Syria again

[nitpicker1]

Syria

Syrian ceasefire begins but US expecting violations


 
Complex ceasefire deal agreed by Russia and US, which excludes large areas of country, began at midnight local time

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/26/syria-ceasefire-to-begin-us-expecting-violations


Yeahbut?
https://www.google.co.nz/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ceasefire&tbm=nws

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

How the Syrian revolt went so horribly, tragically wrong

By LIZ SLY | 5:26PM EST - Saturday, March 12, 2016


Photographed in 2014, both legs of Syrian opposition activist, aid worker and journalist Karam al-Hamad are scarred from more than 100 cigarette
burns he received under torture in a military prison in Damascus for more than a year. — Photograph: Ayman Oghanna/The Washington Post.

GAZIANTEP, TURKEY — To get rid of one bad man, you open the door to many.

That is a rough translation of the slogan Wael Ibrahim had written on the banner he was preparing for the next anti-government demonstration he and his fellow democracy activists were planning in the Syrian city of Aleppo. It was February 2013, and Ibrahim, a truck driver who had become a leader in the protests against President Bashar al-Assad, was trying, as diplomatically as possible, to sustain the spirit of the original revolt without offending the newly ascendant and increasingly extremist Islamists.

He failed. A man who had thrown himself into a struggle against a dictatorial government was threatened, harassed and eventually detained six months later by the Islamic State. He has not been seen or heard from since.

Ibrahim — who had won renown in Aleppo under his nom de guerre, Abu Mariam — had become yet another victim of the ill-fated attempt to bring democracy to the Middle East that was christened, so prematurely, the Arab Spring.

From Egypt to Yemen, Libya to Bahrain, the brief flowering of freedom and hope that surged across the Middle East five years ago has failed more spectacularly than could have been imagined back when people chanting for freedom thronged the streets of towns and cities regionwide.

Syria marks the fifth anniversary of its first peaceful protest Tuesday in the shadow of a brutal war that has sucked in global powers and fueled the rise of radicals such as the Islamic State. Libya and Yemen are likewise locked in savage conflicts.

In other countries, such as Egypt, autocratic regimes have reasserted their control with a vengeance, clamping down on liberties even more fiercely than had been the case before the demonstrations were held.


This image taken from an amateur video shot in March 2011 shows protesters in Daraa
defacing a giant poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. — Photograph: Reuters.

In all of them, except Tunisia, the moderates who dominated the early days of the revolts have been silenced, imprisoned, hunted down or driven into exile, either by the governments that sought to repress them or the extremists who moved into the vacuum created when state authority collapsed.

Whether those early protesters were ever truly representative is in question, said Rami Nakhla, one of the most prominent leaders of the early Syrian protests, directing the Local Coordination Committees from exile in Beirut. He now lives in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep near Syria’s border, a hub for many of the activists who have been forced to flee.

But he also wonders whether they ever stood a chance. “We are hostage to two choices: either the authoritarians or the extremist Islamists,” he said. “Should we accept this equation? That we endorse either dictatorship or Islamic extremism?”

It is a false choice, but it has served to sustain the twin tyrannies that proved the undoing of the Arab Spring, said Shadi Hamid of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Since well before the revolts, the region's dictators have raised the specter of Islamist extremism to scare ordinary citizens into submission and justify their harsh oppression to foreign powers. And extremists exploit the climate of fear to win recruits and justify their own brutal tactics.

“Authoritarian regimes and groups like ISIS both rely on violence and oppression to promote their political objectives,” he said, using another term for the Islamic State. “For regimes, it's actually a successful strategy, at least in the case of Egypt and Syria. The Assad regime has been able to promote its own narrative very successfully, and many members of the international community say the armed opposition is primarily a radical opposition, that there are no moderate rebels.”

Nowhere have the consequences of the failure been so profound or the costs so high as in Syria. More than a quarter-million people have died. Half the population has been driven from their homes. The world's worst refugee crisis has overwhelmed neighboring countries and fueled an unprecedented influx of migrants to Europe.

Assad remains in power in Damascus, but the country is in ruins. The Islamic State has overrun a big chunk of Syria and is the primary focus of the foreign powers battling to contain the disaster. Moderate rebels still control territory, but their space is dwindling and also populated by more radical groups.


This image from a video shot in March 2011 shows crowds of mourners carrying a coffin
during funerals of protesters killed in earlier clashes in Daraa, Syria.
 — Photograph: Reuters.

A wobbly truce has brought some respite, and since the guns fell silent, small crowds of protesters have taken to the streets again, reviving the calls for freedom and democracy that seemed to have been vanquished.

But their numbers are small, and in a reminder of the challenges they face, at least one protest in the city of Idlib last week was forcibly shut down by Islamist fighters, including the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.

“We are targeted by everyone. There is Daesh. There are Russian airstrikes from the sky. Nusra is among us,” said Barry Abdullatif, who was one of the first protest organizers in his home town of al-Bab, east of Aleppo, now controlled by the Islamic State.

“It is a miracle there are any moderates left at all.”

The balance shifts

Abdullatif remembers when Islamists began to intrude on the democracy demonstrations he and his colleagues were organizing in the spring of 2011.

The protests still were peaceful and growing in number, but now there were some new arrivals. A group of 25 or so residents imprisoned for Islamist activism before the uprising, among thousands released in 2011, had been let go under an amnesty issued by Assad. Most secular detainees, such as a 15-year-old blogger who had been held on the eve of the protests, were not.


Barry Abdullatif, a protest organizer in al-Bab, Syria, now lives in Gaziantep, Turkey, a hub for activists forced to flee.
 — Photograph: Erin Trieb/The Washington Post.

Many Syrians and observers have long suspected that the releases were deliberately intended to radicalize the revolt and convince the international community that Assad was the lesser of two evils.

“It is a matter of record now that Assad released many Islamist prisoners in 2011,” said Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria at the time and now with the Middle East Institute.

“The government certainly understood they would join rebel groups, and likely the regime hoped they would commit violent acts that the regime could use to justify its own violence,” he said. “I do not think the Syrian government expected Nusra and the Islamic State to grow so potent, however.”

The Islamists started showing up at the demonstrations, waving banners. “We told them, ‘If you want to raise a black flag, go do it on your own’,” and they did, Abdullatif recalled. “More people attended ours.”

The balance shifted, however, after the protesters took up arms, first to defend the demonstrations that were fired on and then to wage outright war. Money for weapons began to pour in from Turkey and the Gulf. At first, most went to the Muslim Brotherhood, the activists say, but other groups quickly emerged that were more extremist.

The rebels played into the government's hands by tolerating the rise of the radicals and facilitating the emergence of the Islamic State, Ford said. “Not until 2014 did they realize their error with the Islamic State, and they are still coordinating with Nusra,” he said.

Many activists said at the time they had no choice. The United States was lagging on its promises of support, and they felt they needed all the help they could get to confront the government's use of military force, which began with bullets, then escalated to airstrikes, ballistic missiles and chemical weapons.


Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province in 2014.
 — Photograph: Reuters.

But looking back, that was when it all went wrong, Abdullatif said: “The mistake was accepting Islamists at all, and the second was carrying weapons.”

Bringing arms into the equation also opened the door to the proxy war Syria has become. Iran sent money and militias to prop up the government. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey funneled money to the rebels without much regard to who they were. The United States sought to counter the influence of extremists by backing moderate rebel groups — though it never matched the support that was reaching extremists. Then Russia intervened, launching airstrikes on behalf of the government that U.S. officials say disproportionately targeted moderate rebels.

Syria's revolt “stopped being a revolution,” said Rami Jarrah, another of the activists in Gaziantep who escaped Damascus in 2011 under threat of arrest by the government. “It's become a football pitch for regional powers to settle scores and gain benefits at the expense of others.”

Thousands imprisoned

Meanwhile, the democracy activists were languishing in prisons. The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that 117,000 people have been detained overall since 2011, and 65,000 of them are still in custody. Thousands have died under torture, and the whereabouts of many others are unknown.

Among them are many who were hauled off the streets in the early, peaceful days of protest, as Karam al-Hamad discovered when he was detained in late 2013.

An activist who had helped organize protests in his home city of Deir al-Zour, Hamad was accused of spying, tortured into confessing and dispatched to Damascus for trial at the Military Intelligence's notorious Branch 235, also known as the Palestine Branch.

There, he was incarcerated in a basement cell filled with 120 other men, a number that was replenished as prisoners died — 73 in all during his 10-month stay. Some were taken away to be tortured and never returned. Others came back broken and bleeding and died in the night. A bigger number succumbed to the intestinal and skin infections that were rife. One death haunted him, a man from Hama called Abdul-Nasser who had been arrested for protesting in 2011.

“We both liked computers and PlayStation. He also had an iPhone 5s,” Hamad recalled. “He was also in a heavy-metal band.”


Karam al-Hamad looks out the window of his apartment in Gaziantep, Turkey, in 2014, after his release from prison.
 — Photograph: Ayman Oghanna/The Washington Post.

Hamad was released in late 2014, after a judge accepted his claim that his confession had been extracted under torture. Had he been accused of being an activist, he said, “they never would have released me.”

He emerged into a changed world. The Islamic State had taken over much of eastern Syria, including Deir al-Zour. Its fighters were hunting down moderate activists as relentlessly as the government, often subjecting them to public executions. Hamad joined the exodus to Turkey.

Ibrahim, the Aleppo protest organizer, was among the first to be targeted.

In an interview with The Washington Post in Aleppo in 2013, he shrugged off the threat posed by the Islamists, saying it was more important to focus on ousting Assad.

“It is not in our interest to open a second front in our revolution,” he said. “We have one enemy now; we don't want to end up with two.”

