The aim is to head off a return to civil conflict that could complicate efforts to curb radical Islamist groups.

Syria's new interim Islamist rulers are struggling ... and you will find before you men who do not know how to retreat and who will not have mercy on those whose hands are stained with the blood ...

Syria’s Kurds will gain their “constitutional ... and you will find before you men who do not know how to retreat and who will not have mercy on those whose hands are stained with the blood ...

Syria’s Kurds will gain their “constitutional ... and you will find before you men who do not know how to retreat and who will not have mercy on those whose hands are stained with the blood ...

Syria's central government has reached a deal ... and you will find before you men who do not know how to retreat and who will not have mercy on those whose hands are stained with the blood ...

Syria’s interim government has reached a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast.