Syrian Democratic Forces Subordinate to Al Joli's Military?
"Through international mediation to halt the attacks and violations
against our people in Aleppo, we have reached an understanding leading
to a ceasefire and the safe evacuation of martyrs, the wounded, trapped
civilians, and fighters from the Achrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud
neighborhoods to northern and eastern Syria."
"]Now
we depend upon] mediators to uphold their promises to stop the
violations and work towards the safe return of the displaced to their
homes."
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi
"Violence
risks undermining the progress achieved since the fall of the Assad
regime and invites external interference that serves no party's
interests."
"We urge all parties
to exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return
to dialogue."
"[Recent developments in Aleppo are] deeply concerning. [Washington's
objective] remains a sovereign, unified Syria — at peace with itself
and its neighbors — where equality, justice, and opportunity are
extended to all its people."
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack
Buses carrying Kurdish fighters depart
Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood under an evacuation agreement following army
operations, with a four-bus convoy leaving the area and heading toward
Tabqa, in Aleppo, Syria, on Jan. 10, 2026.Izz Aldien Alqasem/Anadolu via Getty Images
When
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant established its presence in a
third each of Syria and Iraq, terrorizing both countries and intent on
increasing the third of each territory that it had gained to eventually
establish a complete Islamist terror state, while it preyed on the
residents' fears of the occupiers' barbaric reign as it released 'public
relations' videos of beheadings of Westerners captured in the region of
their Caliphate, burned captured regional prisoners alive, living up to
their fearsome reputations as mass murderers, the Syrian and Iraqi
militaries fled in panic as ISIL steadily advanced.
While
the terrorist army went about hunting down, persecuting the ethnic and
religious minorities in the territories they occupied, killing and
abducting Yazidi men and women, striking lethally at Christians and
others, it was only among the Kurds that these desperate victims of
Islamist terror found protection from the death-strikes that stalked the
land, and haven where their lives would be protected.
As
for any campaigns to wrest territory away from the ISIL predatory
killers, and to protect the population from their ongoing terror
campaigns, it was the Kurdish militias, the Peshmerga and others who
confronted the Islamist hordes of terrorists. The U.S. recognized their
mettle and dedication to countering the universally dreaded Islamic
State operatives and their leaders, supporting the Kurds, even while
Turkey gave the Islamists cover, and focused on using their troops to
challenge the Kurdish presence both in Turkey and in Syria.
Security forces affiliated with
the Ministry of the Interior stand guard in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood,
which they have taken control of, according to the Interior Ministry,
following battles with the Syrian Democratic Forces, in Aleppo, Syria,
January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
When
the Islamic State was finally defeated, its Caliphate disbanded, its
operatives fanning out elsewhere to continue their ravenous hunt against
vulnerable populations elsewhere, heading to Afghanistan, to Africa, it
was the Syrian Democratic Forces that were left to imprison and guard
Islamic State fighters that had been taken prisoner, as well as their
Islamic State wives and children in camps like Al-Hol, holding mostly
foreign-sourced fighters in the hopes that their countries of origin
would repatriate them. Having served the purpose of saving the world
from an ever-expanding Islamic State curse, the Kurds are now left in
Syria to their own devices as a former al-Qaeda chief agent and ISIL
familiar presides over Syria.
The West
has abandoned all caution, set aside suspicion of a man dedicated to
Islamofascism suddenly transformed to a Syrian unifier, claiming that
since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it is time
for Syria to become whole, to heal itself, accept its minority
populations as fully equal in value with the majority Sunnis who under
Assad had been ruled by the minority Shiite Alawites. Believing the
former Islamist leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, now transformed to
President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaato have been legitimately changed to a peace-loving unified-Syrian-dedicated saviour, the West has embraced him.
