteer organization, known as the White Helmets, in southern Turkey and committed U.S. support to the group and other organizations "providing life-saving aid in response to this tragedy," he said in a tweet.

The White Helmets have been doing the heavy lifting in the search, rescue and recovery operations in the rebel-controlled areas in north and northwestern Syria.

The group tweeted Sunday that members briefed Blinken on the response to the earthquake and the current situation in northwestern Syria, along with "the humanitarian situation, ways to support affected civilians, and mechanisms for achieving early recovery."

Turkey's disaster management authority said Sunday it had ended most search and rescue operations nearly two weeks after the earthquake struck as experts say the chances of survival for people trapped in the rubble this far into the disaster are unlikely.

Some efforts remain in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş and Hatay. On Saturday, a couple and their 12-year-old child were rescued in Hatay, 296 hours after the earthquake, state news agency Anadolu reported.

Blinken told reporters at Incirlik Air Base that it was "going to take a massive effort to rebuild, but we're committed to supporting Turkey in that effort."

"The most important thing right now is to get assistance to people who need it to get them through the winter and get them back on their feet," he added.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said that ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed during a counterterrorism raid by U.S. special operations forces in northwest Syria, noting that the mission "removed a major terrorism threat from the world."

According to the Pentagon, the forces conducted a "successful" large-scale counterterrorism raid in northwestern Syria.

"Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in the northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place," Biden said in a White House statement. "Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation. I will deliver remarks to the American people later this morning. May God protect our troops."

Residents and activists reported multiple deaths — including civilians — from the attack overnight Thursday. Both CNN and The Associated Press report that 13 people were killed — including six children and four women.

In brief remarks at the White House on Thursday, Biden said that he directed a special operations mission rather than a drone strike. Though the decision put U.S. troops at higher risk, he said military leaders were prioritizing civilian lives, as al-Hashimi had surrounded himself with family members.

Biden added that in a "final act of desperate cowardice," the ISIS leader detonated a bomb as U.S. forces closed in, killing several members of his family.

No U.S. servicemembers were killed in the raid.

"Our forces carried out the operation with their signature precision and preparation," Biden said.

Several residents told The Associated Press they saw body parts scattered near the house that was raided in the village of Atmeh, in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province near the border with Turkey.

They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

CNN spoke to witnesses and rescue workers who said the operation targeted a house in Atmeh, near the Turkish-Syrian border. The area reportedly contains a heavy presence of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham fighters, who were formerly affiliated with al Qaeda.

Thursday's raid took place in the same region where U.S. forces killed former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a raid ordered by then-President Donald Trump.

The death of the ISIS leader comes just a week after ISIS prisoners led a high-profile, days-long siege of a jail in the northwest Syrian city of Hasakah. The raid prompted worldwide concerns of ISIS' return of influence in the region.

U.S. Central Command has launched an investigation after a drone strike against a senior al Qaeda leader in northwest Syria on Friday may have killed civilians, according to a spokesman for Central Command.

The strike in Idlib, Syria, was carried out by an MQ-9 Reaper, targeting a senior al Qaeda leader and planner, Capt. Bill Urban said in a statement. The name of the target was not released, though he said the strike against the leader would disrupt al Qaeda's operations and their ability to plan attacks.

An initial review of the strike indicated the possibility of civilian casualties.

"We abhor the loss of innocent life and take all possible measures to prevent them," Urban said. "The possibility of a civilian casualty was immediately self-reported to U.S. Central Command. We are initiating a full investigation of the allegations and will release the results when appropriate."

In September, the military carried out another strike in northwest Syria targeting a senior al Qaeda leader.

The acknowledgment of potential civilian casualties and the immediate opening of an investigation comes after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a review of a strike in Syria in March 2019, which the Pentagon only recently admitted had killed civilians.

In mid-November, U.S. Central Command acknowledged for the first time that previously undisclosed airstrikes in Syria carried out days before the fall of ISIS in 2019 killed multiple civilians, including women and children.

That disclosure followed the publication of a New York Times investigation into the strikes.

On Nov. 17, Austin told reporters during a news conference that he is "committed to adjusting our policies and our procedures to make sure that we improve," and that he would hold senior leaders responsible for putting those into effect.

Austin said he believes "leaders in this department should be held to account for high standards of conduct and leadership."

"And for my part as secretary of Defense, I have every intent to uphold that standard," Austin added.

But the Defense Department has yet to hold anyone accountable for a drone strike on Aug. 29 in Kabul, Afghanistan, in which 10 civilians, including seven children, were killed. An Air Force review of the strike found that significant errors were made but that there was no violation of law, including the law of war.

There are currently two reviews related to civilian casualties from U.S. military strikes.

The first is a civilian harm study conducted by the RAND Corporation that Congress ordered in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020. The second, also conducted by the RAND Corporation, focuses on civilian casualties in Syria. Austin said that is undergoing a security review.

