Syria: Lies Fuel War and Genocide

Lies Fuel War and Genocide

I am getting frustrated with some of the blatant bullshit coming out of the pro Assad social media brigade which is, for the most part is supportive of extreme international facism, racist pigs, and in some cases as full of bullshit and genocidal evil ideology as the Al Qaedah/ISIS religious fanatics/Turkish affiliated fascists they fight.

I fully agree its up to all Syrian people (not just Arab majority) to negotiate a solution, and strongly disagree with tactics by any and all military forces who use the tactics of carpet bombing their way to victory and lying about it.

Syrians might want to check out Bolivia's solution to a multi-ethnic society i.e a plurinational state with autonomies just to generate ideas to begin with.

Just a very small example of bullshit here illustrated. I need to add a caveat that I am blocked by Bana Alabed, never took her seriously and strongly oppose her mother's bullshit. I pay zero attention to her propaganda. On the other hand, pro-Assad forces go on and on repeating myths and lies, such as no Internet in East Aleppo when she was there, which they still claim she wasn't.

Well, here is how the SDF embedded reporters work their phones from Tabqah without electricity.

Don't expect me to just go along with lies and bullshit even if I fully support your ideology and that goes for all factions everywhere.

The image server never works, sorry. Thats why I no longer write essays.

Hopefully a link to the photo I want to share.

An Ideological Conflict

Where have 3,485 Yazidi women gone after Islamic State abduction?

The Syrian government (and the KRG) retreated from ISIS, i.e. abandoned fellow Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Yezidis, Armenians and others to ISIS. As they were being slaughtered by ISIS, Turkey sat and watched, supplied ISIS arms and supplies, allowed thousands of ISIS mercenaries cross the border. A clear tactic to exterminate Kurds, Yezidis, Christians from Syria is what amounted to attempted ethnocide.

The Kurds, who are experienced guerrilla fighters, filled the vacuum and, with support from local people of all ethnicities, ran ISIS back to the Euphrates. No one would help them in an way except the USA, which shouldn't be there at all.

That produces an ideological conflict in my mind. If local people are abandoned to genocide by their legitimate government, do they have a right to accept aid to protect themselves from anyone who will offer it? Can I, as an anti-imperialist and anti-war accept it?

If they liberate their areas, abandoned by their legitimate government, do they have a right to govern themselves? Do they have a right to negotiate a certain amount of autonomy within the framework of the Syrian state? Even if they are supported by blatantly imperialist USA?

Most International Humanitarian Aid Organizations Abandon Refugees in northern Syria.

Arife Bekir pointed out that on the day the Turkish state bombed the Rubar camp, ISIS massacred refugees near the Rajim Salibi Border Gate. She said: “4 camp residents were injured in the Turkish state’s attacks. And ISIS murdered dozens of civilians-refugees in their sleep. Both attacks seem to be planned in the same headquarters. The Turkish state murders them on the borders and at the same time seems to be almost taking revenge on them for coming to Efrîn by bombing them.”

“DEAF TO OUR CALLS”

Arife Bekir stated that they made calls to the world, the international community and the international forces after the attacks but they couldn’t get responses and continued: “Like the conflict in Syria now, the refugee issue is an international issue. We called on the international society, the international forces and the aid organizations to visit the Rubar Camp and inspect the damage created by these attacks, material and otherwise, and see for themselves. But there wasn’t any interest except for one Russian committee. We didn’t get any.
replies.”

304,000 refugees abandoned by the world.

The least that the USA could do if they are involved in a war which creates massive refugee problems is spend a lot of time and money on making sure that civilians are well treated and taken care of.

Post Liberation

The SDF (Syria Democratic Force i.e. northern Syrians) has been fighting a number of weeks in narrow streets, house to house ISIS hold out areas (two neighborhoods) near the Euphrates Dam. The area has tall buildings and is laced with tunnels. It is made more difficult by the civilians still in the last hold-out areas, who cannot escape, and the general fact that the SDF is committed to saving people and destroying as little of the infrastructure as is humanly possible.

