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SYRIAN REGIME FORCES advanced in the battleground city of Aleppo today, backed by a Russian air campaign that a monitor said has killed more than 3,800 civilians in the past year.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity accused Syria’s government and its ally Moscow of provoking a “bloodbath” in the city, saying the eastern rebel-held portion had become “a giant kill box”.
Syria’s army was advancing on two Aleppo fronts, as talks between key players Washington and Moscow – which back opposing sides in the war – appeared close to collapse.
Damascus’s bid to recapture all of the divided northern city prompted the UN to warn of “a humanitarian catastrophe”.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced he is setting up an internal board of inquiry to investigate the 19 September bombing of an aid convoy in Syria that killed 18 people.
The UN panel will report to Ban, who will “decide what further steps to take”, a UN statement said.
US officials have said Russian planes attacked the 31-truck convoy bringing aid to a town west of Aleppo. Moscow has denied the accusation.
Just over a week after Syria’s army announced an operation to recapture all Aleppo, it was advancing both in northern and central Aleppo , according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor and state media.
In the north, it recaptured the Handarat former Palestinian refugee camp, as well as the old Kindi hospital, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Rebels had held the hospital since 2013, and capturing it allows government forces to threaten the opposition-held Heluk and Haydariyeh neighbourhoods.
The Observatory said at least 15 people, including two children, were killed in strikes on Heluk and other eastern districts Friday.
Humanitarian catastrophe
In central Aleppo, meanwhile, fierce clashes shook the Suleiman al-Halabi neighbourhood, divided by the frontline separating the rebel-held east and regime-held west.
The army is seeking to capture the opposition-held sector of the district and advance to the main water supply station for the government-controlled part of Aleppo which is in the neighbourhood.
State television said 15 civilians had been killed and 40 wounded by rocket fire into the government-held part of Suleiman al-Halabi and neighbouring Midan district.
Since the army operation began, Damascus and Moscow have pounded east Aleppo with air strikes, barrel bomb attacks and artillery fire, killing at least 216 people, including more than 40 children, according to the Observatory.
The assault has levelled apartment blocks and put hospitals out of service, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in opposition areas besieged for most of the past two months.
It has been some of the worst violence since the March 2011 beginning of Syria’s conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the population.
Outside Damascus, meanwhile, air raids on several rebel-held towns in the Eastern Ghouta region killed at least 17 people including eight children, the Observatory said.
Yesterday, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Washington was “on the verge” of suspending talks with Russia on Syria because of the Aleppo assault.
Moscow, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, began a military campaign to bolster his forces in September 2015 that has so far killed more than 9,300 people, the Britain-based Observatory says.
‘Giant kill box’
That figure includes 3,804 civilians and more than 5,500 jihadists and rebels, it says, adding that at least 20,000 civilians have been wounded.
The Observatory says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
“We do not consider as reliable the information… coming from this organisation, which is based in the United Kingdom,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Kerry’s Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov accused Washington of protecting a jihadist group in its effort to overthrow Assad’s regime.
Lavrov told the BBC that Washington had vowed, under a failed truce deal, to “take as a priority an obligation to separate the opposition” from the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, once known as Al-Nusra Front, but that it had not done so.
“We have more and more reasons to believe that from the very beginning the plan was to spare Nusra and to keep it just in case for Plan B or stage two when it would be time to change the regime,” Lavrov said.
Moscow said yesterday it would continue its campaign, despite Washington’s threat and international concern about Aleppo.
“Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box,” MSF director of operations Xisco Villalonga said in a statement.
“The Syrian government must stop the indiscriminate bombing, and Russia as an indispensable political and military ally of Syria has the responsibility to exert the pressure to stop this,” he said.
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Syrian regime?Don’t they mean Syrian government forces ? The legitimate government of Syria trying to take back their city from Islamic butchers and psychos. It will be far more stable when it is back their control . We only have to look at Libya to see how well letting the rebels run a country works out. War is war and not everyone has precision weapons like the US so of course there will be casualties . The sooner they take it back the less casualties there will be.