Unfortunately
for the Syrian minorities formerly targeted by Islamic State, the new
Syrian military answerable to al-Sharaa and his government is comprised
in part of former Islamic State members whose Sunni sensibilities view
the minority Alawite population as ripe for revenge. Islamist Sunni
terrorist units aligned with the government's military have mounted
atrocities against Alawites and Christians, Druze and Kurds, reflecting a
true picture of Syria today. And now that discussions between the
government and the Syrian Democratic Forces to be integrated into the
Syrian military have bogged down with disagreements, government forces
have attacked to areas in Aleppo held by Kurds.
People evacuate from Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood following collapse of an agreement between the Syrian government and the
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Aleppo, Syria, January 10, 2026.
REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Authorities
in Syria had evacuated residents from contested areas in Aleppo, as
violent clashes between government and Kurdish forces have resulted from
those disagreements. In essence, the 'government forces' comprised of
Islamist operatives have been attacking Kurdish-held neighbourhoods of
Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafiah and Bani Zaide in 'targeted operations'
against the Syrian Democratic Forces. Under shelling by the Syrian army
targeting the Kurdish population of Aleppo, close to 140,000 people have
been displaced.
Mohamamad Ali, operations director with the Syrian Civil Defence in Aleppo explained "There's a large percentage of them [those displaced], with difficult medical issues, elderly people, women, and children".
Each side accuses the other of targeting civilian neighbourhoods and
infrastructure. Exchanges of shelling and drone strikes took place, with
tanks rolling into the contested neighbourhoods.
The
Damascus leadership under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa continues
to comport itself with methods startlingly similar to those of Islamic
State in its relations with Syrian minority groups. Kurdistan, like
other areas of Syria, but different in that it is an autonomous region
dedicated to the Kurdish population, is receiving undue treatment by
government forces despite the March agreement with the SDF to merge with
the Syrian army, and differences in just how that will be accomplished
does not sit well with al-Sharaa, the Syrian unifier.
The renewed clashes in Aleppo have seen thousands of civilians flee the city in recent days.
"How many battles has it [the ancient city of Aleppo] provoked, and how many white blades have been drawn against it?" "The town is old as eternity yet new although it has never ceased to be . . . Oh city of wonder! It stays, but its kings depart; they perish, but its ruin is not yet decreed." Ibn Jubayr, 12th Century Andalusian
"It was really the Ottoman city, the last mixed city, where relations were very good." "Over the course of my research, I have only found one inter-communal conflict in 1940 and one in 1919, but that was a smaller riot." Philip Mansel, historian, author of Aleppo: The Rise and Fall of Syria's Great Merchant City
A city as ancient as civilization. Where, in fact, civilization made its very initial statements of certainty for the future. The very city that civilization doomed, leaving its fate in the hands of a mass murderer who had been tutored only too well by his father, a mass murderer before him. This was a city that had endured countless invasions, and many sieges over thousands of years. But it was the siege that its 21st Century president, Bashar al-Assad imposed on the sectarian-divided city that irreversibly maimed its eastern, Sunni-residential portion.
In the process destroying many of the ancient and world-esteemed buildings that were regarded as a global inheritance of great significance. Neither that global heritage status, nor the presence of a million vulnerable men, women and children, citizens of Syria, would prevent the Syrian tyrant whose massive ego could not absorb the insult to his honour that opposition to his rule represented to him, from his determined efforts to destroy the lives of his opponents.
Without the considerable assistance offered him first by the Aryan Iranian Ayatollahs in support of minority Shiite conquest-and-command of the Sunni-majority Arab Middle East and the later aid of Russia's military might in sending warplanes to bomb the Sunni districts where the Syrian citizens labelled "terrorists" could be found cowering helplessly against chemical weapons and barrel bomb attacks, could Assad have succeeded.
The ancient trade emporium of Aleppo, resilient over thousands of years, and resistant to destruction proved a poor match in its ability to continue its fabled existence, to the rigorously relentless attacks mounted by sophisticated Russian war machines and the Syrian military's equal resistance to honouring the concept of protection of civilian lives during conflicts in theatres of war -- for the civilians had been named terrorists and they were given no quarter.
