88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
france24 had some footage and short interview of whatever this "fsa group" is and the guys carried themselves like hardcore extremists
It's pretty outrageous that Turkey is openly calling for ethnic cleansing btw
Official Syrian Conflict Thread
france24 had some footage and short interview of whatever this "fsa group" is and the guys carried themselves like hardcore extremists
It's pretty outrageous that Turkey is openly calling for ethnic cleansing btw
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Reuters
UN investigators are looking into reports the Syrian regime used chemical weapons on at least two rebel-held towns in recent days. The reports mark at least the sixth time the regime of President Bashar Assad has used such weapons against civilian population centers.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said Tuesday it had received multiple reports “that bombs allegedly containing weaponized chlorine have been used in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib and Douma in eastern Ghouta.” The allegation is likely to further increase tensions between the U.S. and Russia at the UN Security Council, where both countries are permanent, veto-wielding members. The U.S. complains that Russia, which backs the Assad regime, blocks any meaningful action against the Syrian leader’s use of internationally prohibited weapons.
“It’s a true tragedy that Russia has sent us back to square one in the effort to end chemical weapons use in Syria,” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN said Monday at the Security Council. “But we will not cease in our efforts to know the truth of the Assad regime and ensure that that truth is known and acted on by the international community.” The remarks echoed those made by Rex Tillerson, the U.S. secretary of state, in late January, after another incident in which Assad was accused of using chemical weapons. Tillerson said: “Whoever conducted the attacks, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in east Ghouta [the Damascus suburb where the attacks took place] and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons since Russia became involved in Syria.” Russia’s intervention in the Syrian Civil War in October 2015 decisively tilted the conflict in Assad’s favor.
The chemical attacks keep coming despite an Obama-era agreement with Russia, struck in 2013, on the destruction of Assad’s chemical weapons. Under that deal, Syria agreed to eliminate its chemical-weapons stockpile. News reports at the time said Syria had 1,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, sarin, and VX, the nerve agent. International inspectors say Syria has largely destroyed the stockpiles it said it had—though there continue to be complaints about the pace of Syria’s compliance. But that agreement did not include chlorine because the Assad regime hadn’t added it to a list it submitted to international monitors of the chemical weapons it possessed. The most recent attacks were all reportedly chlorine-based.
Jean Pascal Zanders, who heads The Trench, an organization that studies disarmament and security issues, told me that part of the problem is that chlorine has non-weapons applications like purifying water. He said he believes that Assad’s use of chlorine “probably started as an opportunistic use of a toxic chemical. … Then later on, a more dedicated production system was set up particularly with respect to designing barrel bombs and other types of projectiles to disseminate chlorine in larger quantities.” Although chlorine wasn’t included on the Syrian list given to inspectors, the use of chlorine-based weapons is still a violation of Syria’s commitment to the chemical weapons convention.
“You can’t get a worse violation of the treaty than doing that,” Zanders said.
Assad’s continued use of these weapons once again calls into question the effectiveness of the pact to rid Syria of chemical weapons, and indeed President Obama’s broader policy toward Syria.
The “deal to disarm Assad of his chemical weapons was a failure,” Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in The Atlantic last April, after Assad was accused of using sarin gas against civilians in an attack that prompted retaliation from the Trump administration. “It was not a complete failure, in that stockpiles were indeed removed, but Assad kept enough of these weapons to allow him to continue murdering civilians with sarin gas. The argument that Obama achieved comprehensive WMD disarmament without going to war is no longer, as they say in Washington, operative.”
Obama’s policy toward Syria will perhaps be best remembered for his failure to enforce his metaphorical “red line” on the use of chemical weapons. When Assad used sarin against civilians in August 2013, Obama, who had resisted striking Assad directly, opted instead for the deal with Russia on Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. But when last April Assad used sarin gas again, Trump showedlittle hesitation in using force in reply. That strike—and the threat of the use of more force—has not stopped the chlorine attacks, however.
Much has changed in Syria since last April’s U.S. military strike on Assad’s forces: for one, ISIS has been defeated; as a result, Assad is more firmly in charge of many of the country’s major population centers, though with Russian and Iranian support. As the international community tries to negotiate an end to the Syrian conflict, Assad’s use of conventional weapons on civilian targets such as hospitals and residential neighborhoods is also a priority. Those attacks have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Whether the attacks—conventional or otherwise—stop in some kind of peace deal is a different question from whether they will be punished. In the case of chemical attacks, there is no real precedent for accountability. “No war in which there’s been a chemical warfare [has ever resulted in] international prosecution of chemical warfare,” Zanders said. “It didn’t happen after the first world war, didn’t happen after the second world war, the Japanese in China. It hasn’t happened after the Iran-Iraq war. So that’s the sad reality we have to deal with.”
Assad Is Still Using Chemical Weapons in Syria
smfh
The man is a dictator who's family stayed in power in the 86 uprising by literally burning a city to the ground and killing everybody in it.
That he continues to be morally repugnant in his attempts to stave off rebellion and continue his life of wanton excess and luxury until he dies happy in his own bed at a ripe old age, as most dictators do, should surprise no-one.
That he continues to be morally repugnant in his attempts to stave off rebellion and continue his life of wanton excess and luxury until he dies happy in his own bed at a ripe old age, as most dictators do, should surprise no-one.
This is true.
One thing I wonder though. On the Syrian army and Russian/Iranian side of the ISIS fight, I didn’t see any news reports about use of chemical weapons in Eastern Syria.
It’s a reoccurring theme in Douma, Eastern Ghouta and Idlib which are the last rebel strong holds (Idlib basically is run by Al Qaeda right now).
The Turks and FSA are accusing the Kurds of using chlorine too.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
US military launches rare strike on Syrian government-backed troops
© Delil Souleiman, AFP | A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.