In this film you will see the women's protection units (YPJ) moving house to house looking for, well ISIS snipers, tunnel entrances, explosives, trapped civilians. In much ISIS/Turkish/Saudi propaganda the flow of refugees (seen at the end of the film) is called dislocating civilian population, a war crime.

I thus have to explain that in areas captured by the SDF, the civilians return home after the area has been secured, cleared of mines and boobey traps, unexploded ordinance and is safe (Check Manbij as an example). The Raqqa people have already formed a local autonomous governing body for Raqqa (Tabqah is part) made up proportionally of women and men, and proportionally to the ethnic demographics of the area. . . in the case of Tabqah, Raqqa that means the council is majority Arab.

A great many of refugees in northern Syria are fleeing from areas still held by ISIS. Hundreds a day flee Raqqa, the recently entrapped women tossing their veils and black sacks off to the side of the road and "dancing a jig" as they do so. Many join the YPJ to free other women still trapped.

https://twitter.com/AzadiRojava/status/861569868478459907

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Alex Ocana's picture

The fascist wing of the Assad social media support groups will try and have you believe that the Kurds are an illegitimate separatist terrorist force dedicated to eradicating Arabs and separating out an independent (puppet to USA and Israel) Kurdish nation.

This has been and still is facist bullshit. Today the Syrian Foreign Minister gave a press conference which clearly shows that the Syrian government considers the Kurdish fight "legitimate for preserving Syrian unity."

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said in a televised news conference on Monday that the Syrian Kurdish battle against Islamic State was "legitimate" and fell in the framework of preserving Syrian unity.

He was speaking in response to a question about U.S. support for Kurdish groups including the YPG militia, which Turkey regards as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose militant fighters are battling Turkish forces.

http://reut.rs/2pd9qh1

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

@Alex Ocana
in this comment and in your essay you are saying that the Syrian government is supportive of the Kurdish fight against ISIS, whereas the supposedly pro-Assad social media are not because it will not unify the country. Is that close to what you mean?

I apologize for not knowing anything about the pro-Assad social media or even about Bana Alabed, except as referred to by others.

After the chemical attack in April, it occurred to me that the only people who could know who committed the crime immediately after it happened were the people who did it. So that suggested to me that deep state actors are carrying out such attacks either independently, or on the part of ISIS/AlQaeda, or on the part of the Assad government. It was the first time that I considered the possibility that the Assad government could be infected with the same fascist agents who infect every other government we're talking about, including ours of course.

up
0 users have voted.
CB's picture

@Linda Wood
If cui bono is not sufficient then here's some facts.

The Apr04|17 incident at
Khan Sheikhoun, Syria.
A series of inquiries.

Now that things have started to calm down a bit after Donald T. Dildo dropped a load of Tomahawks on Syria last week, a lot of us can resume pushing back against the insufferable idiots and anti-Assad liars in government, MSM, and cyberspace who are trying to pin yet another false-flag "sarin attack" on Bashar al-Assad in order to justify taking him out. Following my insistence that there was no "sarin attack" at Khan Sheikhoun a lot of people are asking: "How can we know it wasn't sarin?"

First of all, for the record, let me make it absolutely clear that as one trained in neuropharmacology I know with absolute certainty that the incident at KS, like the one in Ghouta in 2013, was not a sarin attack. I know, I know, I know . . .
...
But here's a little secret from 20 years of teaching and doing research in the neurosciences: trust the biology. It doesn't matter what the politicians and CIA, and MSM, and OPCW, and WHO say, if the biology does not show a sarin attack, then there wasn't a sarin attack. And in the case of sarin, the biology -- meaning symptoms and the absence of symptoms -- is not debatable, certainly when there are multiple supposed-victims. If the videos did clearly show victims exhibiting the symptoms of sarin intoxication, my position would be somewhat less certain because most of the symptoms of sarin poisoning can be easily faked. But when the videos FAIL TO SHOW the diagnostic symptoms of sarin, then you know two things: 1) it was not sarin, and 2) the terrorists were too stupid to fake the sarin symptoms.
...
LogoPhere's Top Ten Ways to Tell When You're Being
Spoofed by a False-Flag Sarin Attack