The city that had seen early Muslims arraying themselves against Christian Crusades, defending itself against the wars and pillage of Mongol marauders, the sacking of Aleppo in the 1400s by Tamerlane where mass slaughter and rape saw its streets that "stank with corpses", had Timur stack a mound of thousands of skulls outside the gates of Aleppo as a distinct message that he had come, seen and conquered.
But still Aleppo endured over the ages with the distinction and pride of an ancient heritage where though the majority of its residents were Sunni Muslims, Christians and Jews had their own communities there, along with Turkmen, Kurds, Armenians and other less numerous ethnic groups. An exotic mixture of humankind living among themselves and with others; a universal diversity of coexistence.
Destroyed, an utter ruination, the proud achievement of a man who likens the result of his scorched-humanity policy as a triumph of pride and power. Investing in him a historical legacy he equates with the birth of Christ and the revelations of the Koran.
Ancient City of Aleppo (Syrian Arab Republic) Jean-Jacques Gelbart
The View Into Syria From Delusional Britain: An Unfortunate Misadventure
"Both Russia and Iran have failed to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law,
specifically by failing to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid
to civilians during the months when eastern Aleppo was besieged." "They deserve no credit for the fact that an evacuation appears to be under way today." Boris Johnson, British Foreign Secretary
"Even if he defeats the opposition in Aleppo, there is no victory in
bombing hospitals and restricting humanitarian aid and ending up in a
country that you only control 40 per cent of and is half destroyed with
millions dispersed and hundreds of thousands killed. That is no
victory." "[The crisis in Aleppo is] a tragedy of Russia’s making." Sir Michael Fallon, British Defence Secretary
Ambulances and buses wait as they evacuate people from a rebel-held sector of eastern AleppoCredit:
ABDALRHMAN ISMAIL/REUTERS
"[British forthcoming aid will] mean the difference between life and
death for those fleeing Aleppo and those caught in freezing conditions
in the city after being systematically bombed from their homes by the
Syrian regime and its Russian allies.""Protecting innocent civilians must be an
absolute priority. It is paramount that aid agencies now get the
unfettered, secure access they need to save lives inside east Aleppo." British International Development Secretary Priti Patel
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's assured victory in east Aleppo, thanks to the involvement of Iran's Republican Guard militias, its proxy Lebanese Hezbollah, Moscow's air cover and Shiite militias eager to meet face-to-face with Sunni opposition rebels, will not end with the destruction of east Aleppo and the starvation, privation and misery forced through siege on its civilian population, along with the defeat and departure of the Syrian rebels.
The tens of thousands of the original half-million left in the east of the city that once housed two and a half million Syrian Sunnis will only enjoy a temporary reprieve with their evacuation from bombed-out east Aleppo and their arrival in rebel-held territory in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. Assad's intention of destroying the insurgency completely is far from complete. And he means to complete the miraculous accomplishment that appeared so formidable a year earlier.
Buses in convoy on their way out of east AleppoCredit:
YOUSSEF KARWASHAN/AFP/Getty Images
The Syrian Baathist president stated in a recent interview that winning back Aleppo "won't mean the end of the war in Syria, but it will be a huge step toward this end". The temporary relief that the on-again-off-again evacuations will provide for Syrian Sunni civilians and their rebel counterparts is but a temporary device. Their east Aleppo evacuation means that for the time being, once taken out of that damned theatre of one-sided war, they will suffer no more siege, starvation and bombs, a hiatus not a cessation.
President Assad's idea of what constitutes a truce, is in fact a prelude to one of his many emerging victories, courtesy of Russian air power which, like Syrian air power never hesitates to bomb schools, dense communities, health clinics and hospitals. Hundreds of young men in the opposition who had agreed in 2014 to surrender in the Old City of Homs were detained following a similar to east Aleppo starvation siege. There is nothing quite like the efficacy of dire privation to promote submission.