GOVT.FORCES ADVANCING IN BUSTAN AL BASHA & SULEIMAN AL-HALABI NEIGHBORHOODS OF ALEPPO
(Current Today 30th Oct 16)
Developing momentum after the recent gains in Aleppo city, the Syrian government forces have launched military operations in the militant-controlled neighbourhoods of Bustan al Basha and Suleiman al-Halabi. Local sources report intense clashes there.
The loyalists have also repelled an attack of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and its allies on the Kindi hospital in northern Aleppo. The army remains in full control of the area. https://goo.gl/4ECYqR
@Mumpsimus:@Mumpsimus:
I’m actually surprised only 3,800 civilians have been killed in Aleppo. When you see the images of the devastation it seems it could be higher. I presume most have fled and the remaining are hiding in the basements. Will anyone return to rebuild when the war ends at this stage? There’s nothing left.
Journey To Aleppo: Exposing The Truth Buried Under NATO Propaganda https://goo.gl/BS8AdV
By Vanessa Beeley
ALEPPO, Syria — Aleppo has become synonymous with destruction and “Syrian state-generated” violence among those whose perception of the situation in the war-torn nation is contained within the prism of mainstream media narratives.
The NATO-aligned media maintains a tight grip on information coming out of this beleaguered city, ensuring that whatever comes out is tailored to meet State Department requirements and advocacy for regime change. The propaganda mill churns out familiar tales of chemical weapons, siege, starvation and bombs targeting civilians–all of which are attributed to the Syrian government and military, with little variation on this theme.
Vanessa Beeley calls Obama a “covert terrorist” and never utters a harsh word about Assad. We’re supposed to swallow that there is absolutely no legitimate opposition to the Assad family dictatorship of 40 years. With a broad brush she says any opposition to Assad is a “terrorist”. she is so one sided. I can find fault on both sides but for her to find fault only with the west and no responsibility on Assad is ridiculous
@Jack Bowden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZRvp6w4wc
@Crimson: Al Nusra / Al Queda are the ‘Rebel opposition’ that control Aleppo.
The US are backing Al Nusra / Al Queda.
According to John Kerry on the recent failed ceasefire….
“Syrian warplanes would be prevented from flying over areas where the legitimate opposition Al Nusra were present”
See for yourself…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZRvp6w4wc
The US seem terrified the the Russians will succeed where they’ve failed. The Russians want to get in and get out, not draw the Syrian conflict out for the next 15 years, and leave the political landscape at least someway resembling the way it did before the whole mess started. The last part is probably unachievable given the unholy mess the US usually leave everywhere the try to install “democracy”. Time will tell if a short brutal engagement will kill less than a long drawn out one but what might come from it is an American understanding that not every civilisation wants or needs “democracy” to function. They USA sometimes remind me of those 19th century missionaries that tried to spread Christianity without any contemplation that what was already there was probably there for a very good reason. To paraphrase The Dude, sometimes the regime really tied the region together.
Exclusive: Aleppo Doctor Attacks Western Media for Bias, Censorship and Lies
“With regards to recent events in Aleppo, I state very clearly that the mainstream media are lying by omission. Since the beginning of the war in Aleppo that began four years ago, they have consistently failed to report all the facts. All of us here in Aleppo are disgusted by their lack of impartiality and objectivity. They only ever talk about the loss of life in the east of Aleppo which is entirely controlled by Al Nusra, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda. These are their “moderate rebels” a title that affords them an unmerited degree of respectability https://goo.gl/wpxMbE
If the US stayed out of it in the first place it would be over long ago.but they want control of Syria.US companies already drilling in Golan heights,robbing resources and being protected by Irish soldiers,on a so called peace mission.
Most Western media fail to highlight the “tale of two cities” playing out between eastern and western Aleppo. The east is occupied by a number of groups backed by the United States, NATO and their allies in the Gulf, like Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Civilians in the government-held area of western Aleppo describe these groups broadly as “terrorists,” often without noting any specific group.
Over 1.5 million civilians live in the government-held areas of western Aleppo, including 600,000 civilians who fled eastern Aleppo in 2012. Of the 200,000 to 220,000 people living in the terrorist-occupied areas in the eastern parts of the city, an estimated 50,000 or more are members of the so-called “rebel” factions and their families, according to the Aleppo Medical Association.