Abdullatif escaped his home town under cover of darkness, also in 2014, after being told he was wanted by the Islamic State. Of the 50 or so friends with whom he launched the protests in al-Bab, barely a dozen remain alive. They have died in airstrikes, in battle with armed groups or under torture in prison.

Only one joined the extremists, becoming a member of Jabhat al-Nusra. “He apologized to me,” Abdullatif said, recalling their last meeting. “He told me he only did it for the weapons, and to fight the regime.”

A month later, the friend was dead — blown up by a suicide bomber who detonated his car prematurely and killed his own men.

• Liz Sly is The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief. She has spent more than 15 years covering the Middle East, including the Iraq war. Other postings include Africa, China and Afghanistan.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Battle against the Islamic State is redrawing the map of the Middle East

 • Is it too late to solve the mess in the Middle East?

 • A mini world war rages in the fields of Aleppo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/how-the-syrian-revolt-went-so-horribly-tragically-wrong/2016/03/12/4aba6c86-d979-11e5-8210-f0bd8de915f6_story.html

[nitpicker1]

Syria ceasefire is ‘largely holding’ but with violations

AFP, WashingtonSaturday,
12 March 2016

The two-week-old cessation of hostilities in Syria is “largely holding,” albeit with continued violations that include government attacks on civilians and opposition forces, the United States said Friday.

“The cessation of hostilities has produced a dramatic reduction in violence in Syria and permitted humanitarian access to begin in some besieged areas,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby in a statement. ...

Read the rest
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/03/12/Syria-ceasefire-is-largely-holding-.html

[nitpicker1]

This Fragile Iraqi Dam Could Pose a Bigger Threat Than ISIS

Fortune
By TIME | Fortune – Sun, Mar 27, 2016 8:33 AM NZDT
Khawla Shaban lived under the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for almost seven months, after the militants took over her village of Wana in northern Iraq. "We didn't leave the house the whole time they were here," says Shaban, standing in front of her home, on the bank of the Tigris River.

Today, the Islamic State is gone -- pushed out of Wana in January 2015 by Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga, aided by U.S. air strikes. On Thursday, Iraqi forces launched a campaign to liberate even more territory around ISIS-occupied Mosul, the first move in a broader operation to rid the province of the extremist group for good.

But that work could be undone in an instant by an even greater threat than ISIS: the deteriorating Mosul Dam, whose collapse would send a wall of 11 billion cubic meters of water crashing toward Iraq's second biggest city, killing more Iraqis in minutes than the total dead since the U.S. invasion of 2003.

The U.S. considers the threat so dire it issued a warning to U.S. citizens in February about the dam's collapse, above its already stern warnings about travel to Iraq. President Obama even sent a note to Iraqi Prime minister Haider al-Abadi that same month, urging the government to take long-delayed action.

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In Wana, the first village downstream from the dam, the threat is considered more immediate than that of the Islamist extremists holed up in Mosul. "They are both scary, but I'm more scared of the dam," says Shaban. "If it breaks there will be no chance for survival. It will wipe us all out."

The Mosul Dam was built in the early 1980s and was one of many grand infrastructure projects rolled out by Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party. Engineer Omar Salih started work on the dam the year it opened. He says the German and Italian teams that helped build the dam said the location was no good, as the riverbed here is made of unstable soft soil and gypsum, a mineral that dissolves as water runs through it. The structure had to be grouted daily, to keep water from seeping through.

"But President Saddam Hussein insisted on the location," says Sahil. That's likely because villages like Wana and most of the sounding area are Sunni Arabs, Saddam's once loyal power base. Here the structure is away from his Kurdish enemies who could attack the dam.

The fragility of Mosul Dam has long been a concern; in 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called it "the most dangerous dam in the world." But after ISIS took over the facility in 2014, the constant work required to keep the dam intact was stopped. Salih says even after the militants were pushed out of the dam, it took months for the critical maintenance to resume.

For more on the importance of infrastructure, watch:

An employee operates an excavator as he works at strengthening the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River, around 50km north of Mosul, Iraq, March 3, 2016.

Now, inside the dam complex, buildings are pocked with bullet holes from the battles that unfolded as the dam changed hands. Currently, hundreds of Kurdish fighters secure the dam, and say they won't let it fall into militant hands again.

It's not clear, however, who is in charge of keeping the dam from collapse--the national government in Baghdad or the Kurdistan Regional Government. Baghdad, with foreign help, is footing the approximately $4 million per year maintenance costs required to keep the structure intact. An Italian engineering firm has signed a contract with Iraq to help with the repairs and is expected to arrive in mid-April.

Inside Mosul Dam, TIME meets with head engineer Aquil Muslim, who has worked at the dam for a decade and oversees the constant grouting and filling of cracks in the structure. The tunnel in which he works has pools of water on the floor, and the walls show marks of grouting.

Several new cracks form every day, Muslim says. "Some holes need 50 tons of cement." He says the work is constant, 24 hours per day, seven days a week. However, Muslim, and along with other engineers and Iraqi officials at the site say the threat of collapse is not as great as the U.S. alleges. "We haven't seen any tangible evidence that the dam will collapse," he says.

U.S. To charge Iran In Cyber Attacks Against Banks, New York Dam

The U.S. says the dam is at a higher risk than usual of bursting this spring as snow melts in the northern Iraqi mountains, running into the reservoir behind the dam and building pressure on the decades-old structure. "But this a normal thing that happens every year," Muslim counters. "We've always been able to sort these problems."

If they don't, the consequences would be devastating. A recent U.S. government report concluded that between 500,000 to 1.47 million Iraqis who live along the Tigris downstream of the dam "probably would not survive" its collapse.

Even so, residents of Wana are staying put--content with the messaging by some in the Iraqi government, including its minister for water resources, that the dangers of the dam have been overstated. "I will not leave," says 45-year-old Khaled Mohammed Ali. "We've seen the threat of ISIS, but so far we haven't seen the threat from the dam."

This article was originally published on Time.com

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fragile-iraqi-dam-could-pose-193354533.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

Syrian airstrikes hammer Aleppo amid
expanding offensive against rebels

By ERIN CUNNINGHAM and BRIAN MURPHY | 9:39AM EDT - Friday, September 23, 2016


A Syrian family walks amid rubble after an airstrike on September 23rd in a rebel-held area of Aleppo.
 — Photograph: Thaer Mohammed/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

ISTANBUL — Airstrikes pounded rebel-held areas in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, hitting centers for a volunteer civil defense group in a sharp escalation by government forces after the collapse of cease-fire plans that raised fleeting hopes of peace.

The intensifying offensive on Aleppo — a critical foothold for rebel groups — came amid signals of an all-out push by President Bashar al-Assad to reclaim full control over the northern city, which remains virtually cut off from medical and food supplies.

Activists claim the latest air attacks have tried to further cripple the limited resources in the rebel zones. Among the targets, they say, have been the operational hubs for the civil defense group known as the White Helmets, whose teams rush to bombing sites to aid survivors.

At least three centers had been hit by airstrikes, and fire trucks and ambulances have been damaged, Ibrahim Alhaj, a member of the group, told the Associated Press.

“I have not seen in my life such bombardment. It is very, very intense,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the Syrian troops had pushed back rebel lines in a southern district of Aleppo. More than 70 airstrikes have hammered parts of Aleppo since Wednesday, the group said.

For Assad, the city represents an important prize that would expand government control in the north and deprive opposition groups of one of its last main strongholds.

In a possible hint of the looming showdown in Aleppo, Syrian state media said a “ground offensive” would eventually be launched, citing a Syrian military official whose name was not given.

On Thursday, the White Helmets rescue service said three of its four centers had been hit by bombs, knocking two of out commission.

The announcement of the Syrian offensive suggested that Syria's government has no intention of complying with any further cease-fire requests from the international community, despite appeals by Secretary of State John F. Kerry the day before to revive the failed attempt to stop the fighting.

The cease-fire plan, brokered by the United States and Russia, sought to open routes for humanitarian aid into besieged areas such as Aleppo. It brought a lull in fighting for several days last week, but aid convoys never reached the needy amid hold-up for clearance from Assad's government.

In an interview with the Associated Press in Damascus, a defiant Assad said he takes no notice of what U.S. government officials say.

“American officials — they say something in the morning and they do the opposite in the evening,” he said. “You cannot take them at their word, to be frank. We don't listen to their statements, we don't care about it, we don't believe it.”

Scores of people have been killed in the airstrikes since the cease-fire collapsed on Monday, including at least 30 in Aleppo, activists said. The reports could not be independently verified, but images on social media chronicled the extent of the latest air attacks.

“This means welcome to hell,” said Abdulkafi Al-Hamdo, a teacher who lives in rebel-held Aleppo. “We expect extermination.”

The government, meanwhile, claimed victory over another small corner of the country, in the central city of Homs. Some 300 rebels and their families piled onto buses in the neighborhood of Al-Waer on Thursday after accepting the terms of government surrender deal to leave their homes in return for safe passage to rebel-held territory further north.

The official Syrian news agency SANA said Russian troops — which are backing Assad — helped supervise the evacuation, which has been condemned by the United Nations and the Syrian opposition as a form of forced displacement.

The capitulation of the rebels in Waer means that the city of Homs is now entirely under government control for the first time in nearly five years. The deal was similar to others that have been implemented in neighborhoods elsewhere that had joined the original revolt against Assad only to find themselves surrounded by government troops and cut off from food and medical supplies. The Syrian opposition and the United Nations have condemned the surrender deals, proclaimed as forced displacement, but they have proved an effective way for the government to slowly reassert its authority in areas that had slipped beyond its control during the rebellion.

• Brian Murphy reported from Washington. Liz Sly in Beirut contributed to this report.

• Erin Cunningham is an Istanbul-based correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously covered conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan for The Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost and The National.

• Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related story:

 • U.S., Russia continue to exchange charges amid effort to salvage cease-fire

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-airstrikes-hammer-aleppo-amid-expanding-offensive-against-rebels/2016/09/23/4d247c50-818a-11e6-b002-307601806392_story.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

The ancient tragedy John Kerry used to explain Syria

By ISHAAN THAROOR | 12:06PM EDT - Friday, September 23, 2016


Secretary of State John F. Kerry, right, addresses a Security Council meeting about the situation in Syria as Boris Johnson, left,
Britain's foreign secretary, listens at U.N. headquarters in New York on September 21st.
 — Photograph: Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency.

IN A Wednesday session on Syria at the United Nations Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry deployed a curious historical reference.

“Those who believe this crisis couldn't get worse are dead wrong, as are those who believe that a military victory is possible,” Kerry intoned at the special session, after urging a cessation of hostilities.

“This could be like Carthage with the Romans, if you call that a victory,” he said, referring to the conquest and devastation of the ancient city in what's now Tunisia by Roman forces in the 2nd century B.C.


(click on the image to play the video clip)

Kerry was aiming his analogy as a rebuke to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which remains convinced of its ability to win a decisive military victory against the constellation of rebel factions and militant groups that now have de facto control over a vast tract of Syria.

Even if such an outcome was possible — and the White House seems certain it's not — it would be ruinous for Syria. Assad's opponents are hardly on the verge of defeat, and the toll of half a decade of bloodletting and destruction would make it very unlikely that the current regime could ever regain the trust of the entire battered nation.



So what about Carthage? Some 22 centuries ago, the Mediterranean empire of the North African city-state rivaled the power of Rome. In two successive conflicts, known as the Punic Wars, the Carthaginians and Romans battled across a wide expanse of the ancient world, from Sicily to Spain to North Africa. In 218 B.C., the Carthaginian general Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with his army of elephants in what eventually was an unsuccessful, albeit epic, invasion of Italy.

By 149 B.C., Carthage had been largely defeated and subdued. But it refused to bend to Rome's will. A punitive Roman force, determined to stamp out the Carthaginian threat, marched on the city. A Roman embassy made striking demands: Carthage's population would leave their homes and move inland, away from their maritime base of power. Their city would then be razed.

“Such a diktat was the equivalent of a death sentence,” wrote 20th century French archaeologist Serge Lancel. “There was no precedent in antiquity for a state's surviving the eradication of what constituted it on the sacred plane: the destruction of its temples and cemeteries, the deportation of its cults, were a more surely mortal blow than displacing the population.”

Unsurprisingly, the Carthaginians refused. A three-year siege ensued that ended in the sacking and desolation of the city. The Roman chronicler Appian detailed the last days of Carthage, including the massacre of its civilian population.

“All places were filled with groans, shrieks, shouts, and every kind of agony. Some were stabbed, others were hurled alive from the roofs to the pavement, some of them alighting on the heads of spears or other pointed weapons, or swords,” he wrote. He went on:

“Then came new scenes of horror. As the fire spread and carried everything down, the soldiers did not wait to destroy the buildings little by little, but all in a heap. So the crashing grew louder, and many corpses fell with the stones into the midst. Others were seen still living, especially old men, women, and young children who had hidden in the inmost nooks of the houses, some of them wounded, some more or less burned, and uttering piteous cries. Still others, thrust out and falling from such a height with the stones, timbers, and fire, were torn asunder in all shapes of horror, crushed and mangled.”

This gruesome spectacle, as well as the six days of looting that followed, is probably what Kerry meant when he declared: “This could be like Carthage with the Romans, if you call that a victory.” For the Assad regime, total victory would involve a tremendous slaughter.

But the Romans certainly could call it a victory — their great nemesis was quashed once and for all. Appian recounts what happened when news of the siege's end reached Rome: The city's populace “poured into the streets and spent the whole night congratulating and embracing each other like people just now delivered from some great fear, just now confirmed in their worldwide supremacy, just now assured of the permanence of their own city, and winners of such a victory as never before.”

This is very far away from the Syrian conflict and the international community's inability to bring it to an end. But even as Kerry sounded his warning, the Assad regime continued to embrace a zero-sum game, flouting a cease-fire and expanding its bombing campaign and ground offensive against rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

“This means welcome to hell,” a teacher who lives in rebel-held Aleppo told my colleague Liz Sly. “We expect extermination.”

• Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/09/23/the-ancient-tragedy-john-kerry-used-to-explain-syria

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

‘Aleppo is being burned’: Residents cope
with an onslaught of airstrikes

By ERIN CUNNINGHAM, LOUISA LOVELUCK and HEBA HABIB | 6:43PM EDT - Friday, September 23, 2016


People inspect a damaged site after reported airstrikes on the rebel held Tariq al-Bab neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria,
on September 23rd, 2016. — Photograph: Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters.

ISTANBUL — Residents of the Syrian city of Aleppo have grown used to the explosions. But on Friday, the bombs rained down like never before.

First, a nationwide cease-fire collapsed. Then, on Thursday, government forces warned that they would retake the part of the city held by rebels. By Friday night, hundreds of strikes had pounded Aleppo, and scores of people were dead.

“The bombing is constant, and it doesn't stop,” said Om Majed Karman, a resident of a part of Aleppo now under attack. The past few days, she said, have been “the worst I've ever seen.”

The offensive dealt a fresh blow to efforts to revive the cease-fire, which was sponsored by Russia and the United States. The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the situation was “really tragic.”

The next few days “are crucial for making or breaking it,” he said. The meetings between the United States and Russia have been “long, painful, and disappointing.”

Now, residents in the eastern part of Aleppo — Syria's largest city — are under bombardment and grappling with the shocks of the last two weeks.

An estimated 250,000 people remain in eastern Aleppo, which the rebels have controlled since 2012. But residents are cut off from food, fuel and water, and government planes frequently bomb the area.

The truce, which began on September 12th, brought a rare calm, silencing weapons and allowing residents to sleep. Children frolicked in parks, and neighbors chatted. Both activities would have been unthinkable just days earlier.

The welcome lull in violence lasted six days. But the cease-fire was rapidly unraveling, and the United Nations struggled to get aid to the besieged populace.

The United Nations prepared a 40-truck convoy with packages of rice, flour, oil and beans to feed roughly 80,000 people for a month. But the trucks remained stuck on the Turkey-Syria border, awaiting clearance from the Syrian government to proceed.

The holdup in relief supplies made the cease-fire bittersweet. There were no bombs, but neither was there food, fuel or electricity.

When the bombs stop, “then you just start worrying about immediate problems,” said Karman, 58.

“If there is food, if the children are okay,” she said. “There is no milk, no cheese, nothing. We are living on the last of the aid.”

But even as Syrians emerged to enjoy the cease-fire, the accord quickly crumbled, shattering their hopes of even temporary peace.

“This is not the same city as last week,” said Ammar al-Selmo, a civil-defense volunteer with the White Helmets group.

Selmo is director of the White Helmets' Aleppo branch. Overnight on Thursday, three of the group's four centers were bombed. The strikes destroyed vehicles and equipment, and volunteers could not reach the trapped and wounded.

“The White Helmets are completely exhausted,” Selmo said. “Aleppo is being burned.”


A Syrian man carries the body of his nephew after a reported airstrike on September 23rd, 2016, on the al-Muasalat area in Aleppo.
 — Photograph: Thaer Mohammed/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

The war, which began in 2011 with demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, has killed nearly half a million people. The United States, Russia, Iran and Turkey are all involved in the fighting.

Russia and the United States are on opposing sides in the war, but together they have brokered two cease-fires that have failed.

Russia intervened last year to prop up Assad, sending troops and aircraft into the country. The United States, meanwhile, has trained some rebel groups and backs the Syrian opposition. At the same time, the United States is spearheading airstrikes against the Islamic State extremist group.

Each side has accused the other of violating the latest cease-fire, or at least failing to persuade local allies to abide by it. A week ago, warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition mistakenly struck a camp occupied by Syrian government soldiers, killing more than 60 troops. Russia blamed the United States.

Later, U.S. officials blamed Russia for deadly strikes on a humanitarian convoy. That attack killed more than 20 people, including aid workers, and temporarily halted the movement of U.N. convoys in Syria.

Still, residents of eastern Aleppo have their own coping mechanisms. And amid the political and diplomatic chaos, they reach for small moments of daily normality.

Karman, whose son was killed, rocks her 2-year-old granddaughter when the airstrikes are frighteningly loud.

“The older children have stopped caring, in a way,” she said. “They stay in the street and watch the planes so they can figure out where they're going.”

Amr Arab and his family survived an assault on their home on Wednesday. He said he tells his brother's children stories to distract them from the war.

“We try to talk and joke,” he said. “To make it seem like it's not a big deal, and so the children stay calm.”

In the mornings, teacher Mohammed Adel and his pregnant wife, Rahaf, thank God that they are alive.

“She asks me for apples, but I can't bring them,” Adel said of his wife. Her diet now is just rice, dates and beans.

In the Arab household — which includes Amr's aunt, his brother and his brother's children — everyone sleeps in the same room each night.

“We head to the basement, or rooms close to the center of the house,” said Arab, 24.

“We open the doors, and make sure there is no metal,” he said. “Because it will turn into shrapnel.”

• Louisa Loveluck reported from Washington. Heba Habib reported from Berlin.

• Erin Cunningham is an Istanbul-based correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously covered conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan for The Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost and The National.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/after-brief-period-of-calm-aleppo-residents-cope-with-onslaught-of-strikes/2016/09/23/ea6d918c-8044-11e6-9578-558cc125c7ba_story.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

A ferocious assault on Aleppo suggests
the U.S. may be wrong on Syria

By LIZ SLY | 7:43PM EDT - Friday, September 23, 2016


Destruction after an airstrike in the rebel-held Ansari district in Aleppo, Syria, on Friday. “It is a horrific situation,”
said Ammar al-Selmo, head of the city's branch of the White Helmets civil defense group.
 — Photograph: Karam Al-Masri/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

BEIRUT — Syrian and Russian warplanes launched a ferocious assault against rebel-held Aleppo on Friday, burying any hopes that a U.S.-backed cease-fire could be salvaged and calling into question whether the deal would ever have worked.