The United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops.

The airstrike was the first military action undertaken by the Biden administration, which in its first weeks has emphasized its intent to put more focus on the challenges posed by China, even as Mideast threats persist. Biden's decision to attack in Syria did not appear to signal an intention to widen U.S. military involvement in the region but rather to demonstrate a will to defend U.S. troops in Iraq.

“I’m confident in the target that we went after, we know what we hit,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters flying with him from California to Washington. Speaking shortly after the airstrikes, he added, “We’re confident that that target was being used by the same Shia militants that conducted the strikes," referring to a Feb. 15 rocket attack in northern Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition personnel.

Austin said he recommended the action to Biden.

“We said a number of times that we will respond on our timeline,” Austin said. "We wanted to be sure of the connectivity and we wanted to be sure that we had the right targets.”

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. action was a “proportionate military response” taken together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners.

“The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel," Kirby said. "At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to deescalate the overall situation in eastern Syria and Iraq.”

Kirby said the U.S. airstrikes “destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point used by a number of Iranian- backed militant groups," including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada. The U.S. has blamed Kataib Hezbollah for numerous attacks targeting U.S. personnel and interests in Iraq in the past.

Further details were not immediately available.

Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, criticized the U.S. attack as a violation of international law.

“The United Nations Charter makes absolutely clear that the use of military force on the territory of a foreign sovereign state is lawful only in response to an armed attack on the defending state for which the target state is responsible,” she said. “None of those elements is met in the Syria strike.”

Biden administration officials condemned the Feb. 15 rocket attack near the city of Irbil in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region, but as recently as this week officials indicated they had not determined for certain who carried it out. Officials have noted that in the past, Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups have been responsible for numerous rocket attacks that targeted U.S. personnel or facilities in Iraq.

File video: Rocket attack on airport kills 1, injures several

Kirby had said Tuesday that Iraq is in charge of investigating the Feb. 15 attack.

“Right now, we’re not able to give you a certain attribution as to who was behind these attacks, what groups, and I’m not going to get into the tactical details of every bit of weaponry used here," Kirby said. "Let’s let the investigations complete and conclude, and then when we have more to say, we will.”

A little-known Shiite militant group calling itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam, Arabic for Guardians of Blood Brigade, claimed responsibility for the Feb. 15 attack. A week later, a rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone appeared to target the U.S. Embassy compound, but no one was hurt.

Iran this week said it has no links to the Guardians of Blood Brigade.

The frequency of attacks by Shiite militia groups against U.S. targets in Iraq diminished late last year ahead of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, though now Iran is pressing America to return to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal. The U.S. under the previous Trump administration blamed Iran-backed groups for carrying out the attacks. Tensions soared after a Washington-directed drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and powerful Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis last year.

Donald Trump had said the death of a U.S. contractor would be a red line and provoke U.S. escalation in Iraq. The December 2019 killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk sparked a tit-for-tat fight on Iraqi soil that brought the country to the brink of a proxy war.

U.S. forces have been significantly reduced in Iraq to 2,500 personnel and no longer partake in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against the Islamic State group.

When Syrian badminton player Aram Mahmoud fled his home country six years ago, he left everything behind — including his family.

"It was a very difficult decision for my family, for my father and mother, and for me also," Mahmoud said.

But he knew it was the only way to pursue his dream of playing badminton at the highest level. 

"When I left Syria and went to the Netherlands, I found a safe place. And after that, I also started playing the sport I love."

His dream will come true this summer in Tokyo.

Mahmoud is one of 29 refugee athletes selected to compete at the Olympic games under the Olympic flag. 

The team includes a wrestler from Iraq, a cyclist from Afghanistan, and a runner from South Sudan.

"When they announced my name that I was in the team, it was one of the best moments in my life, actually," he said. 

The Olympic refugee team, which first competed five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, is meant to send a message of "solidarity, resilience, and hope" at a time when a record number of people are fleeing war and persecution around the globe.

"I'm very proud, actually, to be able to represent millions of people to make them feel that they can also reach their goal if they believe in themselves," Mahmoud said.

Mahmoud fled Syria alone when he was a teenager amid a civil war. The conflict, which started 10 years ago, has left 500,000 people dead and 13 million displaced.

When he arrived in the Netherlands in 2015, Mahmoud struggled to prove himself.

"I had like two years where I was in Syria, and I couldn't practice. So my level was a bit down," he said.

Due to his refugee status, he was unable to compete internationally for the next three years. But since then, he's wasted no time climbing the world rankings.

"Now I am like No. 2 or 3 in the Netherlands. So it's like it's quite a big improvement for me," Mahmoud said.

Though he's far from a favorite, Mahmoud is ready to make the most of his time in Tokyo.

"It's a very huge me for my family, for my father. They know that I deserve this kind of chance. And I think I will also do my best there. I'm not just going there to participate."

Ben Schamisso at Newsy first reported this story.