In most Western media reports, little mention is made of this division of Aleppo which was created by the incursion of factions of armed insurgents (or, as the mainstream media and U.S. government call them, “moderate rebels”) which drove hordes of civilians out of the eastern parts of the city into the safety of the Syrian government-held western area. https://goo.gl/BS8AdV
Shooting down a passenger plane, bombing an aid convoy and turning Aleppo into a modern Stalingrad. Yet there are people here who will post ‘but what about the US’ repeatedly to portray them as the centre of all evil and deflect from Putin’s horrible crimes.
All of this could have been avoided if Assad hadn’t resorted to gunning down political protesters to maintain his grip on power. Millions dead and displaced over one man’s ego.
Not a murmur from the Irish anti war movement or Richard Boyd Barrett either. Complete hypocrites!
When did it hit the millions?
@Fear Uisce:
Millions refers to the total number of dead AND displaced.
I think he’s mixing up the amount that have died in American campaigns. Jason people attack the US because it is nauseating to hear any government spokesperson from that country talk about war crimes when they are easily the biggest perpetrators of such crimes in the last half century. They never mention Yemen either, oh yeah they supply the weapons that slaughter civilians there so that’s ok!
@Jason Culligan: How about if the US didn’t bomb Syrian army forces to allow the ISIS and associate death squads get anchored into Aleppo. You truely are naive as to Western regime change methods. They have been at it since the Shah of Iran. The US/Israel/UK/Saudi Wahhabi alliance want their pipeline through Syria and Assad said no. Assad was to me removed using trained and armed religious death cult “moderate rebels”. Assads blockage to commercial opportunity has now resulted in the pulverisation of infrastructure and people of most progressive and secular Arab state. All this has been explained to you. Keep repeated the line from the people who reported the justification for the Iraq invasion. Keep up to date with CNN, BBC and RTE. No other information sources required.
@PaulJ:
No, I was very clear in what I said so I’d appreciate it if you stopped purposely misrepresenting what I say.
As for the weapons being sold to Saudi Arabia, what’s your point exactly? If the US didn’t sell them to Saudi Arabia then someone else would, likely Russia or China. In fact Russian and Chinese weapons end up in far more nefarious hands. Look at the weapons used by ISIS and Al Nursra, mostly Russian and Chinese equipment.
@PaulJ:
The Royal Saudi Air Force aims its air strikes only at Houthi rebels.
Some US personnel have committed crimes in the past but these crimes were neither authorised nor condoned by the US government or by US generals.
I’m sorry Jason you really are deluded, it’s the only word for you. You’re not as bad as that other idiot Ciaran but deluded all the same when it comes to the Yank war machine!
“About the Author: AFP” – And we know who owns AFP who feed our non questioning repeater so called journalists
@Bondage Informer:
Do you have any proof that the US intentionally bombed Syrian positions to allow ISIS forces to advance in the area? Not anecdotal evidence from a blog mind you, cold hard facts to back it up.
It’s blatantly obvious to anyone who doesn’t watch RT that hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets calling for political reform and the SAA’s response was to open fire on them. Civil war was the only logical outcome from such brutal and repressive behaviour.
@PaulJ:
As you can see, I have provided a link to an ITN report about Russia’s use of bunker-busters against civilians.
@Bondage Informer:
AFP was founded by journalists who were members of the French Resistance.
Jason, it took ISIS only a matter of months to seize territory the size of the UK in Iraq and Syria. All while US drones, F16′s and A-10′s supposedly patrolled the skies over them, they not only prospered by selling oil to Turkey but were regularly resupplied in combat by air AND had their injured airlifted to Israeli field hospitals. All well documented since 2013. Anyone with memory retention better than a goldfish can work out what the fk is going on. Those fking lying witches, Samantha Powers, Victoria Nuland, Hitleryvand everyone else doing their bidding are all war criminals marching the US and the rest of us to the last war against Russia. Jason, it took ISIS only a matter of months to seize territory the size of the UK in Iraq and Syria. All while US drones, F16′s and A-10′s supposedly patrolled the skies over them, they not only prospered by selling oil to Turkey but were regularly resupplied in combat by air AND had their injured airlifted to Israeli field hospitals. All well documented since 2013. Anyone with memory retention better than a goldfish can work out what the fk is going on. Those fking lying witches, Samantha Powers, Victoria Nuland, Hitlery and everyone else doing their bidding are all war criminals marching the US and the rest of us to the last war against Russia.