Assad promised amnesty to those who voluntarily surrendered. And though many met their ends, others were forcibly conscripted into the military they abhorred, knowing that their families were killed by that military, yet becoming at one with them, however against their will. Assad has refined siege, refugee-making and detentions, torture and death-deliverance to a fine art of conquest of his perceived enemies. It is his inimitable "scorched soul" policy.
From a low point several years back, to his present high with his confidence restored and his resolution supported unquestioningly by Vladimir Putin and the Iranian Ayatollahs, he forges ahead knowing that the rebels' resistance will ultimately be futile against the strengths Assad has so serendipitously acquired. His three-step protocol of making areas held by his opposition unlivable, his isolation of fighters from civilians, and his ability to force both to surrender or to leave, gain him his goals quite handily.
There will surely come a time when he will face a final quandary of how to dispose of what is left of millions of Syrian Sunnis who form a majority in the country. He can slaughter and he has, with grim impunity, putting the Islamist jihadist terrorist ISIL to shame on their death count, but he cannot dispose of that many annoying-to-his-complacency-as-tyrant, opposition Syrians. Can he? Or can he?
Leaving the European Council summit in
Brussels, Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May stated that: "President Assad and his backers, Russia and
Iran, bear responsibility for the tragedy in Aleppo.They must now allow the United Nations to ensure the safe evacuation of the civilians who are left there." Must they? They do not appear to feel that they must, despite the grumblings and the calls for conscience to prevail....
Perhaps they must put a shuddering and final halt to bombing civilian enclaves, hospitals, schools and heritage sites. It's likely that they must surely stop destroying so many lives of men, women and children who just happen not to enjoy the fact that they are not given the status of equality to that other Muslim sect whom Assad represents? Must they? Why mustn't they be forced to stop their atrocities? Why because no one forces them to.
But all is well, Britain is 'urgently' sending blankets, medical kits, clean water and food for
civilians from Aleppo. They will be so fittingly grateful.
Civilians take shelter in a rebel-held neighbourhood in Aleppo.
Photograph: Karam al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images
"[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
"We condemn the actions of the Syrian regime and its foreign backers, especially Russia, for their obstruction of humanitarian aid." "[Hospitals and schools have been targeted] in an attempt to wear people down." Joint statement, Canada, U.S., Britain, Germany, Italy, France
"Diplomacy has not delivered for the people of Aleppo, that's for sure." "[The U.S. would] never give up [attempting diplomatically to sway Syria and Russia to take part in negotiations with the opposition to arrive at a solution, abandoning bombing missions and anti-humanitarian siege tactics]." "It is not us that walked away from diplomacy. It is Syria and [the] Russian Federation." Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
The Syrian army has seized two-thirds of east Aleppo [AFP]
The six Western powers that issued the joint condemnation of Syria and Russia have called upon both to execute an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo. While at the same time accusing Russia of blocking efforts to alleviate the anguish of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian Sunnis who remain trapped in the rebel-held eastern portion of the city. For its part, Russia seems immune to accusations, blandly ignoring them and carrying on as they have done in deliberately destroying schools, hospitals and hope for the besieged residents while denying they would engage in such tactics.
The critics of Russia warn that if they have their way the United Nations would investigate reports of war crimes committed in Syria by the regime and by their Russian helpers. There remain hopes that another five-day ceasefire might be agreed upon for eastern Aleppo to permit civilians to leave the destroyed eastern half of the city, even as rebel forces facing certain defeat, themselves debated whether to withdraw from their stronghold, now a shattered vestige of its former status.
Three-quarters of east Aleppo is now in the hands of the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed Shiite militias. If no other blatant symbol of sectarian hatred breeding atrocities come readily to mind, the allied factions of Hezbollah, Iranian Republican Guard, Shiite militias and Alawite regime military aligned to destroy the majority Syrian Sunni population's hope for equality status in a restructured Syria stands as testament to realities in the Middle East.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring the situation, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took possession of the Old City in the centre of Aleppo, with Sunni rebels withdrawing -- demonstrating practicality as the better part of valour in the situation confronting them -- into what remains of their territory. Even while negotiations leading to full withdrawal from the rebels' vital stronghold are underway.