Waves upon waves of planes relentlessly struck neighborhoods in the rebel-held east of the city on the first day of a new offensive announced by the government. Residents described the most intense airstrikes they had yet witnessed in a five-year-old war that has already claimed in excess of 300,000 lives.

By nightfall, more than 100 bombs had landed, and more than 80 people were dead, said Ammar al-Selmo, head of the Aleppo branch of the White Helmets civil defense group.

Rescuers don't have the capacity to reach all the places that were hit because there are too many, he said. Three White Helmets bases were among the locations targeted, and two were destroyed, along with their equipment and fuel supplies, further diminishing the group's ability to respond.

“It is a horrific situation now in Aleppo,” Selmo said. “There are dead people in the streets, and fires are burning without control.

“People don't know what to do or where to go. There is no escape. It is like the end of the world.”

If there had been any doubt before that the cease-fire deal co-sponsored with Russia is dead, at least for the foreseeable future, the violence Friday put it to rest. A meeting in New York between Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ended swiftly, without statements or discernible progress toward Kerry's stated goal of reviving last week’s cease-fire.

Instead, the launch of the offensive called into question the entire premise of the agreement painstakingly negotiated by Kerry and Lavrov over the past eight months: that Russia shares the Obama administration's view that there is no military solution to the conflict. On that basis, U.S. officials have explained, Moscow would be willing to pursue a negotiated settlement in return for a cease-fire and the prestige of eventually conducting joint military operations in Syria alongside the United States against terrorist groups.

At a news conference in New York, Lavrov offered a starkly different point of view. He said it is the United States that needs to come around to the idea that President Bashar al-Assad is the only viable partner in the fight against terrorism, calling his army “the single most efficient force fighting terror in Syria.”

“Little by little, life will make everyone understand that it's only together that you can fight terrorism,” Lavrov said.

His comments, alongside the events of the past week, suggest that Russia and Syria still believe the war can be won outright, without recourse to negotiations that the United States has said offer the only way out of the Syrian tragedy.

A U.S. strike against a Syrian army position in the east of the country last Saturday exposed the deficit of trust between the two parties to the deal, with the Pentagon insisting it was a mistake but Russia accusing the United States of collaborating with the Islamic State.

But the deal may have been doomed before that, by conflicting interpretations of the war on the ground. Assad has repeatedly expressed his intention to reconquer all of Syria from the rebels he uniformly calls “terrorists”, and he reiterated that determination on the eve of the cease-fire.

Days before the truce took hold, the assortment of Iraqi militias, Hezbollah fighters, government militias and Syrian army troops finally completed the encirclement of rebel-held Aleppo, after months of fighting and hundreds of casualties that included several senior Iranian officers fighting alongside regime forces.

“The Russians were eventually seeing progress in their strategy without any cease-fire. The regime's military situation was improving. Assad's position was solidifying. Russia's strategic goals in the region were being met,” said Jeff White of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “There was no compelling reason for them to push hard for a cease-fire. The person pushing hard was Kerry, but the Russians were sort of, ‘Meh, we can take it or leave it’.”


The body of a child is pulled from the rubble of a building in Aleppo, Syria. — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

Iran's support has proved as instrumental as Russia's in shoring up Assad's hold on power, with Iranian-trained and -funded Shiite militias from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah, reinforcing the depleted Syrian army on most of the important front lines.

Whether Russia ever would have been able to persuade Assad to comply with the deal is in question, said Robert Ford, who served as U.S. ambassador to Syria during the earliest years of the uprising against Assad and is now with the Washington-based Middle East Institute. It is also far from clear whether the United States would have been able to sell the fractious rebels on a deal that would have required them to separate from extremists, he said.

“Both the U.S. and Russia overestimated the other side's leverage,” he said.

An attack on a U.N. aid convoy on Monday — by Russian warplanes, according to the Pentagon, though Russia has denied any involvement — suggested that Russia's military also was in no mood for a deal that would halt the war just when it was going Assad's way.

The attack puzzled many in Moscow who thought that Russia wanted the deal, said Vladimir Frolov, a foreign affairs columnist for The Moscow Times. But, he said, it now appears that Russia is “leaning towards the view that this war is winnable.”

“Realistic people realize that this is not possible, but some people are unrealistic,” he added.

Whether the war can be won is in question. Vast areas of the country have fallen out of government control. The north and northeast are now controlled either by Kurds allied with the United States or by the Islamic State, which no one disputes should be vanquished by force.

But those areas are sparsely populated, consist mostly of desert and — although they contain small quantities of rapidly depleting oil — do not rank as vital to Assad's continued hold on power in Damascus, the capital.

The war for control of the Islamic State-held parts of Syria has been less of a priority for the government and Russia than the one to recapture the rest of the country, which Assad supporters call “the useful Syria” because it is where most of the population lives. There, the battles have been going mostly Assad's way.

Russia's dispatch of troops and warplanes a year ago has worked to secure the regime's grip on the capital and to reverse or halt rebel gains in the north and the south.

Meanwhile, communities that had held out against government forces for years have been gradually surrendering, most recently al-Waer, the last neighborhood of the once-rebellious city of Homs to give up the fight.

Aleppo remains an exception, an important urban center that the government was unable even to encircle until this month. Before rebel fighters overran the eastern portion of the city in the summer of 2012, it was Syria's biggest metropolis, with a population of 3 million, and the epicenter of the country's industry and trade. As long as the rebels have a presence there, they can claim a stake in the future of Syria — but without it, their revolt against Assad's rule becomes a rural insurgency contained within the country's border provinces, diplomats say.

Any battle for Aleppo would be bloody and long. An estimated 250,000 people are trapped there, far more than in any of the other communities, and the rebels have had four years to dig in and reinforce their positions. It could become the next bargaining chip in any negotiations that may take place between Moscow and Washington.

“I could imagine the regime retaking Aleppo eventually,” Ford said. “The direction of the battle is glacial, but it is only going in one direction.”

• Karen DeYoung in New York contributed to this report.

• Liz Sly is The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief. She has spent more than 15 years covering the Middle East, including the Iraq war. Other postings include Africa, China and Afghanistan.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • ‘Aleppo is being burned’: Residents cope with an onslaught of airstrikes

 • Signs of panic in the heart of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate

 • 10 new wars that could be unleashed as a result of the one against ISIS

 • U.S. is trapped between its allies' ambitions in Syria

 • With ISIS on the run, new wars could erupt in Iraq

 • How the Syrian revolt went so horribly, tragically wrong

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-ferocious-assault-on-aleppo-suggests-the-us-may-be-wrong-on-syria/2016/09/23/909e33b0-80d9-11e6-9578-558cc125c7ba_story.html

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

http://www.pravdareport.com/video/23-09-2016/135692-syria-0/

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

Syrian and Russian airstrikes continue
major offensive to take back Aleppo

By LOUISA LOVELUCK | 5:05PM EDT - Saturday, September 24, 2016


Syrian government forces gather in the largely deserted Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat, north of Aleppo,
on September 24th, after they captured the area following multiple Russian airstrikes.
 — Photograph: George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

SYRIAN and Russian warplanes launched a fresh blitz on Aleppo on Saturday as government troops pressed a major offensive to take back the city.

In the rebel-held eastern suburbs, residents said scores of civilians had been killed or injured, pushing doctors to work 24-hour shifts and treat patients on bloodied floors when beds ran out.

The attacks — ongoing since Monday — have shredded a cease-fire deal hailed by the United States and Russia as a rare chance to push the war toward peace talks and its eventual conclusion.

In its place are bombs, raining down with a ferocity unseen during five years of war.

A provisional death toll provided by local nongovernmental organizations on Saturday suggested that at least 92 people had been killed in the eastern suburbs since dawn.

“We did not sleep,” said Omair Omar, a young journalism student from Aleppo. As warplanes droned overhead, his room filled with the flash and rumble of several explosions.

For Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the city represents an important prize that would expand government control in the north and deprive opposition groups of one of their last main strongholds.

East Aleppo's population of 275,000 has been under near-continuous siege since government troops encircled the area in mid-July.

On Saturday, government troops dueled with rebels for control of Handarat, a Palestinian refugee camp that sits on high ground overlooking a main road into Aleppo. Assad's forces moved on the site in the early morning, marking the first major advance in an offensive heralded as an attempt to take back the city.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Syria's top diplomat, Walid al-Moallem, told gathered leaders that his government's belief in military victory was being strengthened by its “great strides in the war against terrorism.”

But activists said this past week's airstrikes focused squarely on crippling what limited resources the crumbling suburbs have left. Among the targets, they say, have been operational hubs for the civil defense group known as the White Helmets, whose teams rush to bombing sites to aid survivors.

In a statement on Saturday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the escalation as “chilling” and said the apparent systematic use of incendiary weapons and bunker buster bombs may amount to war crimes.

UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, also warned that intensified attacks had left nearly 2 million people without access to clean water, posing serious risks to a population mostly reliant on highly contaminated wells.

“It is critical for children’s survival that all parties to the conflict stop attacks on water infrastructure,” it said in a statement. Wissam Zarqa, an English teacher, said his own Aleppo neighborhood was lucky to receive water every 15 days.