Sry for double paste ..wrote it first on notepad because keypad obstructs when I try.to.post on Journal.
@Bondage Informer:
The bombing of Syrian soldiers in Deir al-Zor, which is in the east of the country and thus far away from Aleppo, was an honest mistake. ISIS was the intended target.
@Chris:
You haven’t got a shred of evidence to back-up the allegations you’ve made against Samantha Power, Victoria Nuland and Hillary.
ISIS was able to seize so much territory because Iraqi soldiers abandoned their own equipment and deserted.
http://www.itv.com/news/2014-06-18/the-fall-of-mosul-a-chronic-failure-of-a-shining-rabble/
@Chris
Furthermore, the Syrian Arab Army’s manpower became depleted because many soldiers rebelled due to what their army was doing to civilians.
Download the leaked UN investigative report on Syria. The 40-page UN investigation was leaked to The Intercept‘s Rania Khalek, and was subsequently put online. America and her allies have maintained the people of Syria are their main concern. Despite the fact, the sanctions placed upon the country have increased the suffering of every Syrian. Medical supplies, food, even energy squeezed beyond breaking point as the Sanctions imposed by the West strangle the lifeblood from the people.
“Even though in theory it should be possible to procure medical equipment, the indirect effects of sanctions, especially the challenges it creates for Syrians to access bank accounts, makes the import of medical instruments and other medical supplies immensely difficult, nearly impossible.” https://goo.gl/gJBp2M
Agreed .. It’s quite amazing how the very mention of the surname Putin seems to trigger an avalanche of ‘ what aboutery’ seeking to excuse him of trying to turn Aleppo into a mini Grozny .
James O’Neill, Australian barrister and international lawyer commented on the issue:“It is a fundamental principle of any kind of criminal investigation that it is done independently of the people who may be said to be involved. And we have had here right at the outset the involvement the Ukrainian police and the security services when Ukraine is clearly one of the prime suspects for being responsible for shooting down the plane.”
“The Dutch-led investigation gave Ukraine – one of the prime suspects – the right to veto anything they did not like in the report. This has not been addressed by the Dutch authorities. One cannot have any confidence in these kinds of secret agreements that were entered into in 2014 and which have been carefully not reported by the Western media ever since.”
http://baz2000.blogspot.com/2015/02/mh17-truth-finally-revealed.html
@Chris: @Chris: “Jason, it took ISIS only a matter of months to seize territory the size of the UK in Iraq and Syria. All while US drones, F16′s and A-10′s supposedly patrolled the skies over them,”
Actually, it took ISIS 25 days to create its caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Between 5th – 25th of June 2014, ISIS defeated the Iraqi army and conquered 1/4 of Iraq. There were no US A-10s or F-16s flying overhead at the time, as the US had withdrawn from Iraq prior to ISIS appearing on the scene. The US started bombing ISIS in Iraq August 2014, helping the Kurds rescue thousands of Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar in north west Iraq.
As for Syria, ISIS didn’t invade Syria directly but under its previous incarnation, Al Qaeda in Iraq, it set up a branch in Syria in April 2013 called Jabhat al Nusra, soon al Nusra controlled most of eastern Syria. On the 29th June 2014, Al Qaeda in Iraq rebranded itself Islamic State and declared a caliphate in Iraq and in Syria. It officially split from Jabhat al Nusra and it inherited Syrian territory previously controlled by that group, which it expelled from its Caliphate.
As for the US coalition campaign against ISIS, it has been quite successful. ISIS has lost 1000 km2 of territory in Syria to US backed Kurdish YPG and SDF militias. The YPG/SDF have made substantial gains against ISIS in the north of Syria, here’s a comparison between Jan 2015 and a the 5th September.
https://i.imgur.com/ETM0ZHi.jpg
ISIS have also been cut off completely from the Turkish border, by Turkish troops and US special forces fighting with the FSA and Turkmen rebels (Mare’ Operations Room and the Free Idlib Army). And the US and Jordan are backing the New Syrian Army, and they have also pushed ISIS back away from the Jordanian border.