"You could hear airstrikes all over the city." "We've had so many false rumours and promises about this final assault -- I can only live day-by-day and put my faith in God." Amir Ragab, 54, eastern Aleppo
This image released by the Thiqa News Agency shows an injured child
after airstrikes in Aleppo on November 16, 2016. Thiqa News via AP
"Trump already said before winning that he would cooperate with Putin
and he also said that Aleppo has already fallen, which is not true. He
will just fight ISIL, doing nothing against the regime or its constant
crimes against us." "They [the embattled rebels] do nothing. Every week they just tell people to
stay calm and be brave and strong until they open a road ... and that’s
what we thought would happen until the last offensive left us shocked
with the big loss we had. It made us kind of hopeless knowing when this
will be over." Khaled Ashram, 42, east Aleppo, Sukkari district
"It was total chaos and many Free Syrian Army fighters were just standing there looking at the thieves [civilians looking food stores]. They don’t have the respect and admiration [of the local Sunni population] like it was before."
"Every side and every country has already chosen what its
role is in the Syrian war, and now this is the result of it. They will no longer help us and will allow Assad to recapture
what is left of the city."
"[Mr. Trump] will do nothing as well. His reaction will be a bit closer to [Russian president
Vladimir] Putin, applauding his crimes and his victories in bombing and
killing ‘terrorists’ and civilians."
Mostafa Ibrahim, 41-year-old barber, east Aleppo
The remaining 275,000 Sunni Syrian residents of east Aleppo have had their peace shattered once again, after a fifteen-day hiatus in attacks where they watched warplanes streak overhead dropping their loads on the countryside in the west, described by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu briefing Vladimir Putin, as "massive strikes" hitting positions taken in the geography by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Qaeda-linked group in Idlib and Homs provinces, north of Damascus.
Now, the focus of Syrian regime warplanes and their Russian helpers has veered back to Aleppo to continue its relentless battering. Stationed off the Syrian coast, a Russian carrier group is prepared to brutalize the city even more in concert with government forces, happy to constrict the siege on rebel-held Aleppo in a death grip. Vladimir Putin and the American president-elect chatted amiably by telephone over their future cooperation in defeating Islamic State terrorists, but no mention made of Syrian regime terrorism, let alone Moscow's, in Syria.
One of the last bastions of the rebel factions in opposition to Syria's monstrous president al-Assad, the soon-to-be retaken Aleppo will mark the death-knell of rebel strongholds right across the country. Vladimir Putin has been advised by his defence minister that Su-33 jets had been launched from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier to grand effect. The frigate Admiral Grigorivch was busy launching cruise missile strikes, while land-based missiles have also been launched in a massive series of attacks.
Against a city and its residents already blackened, shattered and bruised to death and beyond. The sledgehammer approach by Moscow in meeting the challenge to annihilate the "terrorists", obviously in its final stages. Civilians and rebel fighters describe missiles and barrel bombs striking five neighbourhoods controlled by the anti-Assad fighters. Over one hundred attacks, some with cluster munitions, have been reported by the White Helmets civilian rescue group.
The all-out offensive to destroy Aleppo -- though that word isn't used -- but rather 'retake' the ancient city appears in its final, deadly stages.