As the United States and Russia scrabbled on Saturday to revive the cease-fire, Syria's chief opposition coordinator, Riyad Hijab, told reporters there was “no longer any use” for such partial truces. “I know there is no Plan B, and that is why we are demanding the U.S. to do something and let there be a Plan B,” he said.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: Scenes from Aleppo

 • Syrian troops advance in Aleppo amid war's heaviest bombing

 • Syria believes it's on way to military victory

 • ‘Why did they wait to kill us?’: How the attack on the aid convoy near Aleppo unfolded

 • Full transcript of Associated Press interview with Syrian President Assad

 • U.S. calls on Russia and Syria to ground all aircraft in northwest Syria

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-and-russian-airstrikes-continue-major-offensive-to-take-back-aleppo/2016/09/24/cebf5bb4-81cf-11e6-8327-f141a7beb626_story.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

U.S. accuses Russia of ‘barbarism’ and war crimes in Syria

By LOUISA LOVELUCK and LIZ SLY | 6:18PM EDT - Sunday, September 25, 2016


U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaks during an emergency meeting on Syria on Sunday
at the United Nations. — Photograph: Bryan R. Smith/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

THE United States accused Russia of “barbarism” and war crimes in Syria on Sunday as Moscow's airstrikes over Aleppo pushed a humanitarian crisis there to new depths.

The nations sparred verbally at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting called to demand that Russia rein in its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and halt the blistering attacks on Syria's second city.

“Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war,” said Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism. It is barbarism.”

A September 9th cease-fire deal guaranteed by the United States and Russia was smashed a week ago by Russian and Syrian airstrikes on a U.N. aid convoy. Despite frantic diplomacy to get that truce back on track, Sunday's Security Council meeting suggested that divisions between the two sides were deepening.

“Instead of helping get lifesaving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” Power said.

But Russia's representative, Vitaly Churkin, instead blamed his American counterparts for the return to fighting and insisted Assad's forces had shown “admirable restraint.”

“I just need to explain what working with our American colleagues is like,” he said, telling the 15-member council that Washington had failed to rein in violence by the rebel forces it backs in Syria. “Bringing a peace is almost an impossible task now,” he said.


Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin addresses the Security Council. — Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters.

As the war of words unfolded in New York, Aleppo's rebel-held eastern neighborhoods were being shaken by the most ferocious aerial attacks there in recent memory. A provisional death toll provided by local nongovernmental organizations suggested at least 85 people had been killed there since early Sunday.

“This is the worst day,” said Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, an English teacher living close to the city's front line. “The people here are psychologically broken.”

The latest attacks have appeared to target what resources the eastern neighborhoods have left. Branches of at least three rescue teams have been hit by airstrikes, and firetrucks and ambulances have been damaged or destroyed.

Hamdo said on Sunday that some rescue teams no longer had enough ambulances to reach families suffocating under the rubble of their homes.

For Assad, Aleppo represents an important prize that would expand government control in the north and deprive opposition groups of one of their last strongholds.

Home to an estimated 275,000 people, east Aleppo's rebel-held neighborhoods have been under near-continuous siege since government troops encircled the area in mid-July.

Residents say fuel and medical supplies are low, forcing doctors to turn off oxygen machines and operate by the light of their cellphones.

“We've never seen anything this bad,” Maher Saqqur, a Syrian neurosurgeon, said on Sunday, speaking from a Canadian clinic where he consults with Aleppo doctors via Skype.

“The doctors can do nothing but triage on the floor, and still the bodies keep coming. They don't even have time to take a sip of water. We're seeing massacres every hour,” he said.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in east Aleppo over the past week. According to eyewitnesses, the arsenal raining down has included white phosphorus, cluster munitions, barrel bombs and “bunker busters” — munitions so powerful that they can reach the basements where civilians try to shelter from attacks.

U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura described the attacks Sunday as “unprecedented in scale and type.” He said his team had been notified of “fireballs of such intensity that they light up the pitch darkness as if it was daylight.”

His words drew immediate condemnation from Iran — a key force behind the Assad government's survival — which insisted that pro-Assad forces were not using internationally banned weaponry.

According to Save the Children, half of the casualties being pulled from the rubble or treated in hospitals are children. Saqqur said on Sunday that a growing number of his infant patients were being brought to the hospital with the shrapnel of cluster munitions penetrating their brains.

If the Syrian government is intent on taking Aleppo, de Mistura warned on Sunday, it will face a “grinding” fight that destroys what is left of the city without any guarantee of victory.

“A so-called military solution is impossible, including in Aleppo,” he said, urging the United States and Russia to go “that extra mile” and save the September 9th cessation of hostilities agreement “at the eleventh hour.”

But as darkness fell on Aleppo and the bombs continued, civilians there voiced deep skepticism over the prospects of an internationally brokered peace. “The best thing the U.N. Security Council can do is stop their talking,” Hamdo said. “It makes no difference here.”

• Liz Sly reported from Beirut.

• Liz Sly is The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief. She has spent more than 15 years covering the Middle East, including the Iraq war. Other postings include Africa, China and Afghanistan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-accuses-russia-of-barbarism-and-war-crimes-in-syria/2016/09/25/c3a00750-833d-11e6-b57d-dd49277af02f_story.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm....the words “pot”, “kettle” and “black” come to mind here…

Remind me again....how many hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians died when America indulged in warmongering in Afghanistan and Iraq?

I believe the Jesuslanders called it “collateral damage!” when they were the ones indulging in barbarism.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

A soliloquy on Syria

By FRED HIATT | 7:16PM PDT - Sunday, September 25, 2016


President Obama at the 71st annual U.N. General Assembly in New York last Tuesday. — Photograph: Peter Foley/Bloomberg.

IN HIS final appearance before the U.N. General Assembly a few days ago, President Obama didn't have much to say about the civil war between Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his enemies.

“There's no ultimate military victory to be won,” he said, and so the United States would “pursue the hard work of diplomacy that aims to stop the violence, and deliver aid to those in need, and support those who pursue a political settlement.”

Then he moved on to other matters.

Given that Syria is his greatest humanitarian and strategic failure, where even as he spoke his latest diplomatic initiative was about to collapse, the brevity wasn't surprising.

But, Obama being Obama, you can be sure he had given the issue a lot more thought than his few words would indicate.

And if he'd been thinking aloud, here's what you might have heard:

“Of course Kerry's latest peace deal will collapse. Vladi­mir Putin is winning, why should he stick to a deal? And even if Putin wants to play nice, why would Assad go along? He's winning, too — if he wants to destroy the last human beings in Aleppo, who's going to stop him?”

“So is it unfair to keep letting John head out on these doomed missions? Year after year, he promises to get a deal and swears we'll move to Plan B if the Syrians or Russians renege. Time after time, they double-cross him, and he goes back for more. There is no Plan B, because I won't approve a Plan B.”

“But John gets praised for his tirelessness. And we all look like we're trying. If I can just pull it off one more time, the whole mess will be Hillary's. Or, God forbid, the other guy's.”

“The truth is, no one should want Assad gone, as odious as he is. I can't say that aloud, of course, since I got roped into pronouncing him finished years ago. Yes, he's a mass murderer and a torturer. He's even showing me up by using chemical weapons again after Vladimir and I supposedly solved that problem. The chlorine loophole.”

“But what's the alternative? The ‘moderate’ opposition? Don't make me laugh. Maybe I shouldn't have mocked them as ‘farmers or teachers or pharmacists’, but honestly — al-Qaeda or ISIS would waltz into Damascus if Assad went down.”

“Oh, I know what Hillary would say. If I had listened to her back in 2011 and 2012 — and to Petraeus, and Panetta, and the rest of them — the ‘moderate force’ would be stronger now. We should have trained them and carved out safe spaces for them and given them a chance against Assad. John tried the same argument on me when he started. He thought he could give it a new spin and sucker me in where Hillary had failed.”

“Well, I know what the I-told-you-so crowd is saying. I wouldn't go for it, because I worried that if we sent troops terrorism would spread, the country would fall apart, you'd get millions of refugees and even Russia might get involved. So we didn't get involved, and, yes: Terrorism spread, the country fell apart, you got millions of refugees, and Russia got involved. And, yes, all of Europe is unstable because of Syria.”

“But you know what? It could have been worse. You could have had all these bad things happen — hundreds of thousands killed, half the country driven from their homes — and U.S. troops in the middle of it all. That's the Bush way. I protected us from that.”

“So now it's Putin's problem. Is that so bad? Maybe it hasn't turned into a quagmire for him yet, like I said it would, but wait. Syria isn't finished with him yet.”

“And what will the next president do? There's a reason you're not hearing ideas from either of them. No-fly zones? A little late for that, with Russian air-defense systems blanketing the country. Safe zones? Who's going to keep them safe? Bad enough that I'm having to do an LBJ in Iraq, sending troops back in 500 at a time.”

“It looks bad, I get that. I hate the whole mess. I'd rather talk about climate change or Burma or even Ukraine, for God's sake. And, yes, a generation from now some president may travel to whatever's left of Aleppo and express remorse, like I've done in Laos and Hiroshima and everywhere else.”

“That's fine. Comes with the territory. I just hope they understand this much: It always looks easier in hindsight. There was no obvious right answer. Sometimes civil wars just have to burn themselves out.”

“Now, where's John? I just need him to buy me four more months. Four more months, and it's somebody else's problem from hell.”

• Fred Hiatt is the editorial page editor of The Washington Post. He writes editorials for the newspaper and a biweekly column that appears on Mondays. He also contributes to the PostPartisan blog.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Michael Ignatieff and Leon Wieseltier: Enough is enough — U.S. abdication on Syria must come to an end

 • Anne Applebaum: The disastrous nonintervention in Syria

 • The Washington Post's View: Obama retreats from Putin in Syria — again

 • Frederic C. Hof: Obama and Kerry's wishful thinking on Syria

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-soliloquy-on-syria/2016/09/25/81b8f7f0-81b4-11e6-8327-f141a7beb626_story.html

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

wow i think a lot of the stuff he is saying is the truth

but here is what he's not saying

How the US Supports the Islamic State (ISIS): One “Accidental Airdrop” vs Billions in Covert Military Aid

http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-us-supports-the-islamic-state-isis-one-accidental-airdrop-vs-billions-in-covert-military-aid/5409449

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

‘Surrender and you can eat again’: Aleppo on the brink

By DAVID IGNATIUS | 7:28PM EDT - Tuesday, October 04, 2016


A boy sits on a bicycle in front of damaged shops after an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria,
on September 25th. — Photograph: Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters.

