Turkey removes pro-Kurdish mayors from office

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is responsible for a car bomb attack on a bus in the central city of Kayseri that killed 13 people and wounded 55 more, almost all of them soldiers.

Despite objections from Iraq and other nations, Kurds are pressing ahead with their referendum.

Bafel Talabani – the son of late Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani – blasted the decision of the Kurdish leadership to go ahead with a referendum on independence, calling it a "colossal mistake".

Speaking on a military plane en route to Cairo, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that as offensive operations against Islamic State in Syria entered their final stages, he expected the focus to move towards holding territory instead of arming Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Thousands of Kurds gathered in Syria's Afrin to mourn fighters and civilians killed in a Turkish assault on the region.

Militants loyal to the Syrian government have entered the outskirts of Afrin to defend the enclave against Turkish forces. Syrian state media later reported Turkey had fired artillery on the position.

The long and gruesome war that the Kurds have waged against the Islamic State (IS) group has not only left thousands dead but also produced many prisoners. For the first time, a TV crew has been allowed inside the Kurdish courts, where judges following Kurdish laws try the jihadists behind some of the atrocities perpetrated against Syrian civilians and the Yazidi community.

Three members of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) have been relieved of their positions in three eastern provinces. It's the latest crackdown by Erdogan's government on the opposition.

Photographer Sebastian Meyer on looking at Kurdish life through the lens

Film show: 'Sisters in Arms' depicts Kurdish-led female brigades fighting IS group

Turkish forces said one soldier has been killed and another injured by the YPG in northern Syria, threatening a fragile cease-fire. President Erdogan said Turkey would "crush the heads of terrorists" who don't withdraw.

Kurdish fighters and civilians have begun evacuating from the besieged Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn as part of a US-brokered deal with Turkey. But their exit still leaves the longer-term fate of the deal in question.