The Takeaway: December 11, 2019
![Smoke rises from an oil field in Al-Rmelan, Qamshli province November 11, 2013. With a string of military gains across northeastern Syria, a Kurdish militia is solidifying a geographic and political presence in the war-torn country, posing a dilemma for regional powers. Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain the kind of autonomy enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighbouring Iraq. Picture taken November 11, 2013. REUT](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2019/12/RTX15AJL.jpg/RTX15AJL.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=V3jxCcFY)
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