“CATASTROPHIC” is the word several U.S. officials use privately to discuss the latest developments in Syria, in which a savage Russian bombing campaign has brought Aleppo near the point of surrender. Yet even as members of the Obama administration acknowledge the horror, they remain wary of options that might counter the onslaught.

Whatever else U.S. officials say about Syria, they should begin with an admission that we are diminished, as individuals and as a nation, by watching the destruction of a city and its people. Russia may be wading further into a military quagmire, but the United States is deep in a moral one. The stain of Syria won't leave our national consciousness for many years.

U.S. intelligence officials describe a Russian campaign to break the Syrian opposition's will, much as the United States and its allies did in the incendiary bombing of German and Japanese cities in World War II. Russian weapons now include thermobaric bombs, incendiary munitions, cluster bombs and bunker busters. They are attempting to burn Aleppo alive.

As cease-fire talks collapsed over the past two weeks, the Russians have struck hospitals, bread lines at bakeries, civilian neighborhoods. The message, says one U.S. analyst, is: “Surrender and you can eat again.”

Here's a U.S. intelligence official’s chilling assessment: “The Syrian regime and its Russian backers have adopted a calculated approach of exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in Aleppo as a weapon of war. Their apparent goal is to make living conditions in the city so intolerable that the opposition has no choice but to capitulate.”

Think about those dry analytical words: The Russians have made civilian suffering “a weapon of war.”

U.S. analysts fear that Aleppo may fall in a few weeks, marking a significant turning point in the war. The analysts note that the city could hold out several months longer, given residents' resilience. I witnessed that spirit four years ago this month, when I visited Aleppo as it was being shelled, even then, by the regime. I stayed a few hours. The Syrian residents have remained for 48 months.

If Aleppo does fall, what then? The answer is a deeper, nastier civil war. Explains the U.S. intelligence official: “Even if the regime is able to eke out a victory in Aleppo, the opposition will not be easily defeated. They are simply too large to defeat.” The opposition force totals about 100,000, including fighters from the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, analysts estimate. (The group said recently that it was changing its name to the Front for the Conquest of Syria and splitting from al-Qaeda.)

U.S. officials see two possibilities if Aleppo surrenders. Opposition fighters could disperse and harass Syrian and Russian troops behind the lines or they could concentrate forces in the rural areas of provinces such as Idlib, Homs, Hama and Daraa where the opposition is already strong. The United States and its coalition partners — such as Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — could increase covert military support to these fighters.

Backing the opposition is a tricky problem. A U.S. official says Jabhat al-Nusra has been the “main beneficiary” (other than the Assad regime) of Russia's onslaught. “Until Moscow stops bombing hospitals and aid workers, Nusra will continue to exploit the situation … and portray itself as the defender of the Syrian people,” the official explained.

“What's ahead is not regime control, but guerrilla warfare,” predicts one analyst. For Russia, that can't be an appetizing prospect. That's one reason U.S. officials are keeping the door open for Russia to return to the table — not in bilateral talks with the United States, which were suspended this week, but in a multilateral forum that might include Iran and Saudi Arabia.

White House caution about military options is reinforced by the Pentagon, as has been the case since the Syria conflict began. Pentagon officials still cite a 2013 letter from General Martin Dempsey, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warning Congress that a no-fly zone to protect civilians would cost $500 million initially and $1 billion a month thereafter, and would “require hundreds of ground and sea-based aircraft.” The administration's wariness has deepened since Russia's intervention in 2015.

If military options are risky in Aleppo, what about humanitarian assistance? Here, there's an opportunity for America to be bold — in a massive mobilization, organized as quickly as hurricane or earthquake relief, that could bring aid to suffering civilians.

Line the relief convoys up at the Turkish, Jordanian and Lebanese borders and dare the Russians to stop them. Air-drop supplies to a besieged, desperate city. Let the world see what Russia's brutal policies have brought. These are inadequate, imperfect options, but they're surely better than doing nothing.

• David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column for The Washington Post and contributes to the PostPartisan blog.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Richard Cohen: Aleppo is a symbol of American weakness

 • The Washington Post's View: As Aleppo burns, the U.S. hems and haws

 • The Washington Post's View: As Aleppo is destroyed, Mr. Obama stands by

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/surrender-and-you-can-eat-again-aleppo-on-the-brink/2016/10/04/fff6ecd0-8a6f-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66_story.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

Russian air defense raises stakes of U.S. confrontation in Syria

By KAREN DeYOUNG | 6:37PM EDT - Monday, October 17, 2016


Members of the Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, search for victims amid the rubble of a destroyed building
following reported air strikes in the rebel-held Qatarji neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo, on October 17th, 2016.
 — Photograph: (Karam Al-Masri/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

RUSSIA's completion this month of an integrated air defense system in Syria has made an Obama administration decision to strike Syrian government installations from the air even less likely than it has been for years, and has created a substantial obstacle to the Syrian safe zones both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have advocated.

Deployment of mobile and interchangeable S-400 and S-300 missile batteries, along with other short-range systems, now gives Russia the ability to shoot down planes and cruise missiles over at least 250 miles in all directions from western Syria, covering virtually all of that country as well as significant portions of Turkey, Israel, Jordan and the eastern Mediterranean.

By placing the missiles as a threat “against military action” by other countries in Syria, Russia has raised “the stakes of confrontation,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said on Sunday.

While there is some disagreement among military experts as to the capability of the Russian systems, particularly the newly deployed S-300, “the reality is, we're very concerned anytime those are emplaced,” a U.S. Defense official said. Neither its touted ability to counter U.S. stealth technology, or to target low-flying aircraft, has ever been tested by the United States.

“It's not like we've had any shoot at an F-35,” the official said of the next-generation U.S. fighter jet. “We're not sure if any of our aircraft can defeat the S-300.”



For more than two years, Syria has tacitly accepted U.S. and coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State, in areas relatively far afield from where the civil war is being fought. An agreement signed by Moscow and Washington last fall, after Russia sent its own air force to join that of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is designed to ensure that U.S. and Russian planes stay well away from each other.

But the ongoing Russian-Syrian siege of Aleppo, and the failure of diplomatic negotiations to stop it, has forced the administration to reconsider its options, including the use of American air power to ground Assad's air force.

The possibility of using U.S. air power in the civil war, even to patrol a safe zone for civilians, has never been favored by the Pentagon, which has argued that it would involve preemptory strikes on Syria's fixed air defenses. Now, with the installation of a comprehensive, potent Russian air defense system, many military officials see it as risking a great power game of chicken, and possible war, according to senior administration officials.

Several officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Russian capabilities and recent high-level White House meetings on Syria, Iraq and the Islamic State, including a Friday gathering of the National Security Council chaired by President Obama. The NSC session largely focused on the Mosul offensive begun against the Islamic State this week, and an upcoming operation against the militants in the city of Raqqa, their Syrian headquarters.

Consideration of other alternatives, including the shipment of arms to U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in Syria, and an increase in the quantity and quality of weapons supplied to opposition fighters in Aleppo and elsewhere, were deferred until later, officials said. U.S. military action to stop Syrian and Russian bombing of civilians was even further down the list of possibilities.

Another senior official dismissed what he called Moscow’s “yard sale approach” of displaying all available systems to attract potential purchasers, and said last month's S-300 deployment did not much change Russian capabilities from where they have been over the past year. Russian arms sellers have repeatedly hailed the performance of their weaponry in Syria and claimed heightened sales abroad.

U.S. strikes in heavily populated western Syria, despite the presence there of al-Qaeda-affiliated forces of the Front for the Conquest of Syria, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, have been few and far between, precisely to avoid the risk of civil war involvement and, more recently, confrontation with Russia.

An attack early this month that eliminated a senior Front official in Idlib province, in northwestern Syria, was carried out by an unmanned U.S. drone, with notice provided to Russia.

Moscow has denied that Russian and Syrian attacks have intentionally struck civilians, saying they are directed toward the Front, some of whose forces are mixed with the rebels in Aleppo and elsewhere. In early September, Kerry said the United States would join with Russia in attacking the al-Qaeda forces, in exchange for a Russian and Syrian cease-fire and the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged civilians.

It was when that agreement fell apart — and the United States suspended contacts with Russia over Syria as hundreds of civilians have been killed in the brutal bombing of Aleppo — that the Russians moved to install S-300 missiles. They formed the final component of an integrated air defense system, along with S-400 and other surface-to-air systems previously deployed in and around Russia's Hmeimen air base in Latakia province along the Syrian coast.

Amid widespread talk of U.S. “kinetic” action to stop the Aleppo slaughter, the Russian Defense Ministry warned of the “possible consequences,” noting that “the range [of the defense systems] may come as a surprise to any unidentified flying objects.”

Russian soldiers and officers, it said, were working on the ground throughout territory controlled by the Syrian government and “any missile or airstrikes … will create a clear threat to Russian servicemen.”

In addition, the ministry said, following the September 17th U.S. airstrike that inadvertently killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in eastern Syria, “we have taken all necessary measures to avoid any such ‘mistakes’ against Russian troops and military installations in Syria.”

Neither the administration, nor either of the presidential nominees, has ever favored using U.S. combat forces in Syria's civil war. But the use of air power to create a zone inside the country where civilians could be safe from relentless airstrikes by Syria and Russia has long been advocated by regional allies and domestic critics of what is seen as a weak administration policy.