#1: People intoxicated with sarin don't look well. Ever. None of them.
...
#2: People intoxicated with sarin don't gasp, cough, cry, or pant.
...
#3: People intoxicated with sarin don't often foam at the mouth.
...
#4 & #5: People intoxicated with sarin defecate massively and urinate all over themselves.
...
#6: People intoxicated with sarin will vomit up everything they haven't defecated.
...
#7 & #8: People intoxicated with sarin will produce a large volume of tears and a large volume of watery saliva.
...
#9: People intoxicated with sarin turn blue. Always.
...
#10: People intoxicated with sarin never turn pink or red. Never.

up
0 users have voted.
Alex Ocana's picture

@CB I am not arguing the Sarin attack, my hypothesis is similar to tragic cases in Libya where child hostages are sacrificed for propaganda films by ISIS/AQ. The USA official story is a crock of bullshit on toast. I suspect pesticides or CO.

But this near worship of Assad as the only man who can save Syria, well, we've heard that before in Latin America with people like Somoza, Trujillo, Papa Doc, Pinochet and the rest of these fascist "strong men" who always won 99% of the vote and had bank accounts the size of many national budgets.

I am not suggesting there should be "regime change". I am suggesting that the form of warfare he indulges in i.e. essentially long sieges with indiscriminate bombing will need to be explored as a crime on par with the ISIS/AQ crowd's crimes.

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

CB's picture

@Alex Ocana
Its up to the Syrian people whether Assad stays or goes.

But this near worship of Assad as the only man who can save Syria, well, we've heard that before in Latin America with people like Somoza, Trujillo, Papa Doc, Pinochet and the rest of these fascist "strong men" who always won 99% of the vote and had bank accounts the size of many national budgets.

I am not suggesting there should be "regime change". I am suggesting that the form of warfare he indulges in i.e. essentially long sieges with indiscriminate bombing will need to be explored as a crime on par with the ISIS/AQ crowd's crimes.

Its painfully obvious you've drank the western kool-aide with those comments and comparisons.

I'll let Tulsi speak to your concerns.

Did you at least view the documentary on Aleppo I posted here to try to understand what the Syrian people think of their government? I fucking doubt it!

up
0 users have voted.

@Alex Ocana

is not firmly in control of several militias that are helping to fight ISIS and the "rebels". That the internal power structure of the SAR has been weakened by its prolonged struggle for survival -- but to what extent this might be true, is unclear -- like so much else about this war.

up
0 users have voted.

native

CB's picture

@native


Over 4,000 fresh Syrian Army soldiers graduate officer training school

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (8:05 P.M.) – Over 4,000 soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) have completed officer training school at the Homs Military Academy after nearly three straight years of education.

The 4,000+ officers will now be designated the rank of “lieutenant” before they are deployed to several fronts across the country.

According to an Al-Masdar correspondent in Damascus, the new graduates specialized in several military categories, including tank warfare, logistics, technical affairs, air defense, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare.

Most of the dozens of militias connected with the SAR were locally formed as a backlash to the infestation of foreign backed sectarian "rebels" who had taken up arms against the Syrian government.

The SAR is still mainly Sunni. They fight for their country, not their religion. Rampant sectarianism has been imported into Syria by the US and its allies in order to destroy it. BTW, even war-monger Hillary said Assad's fall would be a matter of a few months if not weeks. She said this when a massive amount of arms and Salafist-takfiri fighters were being covertly moved from Benghazi into Syria with the help of the State Department.

Why Assad's Army Has Not Defected
February 12, 2016

Four years ago, Turkey’s then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that within in a few weeks he would be praying in Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque, as Assad was about to fall. Similarly, Israel’s most decorated soldier, former Defense Minister Ehud Barak, predicted that Assad and his military would be toppled within weeks. That was at the beginning of 2012, when there were no Iranian soldiers on the ground or Russian planes in the skies.
...
The fact remains: The moderate Syrian opposition only exists in fancy suits in Western hotel lobbies. It has little military backing on the ground. If you want to ask why Assad is still the president of Syria, the answer is not simply Russia or Iran, but the fact that his army remains resilient and pluralistic, representing a Syria in which religion alone does not determine who rises to the top. The military also represent as challenge against the spread of terrorism, which is why three of the top British generals of the last five years have openly called for the recognition that the Syrian Arab Army, loyal to President Assad, is the only force capable of defeating ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Levant.

