A major battle to liberate the Islamic State group's stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria is looming, with U.S. officials looking to build on momentum from victories on the battlefields of Mosul in Iraq. The Pentagon has drawn up a secret plan to do that, likely leaning on local allies with stepped-up American support.

The question is: who are those local allies in the tangled mess that is Syria's conflict?

For 17 years in the hot green jungles of Colombia, a gun has been Emiro Suarez's constant companion.

It has made him feel safe. Now, like thousands of other FARC rebel fighters, he must learn to live without the reassuring feel of it in his hand.

Worried over Turkish advances in Syria's north, the Damascus regime has formed an alliance of convenience with the country's Kurds to prevent their common enemy from gaining ground.

Since the start of Syria's war in 2011, several diplomatic initiatives have stumbled over the future of President Bashar al-Assad. Here is a recap:

- End of Arab solutions - In January 2012, two months after an initial bid to end the violence, leading Arab diplomats adopt a fresh plan that would transfer power from Assad to a coalition cabinet. The Damascus government rejects the proposal and vows to crush rebel movements.

U.S. President Donald Trump broke with decades of international consensus this week when he said a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may not be the only answer.

Donald Trump held a joint news conference Wednesday with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at which the U.S. president backed away from Washington's quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Here are key quotes from both leaders:

As Syria's war approaches its seventh year, two new rounds of talks on resolving the conflict are scheduled to take place in Astana and Geneva.

New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco: the cities are many and so are the anti-Trump protests.

Since the US president's inauguration, daily life in multiple metropolitan centers has been carried out with the knowledge that at any moment -- and on weekends in particular -- demonstrations are unfurling in the streets below.

President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries has put a spotlight on those immigrant communities across the country.

The U.S. has taken in nearly 270,000 immigrants and refugees from the affected countries since 2007, according to an analysis of U.S. State Department data by The Associated Press.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have dealt another blow to the faltering Syrian rebel movement, regaining control of a strategic area near Damascus at the weekend.

The capture of the Wadi Barada area is another setback for rebels after the loss of the second city of Aleppo in December, the biggest blow to the opposition since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.