Akbar Shahid Ahmed is a foreign affairs reporter at the Washington, D.C. bureau of The Huffington Post. A Yale University grad who grew up in Pakistan, Akbar has previously written for the Yale Daily News, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Generation Progress and, in Pakistan, Newsline magazine, DAWN and The STAR. https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/contributor/akbar-shahid-ahmed/rss en Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Akbar Shahid Ahmed https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2016/02/17/obama-faces-tough-choice-between-turkey-and-kurds https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2016/02/17/obama-faces-tough-choice-between-turkey-and-kurds Turkey’s war against Kurdish insurgents has turned into open hostilities with the Syrian Kurdish minority, judged by Ankara to be connected to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Washington must choose between its NATO ally and its most effective ground force in the battle against ISIS. Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Religious & Ethnic Groups Mon, 01 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Akbar Shahid Ahmed https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2016/02/01/without-political-support-u-s-kurd-alliance-in-jeopardy https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2016/02/01/without-political-support-u-s-kurd-alliance-in-jeopardy Although the United States has been closely courting Syrian Kurds over the past year, increasingly relying on them as a ground force in the battle against ISIS, the fact that the U.S. has tacitly allowed Turkey to bar any Kurdish presence at the table in Geneva may jeopardize the alliance.