Both Clinton and Trump have favored such a strategy — in Clinton's case, since she was secretary of state. Trump has advocated establishing a safe zone inside Syria as a way to stem the flow of Syrian refugees to Europe and this country.

But while such zones — protected by U.S. air power — were established during years past in Iraq, Libya and Bosnia, all were against relatively weak opponents and conducted under United Nations authorization. Neither presidential nominee has addressed the question of comprehensive Russian air defenses.

Although Kerry has continued to try to revive the cease-fire, U.S. leverage against Russia appears minimal. Following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. European and regional allies last weekend, Kerry said that increased sanctions against both Russia and Syria were under consideration.

Meanwhile, Russia on Monday offered an eight-hour pause to the Aleppo bombing this week to allow Front militants and civilians to leave the city.

• Karen DeYoung is associate editor and senior national security correspondent for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • Fresh wave of airstrikes hit Syria's divided city of Aleppo

 • Little consensus within administration on how to stop fall of Aleppo to Assad

 • Kerry urges war crimes probe into Syrian and Russian bombing of civilians

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-air-defense-raises-stakes-of-us-confrontation-in-syria/2016/10/17/85c89220-948c-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

It's the US government that raised stakes by threatening Russia for upsetting their war crimes all over the middle east by. creating and arming terrorists.

These US and Saudi terrorists are murdering hundreds of thousands,gang raping and beheading small children.

Now they want a world wide nuclear war.

I am thinking the US voters might not like nukes raining down on their heads turning their country into toast.

Vote for Hillary and die

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

Syrian army retakes Aleppo's Old City as rebels discuss exit

Besieged and facing certain defeat, the militants called for civilians to be allowed to leave.
But some rebels sought a full withdrawal from their shattered stronghold.

By LOUISA LOVELUCK and KAREN DeYOUNG | 6:38PM EST - Wednesday, December 07, 2016


Smoke billows near the historic citadel during fighting between Syrian regime forces and rebel fighters in Aleppo on December 3rd.
 — Photograph: Youssef Karwashan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces swept through the Old City of Aleppo on Wednesday as rebel forces — besieged and facing certain defeat — debated when to withdraw from their shattered stronghold.

The government's push into the historic heart of Syria's largest city marks a defining moment in more than five years of war. The army and allied militiamen now control three-quarters of east Aleppo, the rebels' most important enclave.

The accelerating rebel collapse came as Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Germany for a last-ditch effort to agree on conditions that would allow the city to be evacuated. Kerry said the two would meet again on Thursday morning.

More than 730 people have been killed in Aleppo since the government offensive began on November 15th, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. On Wednesday, the militants called for a five-day cease-fire to allow civilians, including an estimated 500 people in need of medical evacuation, to leave for the countryside north of the city.

But officials within the armed opposition, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a much broader agreement was being discussed involving a full withdrawal from the city. Activists said dozens of rebels had already fled.



In comments published on Wednesday, President Bashar al-Assad said victory in Aleppo would be a “huge step” toward the end of Syria's war.

The eastern districts of the city have been under siege since July, with bombardment by Syrian and Russian warplanes killing hundreds of civilians and destroying hospitals that treated the wounded.

Repeated government warnings in recent weeks — sent via text message or printed on airdropped leaflets — have urged residents to leave, warning that those who stay will be “annihilated.”

In the winding, close alleys of Aleppo's 12th-century Old City, history has been erased. The 14th-century Old Souk has burned, and at the Umayyad Mosque, metal spikes twist out where a minaret once stood.

Inside what remains of the rebel enclave, there is a growing humanitarian crisis. Amid blistering bombardment, thousands of residents displaced by the offensive now shelter inside abandoned apartment blocks.

Food has almost run out, and fuel stocks are so low that rescue workers say they are often unable to reach the wounded. Photographs from the area during Wednesday showed several bodies piled outside a hospital.

“Even by Syrian standards, the recent bombardment and shelling have been the most intense in Aleppo,” Hanaa Singer, UNICEF's representative in Syria, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

The Syrian war has left almost half a million people dead and spurred the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. It has also become a proxy battleground. While Iran and Russia have kept Assad afloat, the United States, Turkey and the Persian Gulf states have offered varying degrees of support to groups that took up arms against the government in 2011.

In recent months, diplomacy has focused mostly on stanching the crisis in Aleppo.

President Obama and the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy on Wednesday signed a public statement saying they “condemn the actions of the Syrian regime and its backers, especially Russia,” for the Aleppo attacks and their refusal to allow humanitarian aid into the city and other besieged areas of Syria.

The Western leaders called on Syria and Russia to agree to a plan proposed by the United Nations for a cease-fire, humanitarian aid and talks on a transition government between the opposition and Assad. France will host a meeting in Paris on Saturday for opposition supporters from Europe and the Middle East; Kerry will attend.

The leaders' statement came after Russia and China on Monday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day truce in Aleppo. It was the sixth time that Moscow has blocked U.N. action on Syria.

In Germany, no progress was reported. Lavrov emerged from his meeting with Kerry in Hamburg after just over an hour, saying he had to leave for another appointment. Kerry told reporters that the two had “obviously talked about the extraordinarily dire situation in Aleppo, and we exchanged some ideas about it and we intend to reconnect in the morning to see where we are.”

Asked before the meeting if Russia would support a cease-fire, Lavrov told reporters as the meeting began that he had agreed to support the “American proposal of the 2nd of December.” In a meeting between the two Friday, Kerry proposed the safe departure of civilians and thousands in the “moderate opposition,” leaving behind the al-Qaeda-linked group that Russia and Syria insist is the target of their attacks.

When the rebels balked at the deal, Russia said it assumed it was off the table, but Lavrov agreed to meet with Kerry in Hamburg, where both are attending a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Kremlin confirmed Wednesday that a Russian military adviser in Aleppo died of wounds sustained in a rebel mortar attack. It was the third Russian fatality in Syria this week.

As pro-Assad forces moved in on the rebels' final enclave, civilians there said they had nowhere left to run. In their voice messages, explosions crackled in the background. And when asked whether they were safe, residents repeated the same words: “I'm alive.”

• Karen DeYoung reported from Hamburg. Andrew Roth in Moscow and Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.

• Louisa Loveluck is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Beirut. She was The Washington Post's Laurence Stern Fellow during the 2016 presidential election, reporting on the campaign trail, national security, and several mass shootings. She reported from Cairo and Istanbul as the Daily Telegraph's Egypt Correspondent and then Middle East Reporter. Her work from the region has also been published by The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times and the BBC.

• Karen DeYoung is associate editor and senior national security correspondent for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Syrian rebels in talks with U.S. about surrender in Aleppo

 • Russia, China veto UN proposal to stop deadly violence in Aleppo

 • In Aleppo, there's no way of counting the dead

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrian-army-retakes-aleppos-old-city-as-rebels-discuss-exit/2016/12/07/6ad0bd42-bc52-11e6-91ee-1adddfe36cbe_story.html

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

I believe trump is neither left or right wing some of the things he says are the same as bernie sanders
yet free market capitalism is something the us has not seen for many years,instead we have had a dose of crony capitalism which is just elite fascism.
soon it will be very different and normal people will get a fair go at improving their lot
but the education system needs to be cleansed to stop all the pc victim mentality brainwashing. 

I like trump once he gets rid of the radical left i think he will make this world into a much better place for a season,but first communism needs to be destroyed.
thats if the elite dont jfk him first.

not sure why i bother posting in here dont think there's anyone in here to turn off the light
might be better off to use twitter at least the people talk which proves they are alive.

should change the name of this site from Xtra News Community 2 to

KTJ's Mad Leftist Ramblings where he can talk to himself all day long and nobody gives a shit 

Besieged and facing certain defeat, the militants called for civilians to be allowed to leave.

WP misleading propaganda

when the truth is these so called rebel forces are ISIS or Al qaeda as they have always been and they are now deep in the crap and dont want to give up their human shields.

forget the washington post it's just the obama radical left propaganda mouthpiece talking BS pretending ooooh russia is bad for doing the same thing the us has been doing for the last 8 years under obama and his witch from hell hillary clinton 

This is the truth about what's really going on in syria
I borrowed this from a comment on youtube video
because he explains it all so perfectly



Parikshit Bhujbal1 month ago

LIES LIES LIES!

The Syrian conflict isn't a civil war at all, its a geopolitical war game for control of supply of middle east's energy to the European market!


In 2011, Assad declined an offer from the gulf states to build a gas pipeline thru its territory which would supply gas to the energy starved nations of Europe.
He did that Becuz it harmed the economic interest of its ally - Russia, who gets most of its foreign income by sale of petroleum & other hydrocarbons to Europe.(Russia gets around 68% of its foreign revenue from energy exports, mainly to Europe!)
At the same time, Arab spring also hit Syria and its citizens protested against the govt. This was initially a peaceful protest but was later backed & armed by the Qataris and Saudis cuz removing Assad served their national interest as they hoped to topple Assad & install a puppet leader who would allow for the construction of the pipeline in Syria.
Nations such as Turkey also supported anti-Assad forced cuz Assad was denying them million of dollars in transit revenues which the pipeline would have bought if it was constructed.
And of course Uncle Sam supported the gulf states cuz it too gained by denying Russia access to European gas markets as there was now a Shale gas boom in US and US wanted to sell this excess gas to Europe at Russia's expense!
They did this by removing the pro-Russia President of Ukraine with a pro-West one by inciting a nationalist revolution in Ukraine.The US target Ukraine because most of the gas that Russia sold to Europe passed thru Ukraine!
Russia felt economically threatened from two fronts now, from the west and from the south, hence it decided to direclty intervene in the Syrian conflict on behalf of Assad and Assad accepted Russian assistance cuz things were not going well for Syrian govt. on the ground.
Also, Syria has a mutually defense treaty with Iran, and they both share the same Shia ideology, hence Iran too backed Assad from the very beginning by proving financial and military aid to the Syrian govt.
This only infuriated the Sunni dominant gulf states even more and hence they vociferously criticized the Assad govt. and vehemently backed the Sunni rebels.
This violence has devastated Syria and its citizens, however, this works well for Israel cuz the Hezbollah, instead of fighting the Israelis now is busy fighting in Syria along with thousands of other jihadis.