If you want to understand the American game plan for the Middle East:

Unfolding the Future
of the Long War
Motivations, Prospects, and
Implications for the U.S. Army
Published 2008 by the RAND Corporation

up
0 users have voted.

is beset by so many shifting alliances, and includes so much foreign involvement, that its various ideological distinctions are often obscured or masked. Propaganda stands in for truth, and information itself becomes a tool used in the interests of battlefield exigencies.

If truth is the first casualty of war, then innocence might be a close second. By its very nature, war is no humanitarian enterprise. It imposes kill-or-be-killed priorities on people who are engaging in it, and even on people who are simply caught up in it -- priorities that have much more to do with basic survival than with ideology.

up
0 users have voted.

native

It sure as hell doesn't care about refugees from Syria or any place else. There are so many lies being peddled by some many people and institutions, I sure as hell don't know what is true or not. They're all a bunch of liars and crooks, and I can't imagine what Assad would be any better. If I were king, I'd cut the US military budget in half and mind my own damn business.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

detroitmechworks's picture

of the Fascist Assad supporters. They know exactly how it will look to the average person when the person supporting the cause the media wants vilified is patently offensive, and TRYING to be.

The media does this with every group they want vilified. Gamer? Make sure the MRA trolls are out in force to support them! Peacenik? Have the Nazis out to protest war! Poor person? Get the most racist rednecks on tv, even when it's revealed it's only an act! Black? Oh there's plenty of minstrel shows... oooooh, wait we're not supposed to mention when they get caught.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Alex Ocana's picture

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks I don't read or even look at MSM, haven't in years. I don't have cable or broadcast TV at all. I do follow social media conversations, imagery and videos on all sides, much of it in Arabic and Turkish (machine translated to Spanish). The objective is not to believe what they say, but to understand what they want me (us) to believe and put it into a framework. I am quite aware of social media troll ops, their importance is, once again, understanding that they want us to believe and the amount of blatant lying they engage in.

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

SnappleBC's picture

That produces an ideological conflict in my mind. If local people are abandoned to genocide by their legitimate government, do they have a right to accept aid to protect themselves from anyone who will offer it? Can I, as an anti-imperialist and anti-war accept it?

My answer is "Yes, I can accept it."

The notion of sovereignty ties closely with freedom. If I am to honor the idea of sovereignty then I must also acknowledge that my neighbors may sometimes get up to some shit I really don't like. There are lots of things I can do about that including military intervention but I'd like the bar on military intervention to be set very high.

Now, do I think those people have the right to accept aid from others? Sure I do. But by what right do those others offer such aid? There's my rub. By what right would we offer such "aid" and to whom would we do it? In my own rough thinking, get it through the UN and I'll listen. I don't want unilateral "aid" since such aid is seldom helpful.

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Alex Ocana's picture

@SnappleBC

But by what right do those others offer such aid?

Still thinking on it.

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

Alex Ocana's picture

refugees return.jpg

In the original essay this morning I posted that the SDF "dislocation of Tabqah civilians" and how the fascist wing of Assadists and ISIS etc. claim it is a war crime. I mentioned Manbij as one example of being a fascist lie.

Here we have reports of the IDP's (Internally Displaced People)already returning to Tabqah. Two days ago the discovery of thousands of tonnes of flour in ISIS tunnels was confirmed, yesterday five bakeries were repaired and put into operation. Today bread is being distributed to thousands of returnees.

discarded burqhas.jpg

Note the discarded burkhas and veils dotting the road (by the thousands if you see the escape routes), then check the women in the caravan who ten days ago were forced to wear them.

--------------------------------

Death of civilians and infrastructure damage (USA bombing) was kept to a bare minimum. Official documents from SDF told USAF that they were not to bomb without specific instructions (i.e. the Hospital is now out of ISIS hands and intact). There are specific SDF air strike guidelines, particularly suicide trucks on the move & ISIS troop convoys.

While you all may think this is propaganda, I have by now thousands of hours invested in investigating claims and the details behind them from sources on the ground. I'm a Bolivian without any nationalistic irons in the fire in a country that prohibits war in our constitution.

