State Terrorism Versus the Terrorist State
"The Daesh (IS) terrorists carried out a massacre in Al-Baghaliyeh, claiming the lives of around 300 civilians, most of them women, children and elderly people."
"[Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi said] legal and moral responsibility for this barbaric and cowardly massacre… lies on the shoulders of all the states that support terrorism and that fund and arm takfiri [Sunni extremist] groups."
Syrian News Agency SANA
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Syrians walk along a severely damaged road in the northeastern city of Deir Ezzor Photo: Getty Images
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The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights pointed out that at least 75 Syrian soldiers and pro-government militia were killed in the attacks; they were shot for the most part, but some had been beheaded. At least 60, they said, were shot dead by the jihadists. The advance, they observed, places
IS in control of around 60 percent of Deir Ezzor city, capital of the
province of the same name in an oil-rich region bordering Iraq.
Islamic State boasted that its fighters had succeeded in carrying out several
suicide bombings against regime forces in Deir Ezzor. Their advance had enabled them to take effective control
of Al-Baghaliyeh and other areas. Hopeful news that surfaces now and again signalling the death knell of the Islamic State strength and advance appears to be denied by these latest triumphs.
When it comes to the gruesome end-effects of war between armed and vicious belligerents such numbers of deaths and casualties, they are to be expected. When it comes to the plight of the civilian populations, particularly where sectarian hatreds are concerned with their deadly vengeance quotients, it's a toss-up which between the regime and the jihadis can be judged to be the most viciously bloodthirsty.
When it comes to the gruesome end-effects of war between armed and vicious belligerents such numbers of deaths and casualties, they are to be expected. When it comes to the plight of the civilian populations, particularly where sectarian hatreds are concerned with their deadly vengeance quotients, it's a toss-up which between the regime and the jihadis can be judged to be the most viciously bloodthirsty.
Syrian
men inspect a damaged vehicle in the rubble following a reported air
strike by Syrian
government forces on the Sukkari neighbourhood of
Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, on
January 16, 2016. (AFP/Karam
Al-Masri)
Russian warplanes, according to the Observatory, were carrying out strikes in the region between the regime-held Kweyris air base and Al-Bab as heavy fighting took place on Saturday. In Aleppo province, at least 16 jihadists were killed in the wake of a failed attack on a government position nearby the town of Al-Bab, as regime troops remain locked in fierce clashes with Islamic State.
In the eastern city of Deir el-Zour Islamic State controls most of the provincial capital as well as the province, with the government left in control of the city's northern part and its military airport.
According to the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV, supportive of the Syrian government, a massacre took place with their numbers claimed to represent the slaughter by Islamic State at 280 dead comprised of mostly women and children whose bodies were thrown into the Euphrates River, and an additional 400 civilians taken hostage.
"After their attack on Deir el-Zour [on Saturday], IS abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the Al-Baghaliyeh suburb it captured and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city. Those abducted, all of whom are Sunnis, include women, children and family members of pro-regime fighters."
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman
Labels: Conflict, Islamic State, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, January 17, 2016
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