This is just another geopolitical wargame folks,  fought over energy and influence. 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

ISIS is back in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra

The militants lost control of the city, site of one of the world's archaeological
treasures, nine months ago but now appear to be on the advance again
after months of setbacks in Iraq and Syria.

By LIZ SLY | 3:08PM EST - Saturday, December 11, 2016


A March 29th photo shows damages to the historical city of Palmyra, Syria. On Saturday, Islamic State (IS) fighters re-entered
Palmyra after the Syrian government forces gained control over the UNESCO World Heritage site in March.
 — Photograph: STR/European Pressphoto Agency.

BEIRUT — Islamic State militants fought their way back into the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on Saturday nine months after they were driven out by Syrian government forces, in a reminder that the group is still a force to be reckoned with despite major losses of territory elsewhere.

The advance into Palmyra seemed set to reverse a year of steady defeats for Islamic State fighters and came three days after a big offensive launched from three directions in the surrounding desert.

Palmyra is the site of an ancient Roman complex of temples that is considered one of the world's archaeological treasures, and work had recently begun on restoring some of the many ruins that were blown up during the Islamic State's 10-month occupation of the city.

It is also the one place where Russian military intervention had made a significant difference in the fight against the Islamic State. Russian airstrikes facilitated the Syrian government's recapture of Palmyra in March, and in May the Russian military escorted a planeload of journalists on a victory tour of the city, complete with a performance by a Russian orchestra.

Syrian activists and human rights monitors said Islamic State fighters entered the city itself late afternoon Saturday after government defenses collapsed. A Syrian activist from Palmyra who uses the name Khaled al-Homsi said that by late evening, the militants controlled most of the city. Islamic State fighters were detaining young men and looting stores of weapons, he said.

The offensive was aided by 200 Islamic State fighters who had made their way to the area from the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

With street fighting continuing, it remained unclear whether the militants would be able fully to recapture the city. Russia Today quoted a Syrian military official as saying the Syrian government still has forces inside Palmyra and has not fully lost control, despite what the official described as “fierce clashes.” The Islamic State has demonstrated a pattern in the past of launching spectacular attacks that catch its enemies unaware, only to be driven back once the defendants regroup.

If the militants were to fully regain control of Palmyra, it would represent a startling reversal of 18 months of setbacks and suggest that the outright defeat of the group may still be a long way off. The Islamic State has not made any significant advances in either Syria or Iraq since it captured Palmyra and the Iraqi city of Ramadi in May 2015, and it has meanwhile lost vast swaths of territory in both countries, including Palmyra and Ramadi.

The Palmyra advance coincides with a major U.S.-backed offensive by the Iraqi army for Mosul, where hopes for a swift victory are fading as the militants put up a stiff fight. They also still control large portions of Syria, including much of the vast eastern desert where Palmyra is located.

The U.S. military announced on Saturday that it was sending an additional 200 Special Operations troops to northern Syria to help the mostly Kurdish force that is battling the militants there.

The assault on Palmyra also comes as a further reminder that the Syrian army, despite substantial gains against rebel forces in recent weeks, is thinly spread, suffering from shortages of manpower and weary after more than five years of war.

The rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo seems poised to be recaptured soon by government troops, which are being aided by Iranian advisers, Shiite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, and Russian airstrikes. The government has also been making less-publicized advances against anti-government rebels around the capital, Damascus.

But in a pattern that has become typical throughout Syria's five-year war, gains on one front have meant drawing down troops on another, leaving government positions exposed.

The militants had sliced through government lines in recent days, capturing some of Syria's most important gas fields and sending government soldiers running for their lives. One video posted on Friday by the Islamic State showed about a dozen Syrian soldiers fleeing through the desert as militants fired on them with heavy machine guns. Another posted on Saturday showed them over-running Syrian government sniper positions in the desert outside the city, kicking at the dead bodies of Syrian soldiers and sifting through the tents they had been living in.

• Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul and Louisa Loveluck in Beirut contributed to this report.

• Liz Sly is The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief. She has spent more than 15 years covering the Middle East, including the Iraq war. Other postings include Africa, China and Afghanistan.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • Islamic State is driven from ancient Nimrud, where destruction is ‘worse than we thought’

 • ISIS destroyed almost half of an ancient city in Syria

 • The splendors of Palmyra, the ancient Syrian city ravaged by the Islamic State

 • How ancient ruins are perfect propaganda in the Middle East

 • Russian delegation in Syria’s ancient Palmyra marks liberation from Islamic State

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/isis-is-back-in-the-ancient-syrian-city-of-palmyra/2016/12/10/d60523b3-21c5-4db7-883c-6f89305c1b25_story.html

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

ISIS brought to you all by Hitlary and Obomber

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Washington Post....

Syrian troops pull out as Islamic State militants sweep back into ancient Palmyra

Militants claimed they had regained full control of the area less than a year after being driven out,
suggesting that ISIS remains a resilient force.

By LOUISA LOVELUCK, LIZ SLY and SUZAN HALDAMOUS | 12:30PM EST - Sunday, December 11, 2016


An April image provided by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows ancient ruins in Palmyra, Syria.
 — Photograph: Associated Press.

BEIRUT — Syrian troops pulled out of the ancient city of Palmyra on Sunday as Islamic State militants claimed they had regained full control of the area less than a year after being driven out.

Victory in the symbolically significant city would mark a startling reversal of the militant group's fortunes after months of setbacks and suggests that the Islamic State remains a resilient force.

The Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Islamic State, claimed on Sunday that the group had regained “full control” of Palmyra, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said President Bashar al-Assad’s troops had withdrawn to the south.

The local governor, Talal al-Barazi, said that the decision had been made to prepare for a counterattack “in the coming days.”

Long considered one of the world's greatest archaeological treasures, Palmyra's ancient Roman complex was partly destroyed by the Islamic State during its earlier 10-month occupation of the nearby modern city.

The group ruled with an iron fist, repurposing an iconic amphitheater as a stage for executions and enacting brutal punishments against residents who broke laws it imposed.

Russian airstrikes facilitated the Syrian government's recapture of Palmyra in March. This weekend, Moscow's bombing raids pushed the militants back only briefly, forcing a dawn retreat from the city before they swept back in hours later.

A Syrian activist from Palmyra who uses the pseudonym Khaled al-Homsi said residents remaining inside the city as the militants swept in on Sunday were among the area's poorest. Barazi, the governor, said that no more than 15 percent of the local population had returned since the Islamic State's previous occupation.

Palmyra was built as a tribute to the visiting Roman emperor Septimius Severus more than 2,000 years ago. Like many of the country's ancient treasures, Palmyra's ruins have been looted by government forces, damaged in fighting and airstrikes and shattered with dynamite during the Islamic State's previous spell in power.

The group had been advancing steadily since Thursday while the government waged a major offensive against rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.

Under pressure across its self-declared “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State appeared to be using the Palmyra attack in part as an opportunity to resupply its arsenal. Video footage by the group and news reports from pro-government reporters suggested that the group's fighters had looted military weapons stocks.

The attack was also a reminder that the group's defeat may be a long way off. The offensive coincides with a major U.S.-backed operation by the Iraqi government for the city of Mosul, where hopes for a swift victory against the Islamic State are fading as the militants put up a stiff fight.

The group still controls large portions of Syria, including much of the vast eastern desert where Palmyra is located.

The U.S. military announced on Saturday that it was sending an additional 200 Special Operations troops to northern Syria to help the mostly Kurdish force that is battling the militants there.

The assault on Palmyra also serves as a reminder that the Syrian army, despite substantial gains against rebel forces in recent weeks, is thinly spread, suffering from shortages of manpower and weary after more than five years of war.

The rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo seems poised to be recaptured soon by government troops, who are being aided by Iranian advisers; Shiite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon; and Russian airstrikes. The government has also been making less-publicized advances against rebels around the capital, Damascus.

But in a pattern that has emerged throughout Syria's war, gains on one front have meant drawing down troops on another, leaving government positions exposed. In Palmyra, a limited troop presence was all that remained when the Islamic State launched its assault, according to activists.

In a video published by Amaq on Saturday, Islamic State militants were seen routing army sniper positions, kicking soldiers' corpses and waving military identification cards for the camera.

In an apparent attempt to save face, the Russian military blamed the militants' advance on its pilots' unwillingness to cause civilian casualties. Since launching bombing raids on Assad's behalf in September 2015, the Russian air force has been accused by human rights groups of targeting civilian areas in most provinces across Syria.

• Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul and David Filipov in Moscow contributed to this report.

• Liz Sly is The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief. She has spent more than 15 years covering the Middle East, including the Iraq war. Other postings include Africa, China and Afghanistan.

• Louisa Loveluck is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Beirut. She was The Washington Post's Laurence Stern Fellow during the 2016 presidential election, reporting on the campaign trail, national security, and several mass shootings. She reported from Cairo and Istanbul as the Daily Telegraph's Egypt Correspondent and then Middle East Reporter. Her work from the region has also been published by The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times and the BBC.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/battle-rages-for-palmyra-as-islamic-state-is-poised-to-retake-control/2016/12/11/396552ea-bf9a-11e6-afd9-f038f753dc29_story.html

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

i think russia needs to use small tactical nukes to show these mofo what a real explosion looks like