The service committee of the Raqqa Civilian Council has started to reopen bakeries to provide food to the people of Tabqa city, in Syria’s northeastern Raqqa province.

Displaced civilians started to return to Tabqa after most of the city was liberated from ISIS militants.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have captured over 95 per cent of the city of Tabqa and yesterday severed the connection between Tabqa Dam and three neighbourhoods where heavy fighting is still going on–as the SDF-led operation for Tabqa entered its 48th day.

The recently estabslihred civilian council has reopened five bakeries in Tabqa, which sell one bag of bread for 150 Syrian pound. This is half of the price compared to the ISIS era in Tabqa.

Hassan Mohammed, a worker in the Al Hawz bakery, said that ISIS was selling the bread for high prices, “but after SDF arrived to the city and brought back the wheat stolen by ISIS, the Raqqa Civilian Council has reopened the ovens and bakeries to sell bread with half price.”

According to Jesper Söder, a Swedish volunteer with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), there are over 5,000 to 6,000 civilians still in three ISIS-controlled neighbourhoods in the city–where heavy fighting is ongoing. “We have limited ISIS resources and cannot provide all the people with food and water,” he told ARA News.Therefore, Söder called on the international community to provide more aid to civilians that are fleeing ISIS.

Having women on the front lines has many advantages in keeping war more humane. Hugs and kisses for scared children is one.
hugs.jpg

http://aranews.net/2017/05/life-returns-to-syrias-tabqa-after-isis-expul...

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

CB's picture

@Alex Ocana

In the original essay this morning I posted that the SDF "dislocation of Tabqah civilians" and how the fascist wing of Assadists and ISIS etc. claim it is a war crime. I mentioned Manbij as one example of being a fascist lie.

Can you supply a link for both of these claims?

up
0 users have voted.

There are so many lies being peddled by some many people and institutions, I sure as hell don't know what is true or not.

That, unfortunately, seems to be the idea. Have you listened to Eva Bartlett?

Remember what General Wesley Clark said about the plan?

up
0 users have voted.
Alex Ocana's picture

@nehark @nehark @nehark There are a number of reporters like Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Lizzie Phelen, PartisanGirl, and many others who I hope won't be insulted that I haven't mentioned their work, some of whom have quite large, almost worshipful followings on "FakeBook" and Twitter (make your own rhyme). They get air time on RT, play the conference game and so on with hundreds or thousands of mentions, complementary comments and some of whom will block your sorry ass if you contradict what they say with evidence (and others who will politely argue their point, or even change). They aren't all liars and crooks.

The Kurds, Yezidis, Assyrians, Syrian Armenians, Balochs, Houthis (OK, Houthis & Balochs not so related to Syria) have minimal effective propaganda outfits and followings.

In addition there are, within "factions" tens, if not hundreds, of paid trolls/worshippers. Trolls, as we all know, are as easy as spotting a four legged pigeon on whats left of the Arctic ice.

I read them all from all sides, (even down to scanning the official ISIS magazine and propaganda videos, which probably has me on top of the fucking NSA watch list). I think that most of the folks believe what they are saying is the truth and most often their evidence is at least partially (selectively) true. Again, they aren't all liars and crooks. But, a great many of them are liars, fascists, warmongers, carpet bombers, nationalists, morons, headchoppers, woman haters. . . whose words and reporting form the foundation of destruction and genocide of whole countries, cultures and belief systems.

So, once again, my subjective objective is to see how they distort (if they do) the evidence and especially what they want us to believe from the evidence they cite. I try and fit that into a moral framework. I like to tell myself that my moral framework in politics is "what is best for the children" and "What stories do I want our children to follow to build their foundations?"

Thats why last night I posted the "refugees return home after a week to a mostly intact, unlooted city, after throwing off their black burkha sacks, and find five bakeries functioning with captured flour supplying bread at half price and our women soldiers hugged children" story.

