generalspeaking

Syrian Carnage Carries On In Images Of The Day

"[East Aleppo has become] a bloody graveyard for thousands of innocent people and for the death of respect for international law and the rules of war."
David Miliband, head, International Rescue Committee

"Thousands of civilians' lives are in danger as front lines close in around them. A deepening humanitarian catastrophe and further loss of life can be averted only if the basic rules of warfare -- and of humanity -- are applied."
International Committee of the Red Cross

"Now it is raining. Bombs a little bit calmer."
"We wanted freedom. We didn't want anything else but freedom. You know, this world doesn't like freedom, it seems."
Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, English teacher, east Aleppo

"We're in a very tiny area, and there are so many families stuck here."
"Either they can't leave because they are wanted by the government or they don't want to leave because this is their home."
Zouhir al-Shimale, activist, east Aleppo

People walk as they flee deeper into the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

Sunni Syrians have suffered the agony of a long, drawn-out death for over five years. In Aleppo, men, women and children have been dying only for four years. It is not as though the world has suddenly been placed on notice. Their tyrant, President Bashar al-Assad, has arrested, tortured and murdered countless of his civilian population of Sunni Syrians who had the unmitigated gall to criticize his regime, to ask for equal representation and rights to the Shiite Syrians whose human rights their president supports.

They protested, peacefully at first, and then when they were subjected to arrest, to torture and to death, scorned as "terrorists" and "scum" by their president in describing to the international community the ingratitude of a majority of his population, they understood that polite reasoning would gain them nothing. And this is when they gathered arms and made of themselves militias prepared to fight the regime that was fighting them rather than listening to their concerns.

Those militias were failed by their Sunni counterparts in majority-Sunni Middle East countries who gave them sympathy and small arms, but little else. They were failed by Western powers who empathized over the Syrian opposition's yearning for liberty and a democratic order of equality. No Western country, let alone grouping representing their interests would commit to meaningful assistance, not even the United States, always heretofore prepared to aid such situations.

It does become tedious and tiresome to continually have to intervene where Islamic nations are concerned with their second order of business, executing conflicts against one another; the first order of business, the extermination of Israel, having failed so abysmally despite countless efforts. Islam, it appears, has no intention, ever, of unifying itself; the institutionalized and valued hatred between the two major Islamic sects, Shiite and Sunni, are irreversible and compounded by tribal and ethnic animosities of deep devotion.

A man carries a child with an IV drip as he flees deeper into the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria December 12, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

Thousands of Syrians were personally invited by Bashar al-Assad to witness first-hand the destructive power of chemical weapons, barrel bombs and helicopter gunships strafing and bombing their homes, and themselves as well, maiming and wounding, creating widows and widowers, orphans and grieving families losing close and extended members in an interminable and relentless human rights-abusing crusade the Angel of Death chuckled happily at as it went about its collection.

Tens of thousands of Sunni Syrians remain trapped in east Aleppo. Many refuse to leave, fearing for their lives at the close proximity of government troops, Shiite militias and Hezbollah thugs all gathered to give aid to the embattled regime which re-discovered its commanding strength with the considerable aid of Moscow and Tehran. The world's conscience and compassion has been enlisted by the terrible toll one man's ambition has created. But not enough to demand cessation.

"My name is Bana, I'm 7 years old. I am talking to the world now live from East#Aleppo."
"This is my last moment to either live or die. . . . Bana"

Children walk together as they flee deeper into the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

"HUMANS ALL OVER THE WORLD, DON'T SLEEP! YOU CAN DO SOMETHING! PROTEST NOW! STOP THE GENOCIDE! #Save Aleppo #Save Humanity" some deluded soul has tweeted in desperation.

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad stand atop a damaged tank near Umayyad mosque, in the government-controlled area of Aleppo, during a media tour, Syria December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Labels: Aleppo, Atrocities, Conflict, Rebels, Russia, Syria, War Crimes

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 14, 2016