Text by FRANCE 24
Latest update : 2018-02-08
The US military launched air strikes on Syrian government-backed troops Wednesday after as many as 500 attackers began what a US military official said appeared to be a coordinated assault on Syrian opposition forces accompanied by US advisers.
The official said the strikes were in self-defence after the pro-government forces began firing artillery and tank rounds at the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir al-Zor Province.
About 100 of the attackers were killed, the official said, in what was a rare US strike against forces that support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The official said the pro-regime troops were in a large formation supported by artillery, tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and mortars, and that 20 to 30 artillery and tank rounds landed within some 550 yards (500 metres) of the SDF headquarters.
Several US officials said no Americans were injured or killed in the attack by the pro-regime forces, but one SDF member was wounded. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary details of the attack.
In response to the attack, officials said the Syrian Democratic Forces supported by the coalition targeted the pro-government troops with a combination of air strikes and artillery rounds. Any of the attacking vehicles and personnel who turned around and headed back west were not targeted, the military official said.
The Kurdish-led SDF, aided by coalition support, are battling Islamic State (IS) group militants east of the Euphrates River. Syrian government forces are active on the other side of the river around the city of Deir el-Zour.
The military official said the coalition had been observing a slow buildup of pro-government forces over the past week, and alerted Russian officials of the SDF presence in Khusham. Coalition officials were in regular communication with Russian counterparts before, during and after the attack, the official said, and Russian officials assured coalition officials they would not strike coalition forces in the vicinity.
Officials said it appeared that the pro-regime forces were trying to take back land that the SDF had captured from IS group fighters last September, including oil fields in Khusham.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
US military launches rare strike on Syrian government-backed troops - France 24
@FAH1223 not sure if we have a day to day Syria thread but maybe merge a few of the recent ones?
© Delil Souleiman, AFP | A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.
Text by FRANCE 24
Latest update : 2018-02-08
The US military launched air strikes on Syrian government-backed troops Wednesday after as many as 500 attackers began what a US military official said appeared to be a coordinated assault on Syrian opposition forces accompanied by US advisers.
The official said the strikes were in self-defence after the pro-government forces began firing artillery and tank rounds at the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir al-Zor Province.
About 100 of the attackers were killed, the official said, in what was a rare US strike against forces that support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The official said the pro-regime troops were in a large formation supported by artillery, tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and mortars, and that 20 to 30 artillery and tank rounds landed within some 550 yards (500 metres) of the SDF headquarters.
Several US officials said no Americans were injured or killed in the attack by the pro-regime forces, but one SDF member was wounded. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary details of the attack.
In response to the attack, officials said the Syrian Democratic Forces supported by the coalition targeted the pro-government troops with a combination of air strikes and artillery rounds. Any of the attacking vehicles and personnel who turned around and headed back west were not targeted, the military official said.
The Kurdish-led SDF, aided by coalition support, are battling Islamic State (IS) group militants east of the Euphrates River. Syrian government forces are active on the other side of the river around the city of Deir el-Zour.
The military official said the coalition had been observing a slow buildup of pro-government forces over the past week, and alerted Russian officials of the SDF presence in Khusham. Coalition officials were in regular communication with Russian counterparts before, during and after the attack, the official said, and Russian officials assured coalition officials they would not strike coalition forces in the vicinity.
Officials said it appeared that the pro-regime forces were trying to take back land that the SDF had captured from IS group fighters last September, including oil fields in Khusham.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
US military launches rare strike on Syrian government-backed troops - France 24
@FAH1223 not sure if we have a day to day Syria thread but maybe merge a few of the recent ones?
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
On another note Erdogan wants smoke
Erdogan says U.S. has 'calculations' against Turkey, Iran, Russia in S
Erdogan says U.S. has 'calculations' against Turkey, Iran, Russia in S
ill
Superstar
He’s got a point but he’s not one to talk. His bullshyt is the real fuel for the insurgency.
Pretty sure I read Israel dropped them things against the Syrians the other day as well
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Yeah, we can have an official Syrian Conflict thread
I'll merge some of the existing to this one later
As for the attack, I don't know what the US troops in Eastern Syria are hoping to accomplish. Eventually those tribal fighters are going to make deals with Damascus.
If the US wants to have a birds eye view of what's going on in Western Syria, why not put troops in Israel near the Golan?
I'll merge some of the existing to this one later
As for the attack, I don't know what the US troops in Eastern Syria are hoping to accomplish. Eventually those tribal fighters are going to make deals with Damascus.
If the US wants to have a birds eye view of what's going on in Western Syria, why not put troops in Israel near the Golan?
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Thanks maybe something like 2018 going forwards now. Sad this has been going on since 2011.
I don't get the end game either Tillerson just said we were going to send more troops and wouldn't leave till Assad leaves or something along those lines...
I don't think our troops are really authorized to be in Israel (possible treaty issues?) although I'm sure they could find ways around that if they wanted... look at Jerusalem.
Not sure about treaty issues. But the Jordanians could also have those troops there.
Professor Joshua Landis says the US, Israel, and to a lesser extent Saudi Arabia aim for the USA to occupy all of North Eastern Syria and control the water and oil resources that go through much of the country.
I mean, that's still not going to get regime change. I watch Ambassador Robert Ford say that short of an Iraqi style invasion, the US has no great cards to play. No serious leverage.
It's hilarious how people thought that if Hillary got into office this exact scenario would happen and not the orange cumsock.
But yeah, we have no ability to enforce regime change at this point, the conflict is too muddy and there are WAY too many players now. We do this in 2012, maybe, but not now.
But yeah, we have no ability to enforce regime change at this point, the conflict is too muddy and there are WAY too many players now. We do this in 2012, maybe, but not now.