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

CB's picture

The Syrian government (and the KRG) retreated from ISIS, i.e. abandoned fellow Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Yezidis, Armenians and others to ISIS. As they were being slaughtered by ISIS,

You need to look at the larger picture of the conflict. The Syrian government did not "abandon" these people. It was losing badly to the US, EU, Saudi, Qatari and other GCC countries support of Al Qaeda/Al Nusra/ISIS "rebels". You only need to look at a map of Syria just before the Russians entered the picture. You also need to address how Raqqa became the so-called capital of ISIS. There were only about 250,000 people in that area compared to about 11 million in the more populated areas around the major cities.

The majority of the displaced people moved from the "rebel" dominated areas into government controlled areas. A large number left the country to avoid fighting and for financial reasons as the economy crashed. The largest demographic of refugees were single males between 18 and 30.

Aleppo and Damascus were much more important to protect.

There was very little sectarian conflict in Syria prior the US intervention. This was not a civil war - EVER. It was a US engineered regime change operation that had been planned decades before.

up
0 users have voted.
Alex Ocana's picture

@CB Excuses and justifications aside, "Abandon" is the correct word in English. As in "surrendered control of". "to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly" or, at best "ceded control of".

As far as I can tell, They never bothered to even put up a fight against jihadis in Kurdish areas.

If the locals won it back by driving Daesh back to the Euphrates, they have every right to expect a fair deal in forming a new unified Syria with "autonomias" and protection from the Turkish Islamo-fascist government.

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

CB's picture

@Alex Ocana @Alex Ocana
The Kurds were not "abandoned" in the normal use of the word.

As far as I can tell, They never bothered to even put up a fight against jihadis in Kurdish areas.

You obviously have not been following the conflict. The Kurds had been attacking Syrian forces up until ISIS intervened in March/April of 2014. At this time the SAA started bombing ISIS but could not keep it up. They got pushed back further and further until they asked for support from Russia.

Rojava–Syrian government relations - Timeline

If the locals won it back by driving Daesh back to the Euphrates, they have every right to expect a fair deal in forming a new unified Syria with "autonomias" and protection from the Turkish Islamo-fascist government.

I suggest you read the following in full:

Syrian Army Creates Buffer Zone Between Kurds and Turkish Military

The Manbij Military Council has agreed to hand over areas to the west of the strategically important city in the Aleppo province to the Syrian Arab Army as part of a Russia-sponsored deal that will help to create a buffer zone between the Turkish military and the Kurds and allow the Syrian Democratic Forces to focus on the Raqqa offensive.

Where do you think the Kurds should have a homeland? The following map was a result of the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1919 in Paris. Maybe the US should bomb Turkey to give the Kurds their REAL homeland.

http://thekurdishproject.org/kurdistan-map/
Kurds map.png

Edit: Forgot youtube map.

up
0 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

…in this age. Something that was unthinkable until now. When given a choice, most people believe whichever narrative promises to bring personal security, aka, the "home team." Then there are the "purist" types, who tend to believe whichever narrative yields the fewest lapses in logic. For analysts or disinterested parties, some narratives are simply more compelling. In the Americas, as the continents were first being invaded, conquered, and colonized — who had the most compelling narrative of what happened? The Europeans with guns or the native Americans with their natural spirituality? The interventionists or the intervened upon?

Democracy vs. Foreign Invasion. A Syrian's Perspective: Bashar al-Assad's Democratic Movement

Cesspool Of Lies: Western Media And The Toxic Fantasy

[Edit: Links added for another perspective]

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
CB's picture

Russia has also helped the YPG advance and take control of many towns.

Russia continues to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria
2017-03-18 18:46:45

MOSCOW, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian servicemen have distributed 6.8 tons of humanitarian aid to nearly 4,000 Syrian citizens in the past 24 hours, the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation said Saturday.

The aid was sent out in nine humanitarian events in the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Daraa, to a total of 3,950 Syrian civilians, the center said in its daily bulletin posted by the Russian Defense Ministry.

In addition, the Russian military also delivered over 20 tons of UN-provided food to the Deir ez-Zor area in eastern Syria and helped dispatch a humanitarian convoy of 21 refrigerators to Mutaiya in Daraa province, the bulletin added.

Russia has been providing Syrian residents with medical help and regular humanitarian aid despite the continuous chaos in the war-torn country.

Statistics shows that the Russian military has delivered 300 tons of humanitarian aid to Syria since the beginning of this year.

Russia, US and the Kurds: The friend of my enemy is — wait, what?
...
Regardless of whether Russia has provided ammunition to Kurds in Afrin, it is undeniable that Russian air attacks have opened the way for the Kurdish reinforcements to advance. Russian involvement since Sept. 30 has allowed the Kurds to improve their defensive lines at Afrin and Aleppo, which were under severe pressure. Kurdish sources said last year that while the YPG and Jaish al-Suwar were capturing Menagh air base east of Afrin, Russian planes hit the positions of Ahrar al-Sham and its allies. The Syrian villages of Aqlamiyah, Deir Jamal and Mareanar, which were abandoned by Jabhat al-Nusra and its allies under Russian aerial attacks, were taken over by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the YPG. Also, Russia's bombardment in the SDF’s capture of Tell Rifat is widely known.

Earlier, the Syrian army had recaptured the Shiite towns of Zahra and Nubul abutting Afrin that had been besieged by the opposition for three years, thus opening a corridor toward the east. The YPG, on its side, advanced from west to east and established Kurdish control of some villages.

“I don’t know the latest situation, but Russians delivered weapons to Afrin before the Zahra-Nubul offensive. Russians had already admitted delivering 5 tons of ammunition to Sheikh Maksoud [a neighborhood of Aleppo]. No doubt there is coordination between the YPG and Russian forces in all fronts including Jazeera, Aleppo and Afrin," a humanitarian relief worker in Rojava told Al-Monitor.

Intelligence information on Russia’s airdrop of ammunition to Afrin was discussed in the Jan. 27 meeting of Turkey’s National Security Council. According to information leaking from that meeting, Russia and Iran in January had delivered ammunition to Afrin seven or eight times. Their goal was to enable the Kurds to advance from Afrin toward Jarablus by ignoring Turkey’s red line against Kurds crossing to the west of the Euphrates River.
...
In short, in Syria there exists a rare configuration of war. This makes it difficult for the fighting parties and their foreign sponsors to implement their plans. Simply put, while the Pentagon is supporting Kurdish groups fighting the Islamic State around Kobani, Qamishli and Hasakah to the west, in the northeast of the country some CIA-equipped and trained opposition groups are attacking the Kurds and Salafi groups. Russia hopes that the YPG-PYD group it is helping will enable the Kurds to get closer to Damascus. US hopes are totally to the contrary. As for the Kurds, their game plan is to assist the United States and its allies in one place, Russia and the regime someplace else and other rebel groups elsewhere.

up
0 users have voted.

@CB
the CIA indicted, its leadership arrested, and the agency put out of business over this?

Simply put, while the Pentagon is supporting Kurdish groups fighting the Islamic State around Kobani, Qamishli and Hasakah to the west, in the northeast of the country some CIA-equipped and trained opposition groups are attacking the Kurds and Salafi groups.

up
0 users have voted.
CB's picture

@Linda Wood
The Pentagon wants to defeat ISIS. SofS Hillary and her minions were working with the CIA while Obama was listening to the Pentagon. This was why American foreign policy was so schizophrenic under Obama. Hillary got her way in Libya and Obama got his in Syria.

Regime change in Syria or the country shattered back to the dark ages - both good outcomes for the 51st state. Iran next on the list - fait accompli for the Middle East.

Then on to bigger and better things - North Korea, Russia and China.

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

bothered with it all, couldn't care less what happens to Syria, Iraq, whatever. Nothing positive will happen there until the US and USSR get out, and neither is so inclined. I have no fucks to give to that war. It is on us, We, the people, to end the war becuz TPTB won't. And not just us. The world needs to say No to this crap.

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

CB's picture

@Wink
The US started the shit in Syria. Russia is ending it.

up
0 users have voted.
CB's picture

Russia shows more support for Syrian Kurds after Turkish airstrikes
...
Russian officials have condemned the Turkish air strikes against the Kurds in Syria and Iraq that took place last week.

“On April 25, it was reported that Turkish jets carried out a series of strikes on the positions of Kurdish self-defence detachments near Mount Karachok in northeastern Syria and near Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharov said on Thursday.