As for the Syrian Arab Army and Russia, they were able to retake Palmyra and a few 10s of kms of desert from ISIS west of Aleppo last year, but since then there’s been very little progress.
“We are not in a position to determine whether these were, in fact, airstrikes. We are in a position to say that the convoy was attacked,” UN humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said. The UN spoke of a draft error while referring to the initial term of ‘airstrike.’
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill: About MH17
MH17 did not change course to bring itself over rebel held territory. In addition there were two other passenger planes flying over rebel held territory at the same time, Singapore Airlines Flight SIA351 (a Boeing 777 at 35000 feet) and Air India Flight AIC113 (Boeing 787 at 40000 feet).
MH17 was flying a straight course from GANRA to TAMAK waypoint (Flight SIA351 was also flying towards TAMAK waypoint, it passed right over where MH17 was shot down just minutes later). MH17 was due to change course towards RND waypoint but it was shot down before it changed course. Waypoints are ground based radio beacons that help planes navigate.
Here’s is the Dutch Safety Bords report, look at page 41 and Part B page 168 to 230.
https://wikispooks.com/w/images/9/90/Report-mh17-crash-en.pdf
The allegations that MH17 changed course originated from it having to fly around thunderstorms over central Ukraine half an hour earlier. It resumed its intended course after passing these storms.
The rebel held area it flew over was not restricted to passenger planes, however Ukraine issued a warning (NOTAM) on the 14th of July that planes should fly above 32,000 feet, well above shoulder fired MANPAD anti-aircraft missile range. The Ukrainian authorities were criticised in the Dutch report for not closing the air space entirely, as it was said they should have known the rebels had an advanced missile system (Buk) capable of shooting down aircraft well above MANPAD range, as a AN-26 was shot down using a Buk west of Donetsk on the 14th July at 6000 meters (21,000 feet), and a Sukhoi-25 was also shot down at high altitude by a Buk on the 16th of July.
As for the allegation that an SU-25 was involved in the downing of MH17, this scenario is no longer supported by Russia, who now agree with the Dutch Safety board investigation that MH17 was shot down using a Buk missile. The difference hinges on Russia’s claims, based on one experiment conducted by the maker of the Buk missile system, Almaz-Antey, that the origin of the missile was in Ukrainian controlled territory i.e. the Buk missile exploded at a near 90 degree angle to the flight path of MH17, if so it showered the cockpit with shrapnel extending from the front to the rear of the aircraft.
However, a quick look at the damage pattern shows that the shrapnel damage clearly point to a missile explosion that more head on, and above and to the left of the cockpit, as see this image here…
http://i.imgur.com/jONhIcx.png
This point to an origin in rebel territory, to an area where a Buk was seen, driving south of Snizhne.
David….you dont post often but when you do, you do it extremely well.
@Jason Culligan:
Interesting watch…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8JppJyVxYU
Other photos and videos began to emerge showing that this buk unit was in the possession of the ukrainian army prior to the downing of mh17 . Buk 312 was based in luhansk according to a former crew member photo one is just south of luhansk in march 2014 and photo two is it being redeployed possibly kramatorsk . The crew member was reassigned to kramatorsk shortly after this photo he speaks here i’m not certain if he accompanied 312 in that 8th march convoy travelling {third buk in the line} on or before march 16th. another oversight by bellingcat and western countries is that ukraine army deployed 27 buk systems to the donetsk and luhansk region just prior to the july 17 mh17 shoot down. This is baffling as rebels had no aircraft.see ukrainian army’s now deleted ATO promotional video here
Once these videos and photos were emerging in november and december that shows clearly that prior to mh17 shoot down buk 312 was in the possession of the ukrainian army and was apparently confirmed by the former crew member on buk 312 so the photo posted as the rebels buk is clearly false. The kiev government then claimed that it was ukrainian but that it had been seized by rebels when ukrainian army left it behind because it was non running and was used by the rebels just before the shoot down of mh17 And this is in direct conflict with their earlier statement and so called photographic proof that it was a russian supplied buk.
Their story was once again called into question {except by western governments and bellingcat} when a photo emerged towards the end of the year and apparently taken at the end of july from kramatorsk air base and apparently “verified” by bellingcat which is under ukrainian control showing buk 312 parked on the base and verified by bellingcat {????} .proving that it was not seized by rebels so was not in rebel hands at any time.
In early april 2015 social media users brought to light a short video showing buk 312 and buk 321 being transported by the ukrainian army. When challenged to give an explanation on this video eliot higgins blocked these social media users and he had the video deleted from youtube even though it does not breach the youtube TOS . The most recent upload of this video can be seen here
Below is buk 312 which was at first claimed to be the rebel owed buk being transported back to russia {pic 1} on 17/18th but after the video emerged showing it was known to be owned by the ukraine army and was later photographed at kramatorsk air base however as this blogpost states the night time photo was not taken on the 18th of july but it was in march four months earlier. There was two video made on that night video1 and video2
Unfazed by these new developments that the ukrainian army are blatantly lying pro ukrainians ,western governments and bellingcat claimed that the entire buk 312 story that rebels owned that system in the first place was in fact a russian propaganda exercise despite the fact the ukraine army were the ones who released photos and claimed rebels had control of 312 but now want to distance buk 312 from the entire mh17 situation and are adamant that they have the “real mh17″ buk pinned down.
so in the aftermath of the buk 312 being outed as owned by the ukrainian army pro kiev sources began posting photos of what they claimed was the “real” buk system that the rebels used to shoot it down. A wide range of buk systems were put forward as the “rebel owned” buk such as buk 313,,321,,333,,122,,223,,and a number of other obscure units from russia. Having learnt their lesson on buk312 they appear to have checked that these units could not be traced back to ukrainian army before settling on a conveniently obscure buk that had the number partially painted over
According to bellingcat and the SBU the russian army provided the rebels with a buk anti aircraft missile system and posted a photo purportedly from mid to late june 2014 and have a tag number of 3?2 { i cannot make out tag number from this photo} which the osce did not report crossing any border posts they are monitoring below is the supposed russian supplied buk while it was still in russia there is no known photos of this unit allegedly being in ukraine until bellingcat posts photo from the morning off july 17th.
And according to the ukrainian SBU and stated on web page DELFI it was transported across the russian border around the town of shucodolsk at 1.00 am on july 17th and sent to donetsk. From here it was allegedly sent to >pervomaiskpervomais’kepervomaisk< is a town approx 100 km north east of donetsk.
now it seems that the buk 3?2 is photographed in donetsk by an anonymous AP reporter which was then given to the parismatch reporters alfred m many of the news sites that quoted this AP reporter they don't mention their name this could be put down as concern for the safety of this ukrainian based reporter. But having gone through the tweets of the pro kiev supporters below i believe this reporter has little to fear
1nobody has come forward {apart from kiev military further down the page} to say that they seen the telltale signs of a buk such as the contrail these leave.here is the crash video i see no contrail anywhere in the shot http://youtu.be/mrDqxaSSdp0 And no recorded witnesses in snizhne *pop* 48.000 {pre war} torez *pop*80.000 {pre-war} and only one alleged anonymous witness.And no witnesses from the number of towns along the supposed route of all 3 possible buk launch sites east of torez ,snizhne or east of grabova And you can view a buk training video where you can see that these things are big {18ft} and loud it would be difficult to miss one being near your town
2 witnesses stated that they heard a number of explosions in the sky a number of them stated that after the explosions they saw the bodies and wreckage falling from the sky and saw a smaller military plane flying away from the source of the explosions the bbc –al jazeera and number of other news interviewed them shortly after the crash the bbc deleted their own story from their website once it was at odds with the official western narrative that it was a buk missile fired by the rebels so i have to wonder how a buk missile managed to explode more than once supporters of the junta and bellingcat claims that these people must have been coached by the russian fsb as it was western journalist that were to first to speak to these people i seriously doubt the FSB played any role in these witness accounts https://goo.gl/cbbozQ
The stench of propaganda of most of the comments on this story reeks .#PAID
Welcome to the Journal. It used to be a good site for rational comments once.
*before it started getting targeted by troll factory cut & pasters
@Avina Laaf: And people that only have a dissenting opinion and give no value the site outside of their dissenting opinion. in other words, empty shirts.
Ah, there y’are now….
The Kremlin doesn’t care how many civilians are killed in air strikes. There’s no need to use bunker-buster and thermobaraic bombs to achieve victory in Aleppo.
Yeah. Agreed. The US or gb never used them
@Joe Mc:
“The US or gb never used them”.
Not in areas full of civilians and not in the past 30 years.
Independent Television News correspondent Dan Rivers reports on Russia’s use of bunker-busters against civilians.
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-09-29/bunker-busting-bombs-leave-syrians-with-no-place-to-hide/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37520793
US state department spokesman Mark Toner described Lavrov’s allegations as absurd and told journalists that the US had not targeted al-Nusra for months because they had become “intermingled” with other groups and civilians. That shows that the US, unlike Russia, reduces the risk to the lives of innocent people in air strikes.
Yeah they killed a few less civilians than Russia. All together now…U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A.
You are one deluded clown, have a google of the siege of Fallujah to see what the Americans do in a siege situation. Also since when did the Americans adopt this new policy of not striking Islamist rats because there were civilians nearby. It didn’t stop them killing ten’s of thousands of civilians in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade in airstrikes. The only thing stopping them in Syria is because they are supplying these rats with weapons! They’ve gone full circle , their war of terror involves supplying the terrorists they went after in their supposed war on terror with weapons.
@PaulJ:
What about Fallujah exactly did the Americans do wrong? They swept the city clean of insurgents over a multi-month campaign which was meticulous in it’s focus. Warning by American forces as well as a seige envelope that was open to checked civilians resulted in the vast majority of civilians leaving the city before the attack took place.
The Red Cross estimated that around 800 civilians were killed during the Second Battle of Fallujah. In contrast the estimates for the civilian deaths in Aleppo are as high as 31,000.
@Andrew Corcoran:
The US has killed much less civilians and civilian fatalities in its air strikes were unintentional.
@PaulJ:
Most of the civilians of Fallujah had fled before the battle in November 2004 and the US used white phosphorous only against enemy combatants, thus not breaching international law.
Furthermore, under the Chemical Weapons Convention, white phosphorous is incendiary, not chemical.
800 civilians died Jason but only 200 insurgents were killed so the Americans killed four times more civilians than enemy combatants. According to this article less than half of those killed by the Russians were civilians so they have to be commended for the great job they are doing in comparison to the reckless Yanks!
@PaulJ:
Where did you get that 400 insurgents number from?
Official statistics are 1,200-1,500 insurgents killed and a further 1,500 confirmed captured for 800 civilian deaths and 100 Coalition deaths.
@PaulJ:
That’s 800 out of a population of 300,000. Furthermore, most of the population of Fallujah had fled before that battle.
The Battle of Fallujah in 2004, was actually 800 between civilians and insurgents but 3:1 in the ratio of casualties. Still more than three times as many as the Russians are responsible for.
Ciaran are you actually drunk? Read that statement again, 800 out of 300,000, but then you follow it up by saying most of the population had fled so how the hell was it 800 out of 300,000 so???? I give up!
Again, what’s your source for this figure PaulJ as the official figures disagree with you.
@PaulJ:
Because 300,000 was the population of Fallujah in 2004 and I assumed that your statement of the death toll was correct. But there is no proof that your statement of the death toll is correct.
Sure, it’s only human life.
The simple fact is in the Eats are rebels – jihadists which are being protected and shielded by the West led by the US in shielding these murderers. The West of Aleppo looks remarkably like the East – a wasteland with civilians living in appalling misery. Russia’s rationale is to end this, crush these Jihadists and then see how Syria shapes up. The US has abandoned the Kurds to the Turks, they have played Sunni v Shia in the entire region, they and they alone arethe architects of this misery. No amount of oral grand standing is going to stop the Russians – look at how they conducted warfare in the Caucus. The west can do NOTHING to stop Russia plummelling the opposition into the dirt. Lavrov has alreay said if the Regime losses control of Aleppo Russia will launch conventional ballistic missles on the city. The US has created this stage, they are like a shadowy malevolent presence lurking in the background stoking misery.
us airforce blow up more bridges this week all part of the agenda to blow up infrastructure
culligan they bombed them for an hour the us have satellites that can pinpoint anything they knew who they were targeting you dont bomb someone accidentally for an hour
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