Israeli airstrikes on Syria

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

T-Rump Very Troubling - No End in Sight

In late January President Trump requested a new plan from the US military to tackle ISIL, in which he called for “recommended changes to any United States rules of engagement and other United States policy restrictions that exceed the requirements of International law regarding the use of force against ISIS.”

[...]

“From what we’ve seen publicly, this administration is still finding its footing, and we don’t yet know exactly how it will respond to incidents of civilian harm,” Marla Keenan, senior director of programs at the Center for Civilians in Conflict told Airwars. Keenan added that it may be difficult to know if and when policy guidelines are officially changed. But President Trump – who during the campaign promised to “bomb the shit” out of ISIL – has indicated a willingness to escalate US airstrikes around the world, including most recently in Yemen, where the US launched more than 40 attacks in a five day period.

[...]

“The question that’s out there is to what extent has any relaxation of rules of engagement or restrictions based on civcas been put in place by the new administration,” they added. “I don’t know – clearly we have reporting on an increase in civcas [in Iraq and Syria]. To some extent that’s going to be driven by high-op tempo in urban areas – but the US also has a very long history of doing that kind of stuff very well in Afghanistan with minimal civilian casualties – so it begs the question, what is different?”

There are signs elsewhere – in the US’s unilateral campaign against alleged al Qaeda linked targets in Syria – that a higher tolerance for civilian casualties may be emerging. As Airwars first reported on March 16th, US aircraft bombed what was described as an al Qaeda “meeting place” – adjacent to what officials knew to be a mosque in rural western Aleppo. At least 42 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Parts of the mosque were also destroyed.

[...]

In a letter dated March 10th more than 30 former US officials wrote to US Defense Secretary Mattis, encouraging him to ensure continued civilian protections similar to those set out by the Obama administration.

[...]

Initial data for March provides further evidence that civilian casualty allegations are both becoming more common under President Trump, and are likely to outrun Coalition efforts to track and investigate them.

  Airwars

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Funerals, Weddings, Mosques

Dozens of people have been killed after fighter jets struck a packed mosque during prayer time in a rebel-held village in northern Syria, according to a monitoring group and activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group tracking developments in Syria's conflict, said Thursday's air raids in al-Jina, southwest of Atarib in the western countryside of Aleppo, killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens.

Dozens of people have been killed after fighter jets struck a packed mosque during prayer time in a rebel-held village in northern Syria, according to a monitoring group and activists. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group tracking developments in Syria's conflict, said Thursday's air raids in al-Jina, southwest of Atarib in the western countryside of Aleppo, killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens.

[...]

Many people are still trapped under rubble.

  alJazeera

Both the Russian Air Force as well as the United States(-led Coalition) have been accused of targeting the mosque in Al-Jīnah.

However, a photo showing an alleged weapon remnant found in the rubble of the mosque may reveal more about the perpetrator of the attack.

[...]

The photo was published on Twitter by Sakir Khader, a Dutch journalist, who said he received the photo from local activists on the ground. No results show up in a reverse image search, suggesting the photo has not been indexed by Google and may thus be authentic. The location and authenticity of the photo could not be independently referenced, and we are currently awaiting more photos and videos from the targeted site.

A text in Latin is visible on the alleged weapon remnant: “WT: 52.0 kg”. ‘WT’ is an abbreviation for ‘weight’, possibly referring to the weight of the missile. Interestingly, the specific font and abbreviation are used on US missiles.

[...]

Perhaps even more noteworthy is that the exact same label on a weapon remnant was found at the site of an alleged drone strike on a high value target (HVT) in Syria’s Idlib province in October 2016. At the day that those photos were published by pro-opposition Step News Agency, the US admitted targeting a target with a drone.

  Bellingcat

I cannot find other confirmation yet.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Untitled

Meanwhile in Syria

Last week Brig. Gen. Richard Coe, the lead US official on the investigating team, told reporters that US air strikes in Deir Ezzor on 17 September, which killed at least 62 - and possibly more than 100 - Syrian army troops, was the unintentional result of “human error”.

[...]

The summary report on an investigation into US and allied air strikes on Syrian government troops has revealed irregularities in decision-making consistent with a deliberate targeting of Syrian forces.

The report, released by US Central Command on 29 November, shows that senior US Air Force officers at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar, who were responsible for the decision to carry out the September airstrike at Deir Ezzor:

• misled the Russians about where the US intended to strike so Russia could not warn that it was targeting Syrian troops
• ignored information and intelligence analysis warning that the positions to be struck were Syrian government rather than Islamic State
• shifted abruptly from a deliberate targeting process to an immediate strike in violation of normal Air Force procedures

  Middle East Eye

"Human error", all right.

Both Moscow and Damascus denounced the strikes as a deliberate move by the Obama administration to support the Islamic State group and cited the attacks as the reason for declaring an end to the ceasefire on 19 September.

What a surprise.

We will fight terrorism anywhere it occurs unless it occurs in support of a regime change we'd like to see, and then we'll back it.

In the following video, investigative journalist Gareth Porter discusses  his belief that the latest cease-fire drawn up between Russia and Turkey for action in Syria will be more successful than two previous agreements between the US and Russia, and briefly touches on the tenuous state of affairs between the US and Turkey, both NATO members.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Syria

December 2

In recent weeks, the government, along with its ally, Russia, had opened up humanitarian corridors for eastern Aleppo residents during unilaterally imposed cease-fires.