“I would like to remind you that Kurdish detachments are the most effective fighting force in the war against ISIS terrorists in northeastern Syria. We were greatly disturbed by reports of Ankara’s operations,” she said.
...

U.S.-allied Kurd militia says struck Syria base deal with Russia
Mar 20, 2017

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Russia was setting up a military base in northwestern Syria under a bilateral agreement and will help train its fighters - a step that would anger Turkey as it tries to block Kurdish gains near its borders.
...
Xelil said the YPG had shown its effectiveness in "fighting terrorism". "This is what pushed many forces to cooperate and make alliances with the YPG," he said.

The YPG also said on Monday it planned to expand its force by about two thirds to more than 100,000 fighters this year with the aim of turning it into a more organized force that resembles a traditional army.

Russia deployed its air force in Syria in 2015 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war against insurgents battling to unseat him. Despite a long history of enmity between the Syrian Kurds and government, the YPG and Damascus have mostly avoided conflict in the six-year-old conflict.

"The Russian presence ... comes in agreement between (the YPG) and the Russian forces operating in Syria in the framework of cooperation against terrorism and to help train our forces on modern warfare and to build a direct point of contact with Russian forces," Xelil said in a written statement.
...

up
0 users have voted.
Alex Ocana's picture

@CB

Despite a long history of enmity between the Syrian Kurds and government, the YPG and Damascus have mostly avoided conflict in the six-year-old conflict.

That is one of the hopeful things that has happened. If they can continue to avoid conflict and work against criminal mercenary pseudo-religious gangs, and keep the Turks (and other interntional actors)from being spoilers, I can hope that the whole thing will be over by next Spring and ready to negotiate amongst Syrians.

up
0 users have voted.

From the Light House.

CB's picture

@Alex Ocana
wherein 225,000 Syrian Kurds would gain full Syrian citizenship. Keep in mind that there have been tens of thousands of Kurds that have entered Syria illegally and these would not be considered under this decree. This is similar to problems with illegal aliens in the US wanting citizenship. If these illegals get caught they are also "repressed and dislocated" by arrest and deportation by US authorities. Under Obama 2.5 million undocumented people, the majority of Hispanic ethnicity, have been "repressed and dislocated" from 2009 to 2015 (no figures for 2016). How many Kurds did Assad arrest and deport?

Too many Kurds in Syria would also be rejected by the Syrian Arabs now working with the Kurds in the Arab majority Raqqa region. This is probably the most southern limit to the effectiveness of the combined PYD/SDF. Not all Kurdish forces are aligned with the SDF or FSA and vice-versa.

The situation for Kurds is improving but keep in mind that there are a half dozen different Kurdish parties in Syria all wanting something different. Add to this, the widely differing Kurdish parties in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. A completely autonomous Kurdish enclave in Syria would attract hundreds of thousands of Kurds and disrupt the entire region. The majority of the Kurdish ethnic groups are located in Turkey with Iraq being the second most populous. There is also tremendous divisions within the Kurdish populations in these countries..

Assad: we do not have a veto on any Kurdish demand
By RÛDAW 16/9/2015
LONDON – Embattled President Bashar al-Assad says Kurdish demands in Syria can be discussed after uniting to defeat Islamic extremists, promising he is open to any proposal as long as the country’s territorial integrity remains intact.

“We should unite in order to fight ISIS,” he said in an interview with Russian reporters that was widely published and broadcast by Russian media.

“After we defeat ISIS, al-Nusra and the terrorists (Syrian opposition groups), the Kurdish demands expressed by certain parties can be discussed nationally,” he said.

“There’s no problem with that. We do not have a veto on any demand as long as it is within the framework of Syria’s unity and the unity of the Syrian people and territory,” he said, denying Damascus had any “state policy concerning the Kurds.”

Syria’s Kurds control a self-declared autonomous enclave in the country’s Kurdish regions, or Rojava. They favor a federal system in which different groups can co-exist. That proposal has been opposed by Turkey, which is loath to having an autonomous Syrian enclave on its border, next to its own restive Kurdish-populated areas.

BTW, I don't think the use of the word genocide is warranted in your title. It is just inflammatory.

up
0 users have voted.