Russian
frigate Admiral Grigorovich firing Kalibr cruise missiles against
tagets in Syria, off the Syrian coast, 15 November 2016. EPA/RUSSIAN
DEFENSE MINISTRY
"The ancient city of Aleppo, a place of millennial civility and beauty,
is today a slaughterhouse - a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the
lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble
and pregnant women deliberately bombed." "[The siege and bombardment of Aleppo's rebel-held east are among the] crimes of historic proportions [being committed in Syria]." "[The Human Rights staff has] documented violations of international humanitarian law by all parties in Aleppo." "Armed
opposition groups continue to fire mortars and other projectiles into
civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, but indiscriminate air
strikes across the eastern part of the city by government forces and
their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian
casualties." "These violations constitute war crimes. And if
knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack
directed against civilians, they constitute crimes against humanity." "[The failure of the international community - particularly the UN
Security Council - to protect civilians and halt the bloodshed] should
haunt every one of us." UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein
EPA --Zeid Raad Al Hussein said the failure to protect civilians in Syria "should haunt everyone of us"
"Crimes of historic proportions" were being perpetrated in eastern Aleppo and elsewhere within the country, an impassioned accusation that an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva heard from its head, Mr. Zeid, causing Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations, Hussam al-Din Ala, to respond with his own livid and dismissive statement as he insisted that the Syrian government was entirely within its rights under international law to defend itself against terrorism.
A self-exculpatory explanation that obviously failed to impress those present, including the charity Save the Children which issued its own warning, that aid workers and medical professionals stationed in eastern Aleppo engaged in life-saving humanitarian efforts were sending reports of widespread use of cluster bombs, banned under international law. A statement surprising no one who can use their mental faculties to interpret what they see, hear and read.
How refreshing: the Human Rights Council actually exercising its franchise to pinpoint and illuminate with all the horrified dismay it deserves, the medieval criminality of a modern-day, supposedly civil-advanced nation in the Middle East, pitilessly targeting its own civilian population for annihilation with the use of both technologically advanced and internationally forbidden weapons, from chemical attacks to barrel bombs to bunker-busters. Ably assisted by an emerging world power; Russia.
And because of missing security guarantees, and given that humanitarian groups associated with the United Nations have previously suffered the misfortune of coming under fire from Russian and Syrian warplanes and bombs, the UN stated it had no option but to delay plans to proceed with medical evacuations from Aleppo, hoping to take advantage of the second eleven-hour "humanitarian pause" unilaterally declared on generous impulse by Syria and Russia. Who that pause has benefited has been a puzzle, other than to symbolically demonstrate the humanitarianism compelling the two allies.
Russia has told civilians to leave rebel-held Aleppo through several corridors-- Reuters
Russia plans, it has announced, to suspend air strikes between 08:00 and
19:00 local time on Saturday to enable both civilians and
rebels to leave the city through what they describe as safe corridors. Both civilians and rebels can be forgiven for construing that invitation as a possible forfeiture of life and limb, given their experiences to date of Russian humanitarian offers. The result being that, unsurprisingly, very few
people have reportedly taken advantage of the offer. As for the rebel factions,
their lack of gratitude can be assessed in their assertion that to do so would result in forced displacement and surrender.
Meanwhile, passing through the English Channel in international waters, a Russian naval convoy of war ships from the Norwegian Sea is en route to Syria through the eastern Mediterranean. Among them is the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the only carrier in the Russian navy. The aircraft carrier is capable of carrying over 50
aircraft. Its weapons systems include granit anti-ship cruise missiles, a formidable combination. One can be forgiven for speculating further on the need to dispatch such a convoy, and to that particular geographic point.
According to Friday's Komsomolskaya Pravda: "This is no
tourist trip to the Med. It will strengthen Russia's current naval
presence off the Syrian coast and provide air cover. The aircraft
carrier planes and on-board weapons may also be used for strikes against
terrorists." Strikes against terrorists? What terrorists? The besieged Sunni Syrians in Aleppo and elsewhere who have already paid the price of protesting their unequal status in a Shiite-led government that describes its civilian opponents as terrorists?
The venerable British Broadcasting Corporation reads the ominous signs somewhat differently, as a symbolic message to the West, that Russia, powerful Russia, is back in the game, and equal in its resolute military manifestations wherever Mother Russia's interests lie geographically, to any significant presence the West is capable of cobbling together. Russia means business, it is a re-emerging power capable of rising above and beyond the criticism levelled at it by a jealous and paranoid NATO, and the rest of world had better recognize that fact.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