Rebels who laid down their arms were promised an amnesty allowing them to return to government areas. Those who refused could take their personal weapons and receive passage to join other rebels in the opposition-held province of Idlib, west of Aleppo.

In one bizarre initiative, the government even invited east Aleppo residents to a “friendly soccer game” as a way to build confidence.

  LA Times

December 4

Moreover, over 500 terrorists from the Nusra Front and 1,500 members of their families have been moved out of the Syrian city of al-Tall to Idbib, Sputnik reported.

"The opposition militants took advantage of the amnesty, announced by the President of Syria. They stopped fighting and through negotiations expressed the desire to flee [from al-Tall] to Idlib. Before the departure, they handed the government forces all their heavy weapons, as well as over 200 units of small arms and ammunition," the Russian ministry said.

[...]

"Over 2,500 militants have been granted amnesty in various parts of Syria in the past week," the ministry’s reconciliation center in Hmeymim said.

[...]

The disarmament, mediated by the Russian military, was arranged as part of a regional ceasefire. The Syrian government organized rebels’ transfer to Idlib aboard 44 buses.

  Tasnim News Agency

December 5

At least 73 people have been killed in suspected Russian air strikes on several areas of Idlib province in northwest Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as government forces advanced in fierce clashes with rebels in east Aleppo.

The Britain-based monitor said on Sunday at least three locations were bombed in the northwestern province and most of the casualties were civilians.

[...]

The northern Idlib province is mostly controlled by a powerful rebel alliance known as the Army of Conquest.

[...]

Meanwhile, government forces advanced against rebels in east Aleppo, taking two small neighbourhoods and pushing into a third, state media said.

The army and allied forces are nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of Syria's second city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012.

  alJazeera

Make a deal to get the rebels out of Aleppo and into Idlib, then attack Idlib. Sounds like a plan.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And What IS Aleppo?

As aerial footage broadcast by the BBC report shows, much of the ancient city that was once the country’s economic center is now in ruins, four years after fighting started there.

[...]

[T]here is an intense battle for control of the city between government forces supported by Russia and a coalition of Syrian rebel factions supported by the United States that is allied with Islamist groups, including Jabhat Fath al-Sham, al Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria. The Islamic State has no presence in the city, although rebel groups have battled with ISIS in the countryside outside Aleppo.

[...]

This week, the horror of Aleppo’s bombardment was again in the headlines as allegations that government forces had used chemical weapons were followed by more distressing images of child victims.


[...]

The fact that [Libertarian presidential candidate Gary] Johnson had apparently never heard of the strategically important city — and even failed to guess that it was the name of a city (he told Whoopi Goldberg later that he thought it might have been an acronym) — stunned Mike Barnicle, the columnist who asked him what he would do about the situation there if he was elected president.

[...]

As remarkable as that moment was, it was quickly followed by reports on Johnson’s cluelessness that included basic errors about who was fighting in the city and why the tragedy there matters to the rest of the world.

Taken together, those error-strewn reports suggest that American journalists and pundits have become so completely focused on the horse-race aspect of electoral politics that they are paying almost no attention to the biggest foreign policy crisis that will face the next president.

  The Intercept

Now what a surprise that would be.

Asked by MSNBC for his response, [Christopher Hill, a former United States ambassador to Iraq who is now the dean of international studies at the University of Denver] wrongly identified Aleppo as “the capital of ISIS,” apparently confusing it with Raqqa, another city in northern Syria that is held by Islamic State militants.

[...]

The Washington bureau of the New York Times then added to the confusion by rushing to publish a report on the reaction to Johnson’s ignorance that echoed Hill’s error by calling Aleppo “the de facto capital of the Islamic State.”

City identification aside, how does ISIS have a capital? How does an Islamic State exist without any cactual territory? Whether they control a city or a region within Syria or any other country does not qualify, otherwise, any homeowner could claim the land he occupies as a state. I have to think it exists only as a way for the United States and its allies to declare war, since they obviously can't declare war legally on a religion.  And, by agreeing to call it the Islamic State, it is falsely legitimized as a country.  The Jews weren't even afforded that international acknowledgement until Israel was carved out of Palestine for them after WWII.  Seems like if we're going to acknowledge an Islamic State, we should carve them out some land, too.  And, hey, maybe then there wouldn't be any reason to be fighting them.  Oh, wait.  We wouldn't want to go back to having no one to spend our military budget on.  Besides, we'd have to find another country as ill-equipped as Palestine was to object to the loss of territory.

[T]he Times report was first edited to insert a new but still incorrect description of Aleppo as “the Syrian city that is a stronghold of the Islamic State.” That description was later removed, and a correction appended, but the article still includes a mistaken summary of Barnicle’s explanation to Johnson of why Aleppo matters.

[...]

Barnicle told Johnson that Aleppo is “the epicenter of the refugee crisis,” which is correct [but] Barnicle did not, as the Times reports, ask Johnson “how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city.”

Rather than deal with the question of how, exactly, the United States might help to bring this conflict to an end — which it has fueled by supporting rebel groups allied with al Qaeda’s proxy — political reporters covered Johnson’s blank stare as a process story.

It's all about the horse race. We don't care about that little Syrian boy except as the horses asses running the race can use it for propaganda against Bashar Assad.

Foreign Policy for a Libertarian

We don't need to know. That's not happening here.

"What would you do about Aleppo?"

Gary Johson: "Well first I would Google it. Type the word in that rectangle." pic.twitter.com/WiFXvBQWNy

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) September 8, 2016

UPDATE: