Syria
Re: Syria
Russian Embassy press release:
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
Shaaban: We do not want wars, but we do not fear them and are ready
12 April، 2018
Foreign Ministry: Chemical weapons claims are unsubstantiated flimsy argument to target Syria
Damascus, SANA- Presidential Political and Media Adviser, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, confirmed that the force exercised by the United States and the West on Syria and its allies of counter-terrorism axis falls within the framework of psychological warfare and reflects the failure of their policies in the face of the great victories achieved by Syrian Arab Army in eastern Ghouta.
“I don’t think this psychological war against Syria will lead to what they want to serve the defeated terrorists in the Eastern Ghouta because the world is not open to them anymore,” Shaaban said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen television channel on Wednesday evening.
She added that there are other powers that have declared that if our allies are threatened, they will retaliate.
“We do not want wars, but we do not fear them and are ready, especially since the balance of power and rules of engagement have changed significantly in favor of Syria,”Shaaban said, emphasizing that ” We are much stronger than we were in the past,”
Shaaban said the victory of Ghouta was a crucial point in the course of the cosmic war against Syria and defeated the US-Zionist scheme to create a new Middle East and sent a message to the whole world that the Syrian Arab army and its allies are capable of liberating every inch of Syrian territory from terrorists and their supporters in the region.
Shaaban said Western and Gulf countries have been and continue to support and finance terrorism targeting Syria in order to undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On the latest Israeli aggression on T-4 Airport in Homs Countryside, Shaaban said that the Israeli occupation entity, the biggest beneficiary of what is going on in Syria, is seeking to prolong the war, because Israel is fully aware that Syria’s victory today will change the map of the region and the world and Israel will be the biggest loser.
Ghossoun/
https://sana.sy/en/?p=133972
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
World War III: What It Is And What It Threatens To Become
April 11, 2018
By Stephen Gowans
World War III is not about to erupt; it has already begun; indeed, it began as long ago as 2015, when Russia, at the request of the Syrian government, intervened in the conflict in that country, whose government was under attack by Islamist insurgents encouraged, armed, and resourced by the United States and its allies.
The war in Syria, one that counts among its participants the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Jordan, Qatar and others, is no less a world war for being confined to the borders of Syria. A world war is not defined by the multiplicity of its theaters but by the multiplicity of its actors.
Ultimately, the war is a conflict over two types of international order: on the one hand, a hierarchy of states, with the United States at the top, endowed with de facto authority to impose its will on all other states; on the other, a network of sovereign and independent states, linked by mutual benefit—a US-dictated global order vs. a democratic UN-defined international order. This is a battle of tyranny versus democracy at the level of international relations.
The war over these two contending conceptions of how the world’s affairs should be organized—the Third World War in action—is now threatening to spill beyond Syria’s borders.
The US president has threatened to attack the Syrian government in response to an alleged chemical weapons incident that is almost certainly a hoax perpetrated by partisan sources, the White Helmets and Syrian American Medical Society. These are jihadi-aligned groups, funded by Western governments, which have an interest in pressuring the United States to maintain its illegal occupation of nearly one-third of Syrian territory, or to provide a pretext for continued or even escalating US intervention in Syria.
The same Western governments that fund the White Helmets and Syrian American Medical Society have openly called for regime change in Damascus and have invested time and money in an effort to bring it about. The two outfits they bankroll are neither independent nor neutral, and can hardly be judged to be trustworthy sources, any more than the United States, and its allies France, the UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel, can be.
Russia has warned the United States not to carry through on its threat to attack the Syrian government. An attack ordered by the US president would violate international law, to say nothing of US domestic law, which vests authority to wage war in Congress. The president does not plan to seek Congress’s authorization.
This, however, is all of a piece. It is difficult to point to any aspect of the US intervention in Syria that has not been illegal, from the occupation of Syrian territory, to the violation of its airspace, to the funding of guerrillas to overthrow its government.
The United States’ newspaper of record, the New York Times, urges the US president to commit another illegal act, namely, to punish Syria militarily, without Security Council or Congressional authorization, for an unverified transgression against international law. The New York Times, thus, no less than other major Western media, has chosen a side in World War III—four-square behind the fight for an international order based on the arbitrary rule of the US administration in preference to a global order based on sovereign and equal states governed by the rule of law.
Russia has vowed to intercept incoming US missiles. Its warning has been met by a belligerent reply from the US president. The situation is fraught with danger. The United States, and its major media, which connive in the likely chemical weapons deception and elevate a planned illegal act of war into a moral crusade, are playing a very dangerous game. They’re willing to bring the world to the brink of a general conflagration to fulfil their vision of a hierarchy of states subordinate to the US administration’s rule—an undisputed global US empire.
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2018/04/11 ... to-become/
April 11, 2018
By Stephen Gowans
World War III is not about to erupt; it has already begun; indeed, it began as long ago as 2015, when Russia, at the request of the Syrian government, intervened in the conflict in that country, whose government was under attack by Islamist insurgents encouraged, armed, and resourced by the United States and its allies.
The war in Syria, one that counts among its participants the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Jordan, Qatar and others, is no less a world war for being confined to the borders of Syria. A world war is not defined by the multiplicity of its theaters but by the multiplicity of its actors.
Ultimately, the war is a conflict over two types of international order: on the one hand, a hierarchy of states, with the United States at the top, endowed with de facto authority to impose its will on all other states; on the other, a network of sovereign and independent states, linked by mutual benefit—a US-dictated global order vs. a democratic UN-defined international order. This is a battle of tyranny versus democracy at the level of international relations.
The war over these two contending conceptions of how the world’s affairs should be organized—the Third World War in action—is now threatening to spill beyond Syria’s borders.
The US president has threatened to attack the Syrian government in response to an alleged chemical weapons incident that is almost certainly a hoax perpetrated by partisan sources, the White Helmets and Syrian American Medical Society. These are jihadi-aligned groups, funded by Western governments, which have an interest in pressuring the United States to maintain its illegal occupation of nearly one-third of Syrian territory, or to provide a pretext for continued or even escalating US intervention in Syria.
The same Western governments that fund the White Helmets and Syrian American Medical Society have openly called for regime change in Damascus and have invested time and money in an effort to bring it about. The two outfits they bankroll are neither independent nor neutral, and can hardly be judged to be trustworthy sources, any more than the United States, and its allies France, the UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel, can be.
Russia has warned the United States not to carry through on its threat to attack the Syrian government. An attack ordered by the US president would violate international law, to say nothing of US domestic law, which vests authority to wage war in Congress. The president does not plan to seek Congress’s authorization.
This, however, is all of a piece. It is difficult to point to any aspect of the US intervention in Syria that has not been illegal, from the occupation of Syrian territory, to the violation of its airspace, to the funding of guerrillas to overthrow its government.
The United States’ newspaper of record, the New York Times, urges the US president to commit another illegal act, namely, to punish Syria militarily, without Security Council or Congressional authorization, for an unverified transgression against international law. The New York Times, thus, no less than other major Western media, has chosen a side in World War III—four-square behind the fight for an international order based on the arbitrary rule of the US administration in preference to a global order based on sovereign and equal states governed by the rule of law.
Russia has vowed to intercept incoming US missiles. Its warning has been met by a belligerent reply from the US president. The situation is fraught with danger. The United States, and its major media, which connive in the likely chemical weapons deception and elevate a planned illegal act of war into a moral crusade, are playing a very dangerous game. They’re willing to bring the world to the brink of a general conflagration to fulfil their vision of a hierarchy of states subordinate to the US administration’s rule—an undisputed global US empire.
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2018/04/11 ... to-become/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
US BACKED JAISH AL ISLAM USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON KURDS
13 FridayApr 2018
Posted by friendsofsyria in Chemical weapons ≈ Leave a comment
Rebel group accusing Assad of gas attack ‘USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS’ against Kurds
THE REBEL group which is in control of the Douma region in Syria, the site of an alleged chemical attack which has been blamed on the Assad regime, was itself accused of using forbidden weapons on Kurds in 2016.
Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) was formerly known as Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) and is a coalition of Salafist Islamist militant groups based in the Douma and Eastern Ghouta regions of the Syrian capital of Damascus.Douma was the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack where up to 43 people were killed and it has been blamed on the Syrian regime.
But according to reports from news outlet Kurdistan 24, the group admitted it used chemical weapons in a mainly Kurdish populated area in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria in April 2016.
In an official statement, Jaish al-Islam said: “One of the field commanders in Aleppo used weapons that he was not authorised to use in these kinds of confrontations.”
The group claimed the brigade commander was summoned to a military court, adding: “He has been referred to the Military Justice to receive the proper punishment.”
https://friendsofsyria.wordpress.com/20 ... -on-kurds/
13 FridayApr 2018
Posted by friendsofsyria in Chemical weapons ≈ Leave a comment
Rebel group accusing Assad of gas attack ‘USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS’ against Kurds
THE REBEL group which is in control of the Douma region in Syria, the site of an alleged chemical attack which has been blamed on the Assad regime, was itself accused of using forbidden weapons on Kurds in 2016.
Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) was formerly known as Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) and is a coalition of Salafist Islamist militant groups based in the Douma and Eastern Ghouta regions of the Syrian capital of Damascus.Douma was the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack where up to 43 people were killed and it has been blamed on the Syrian regime.
But according to reports from news outlet Kurdistan 24, the group admitted it used chemical weapons in a mainly Kurdish populated area in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria in April 2016.
In an official statement, Jaish al-Islam said: “One of the field commanders in Aleppo used weapons that he was not authorised to use in these kinds of confrontations.”
The group claimed the brigade commander was summoned to a military court, adding: “He has been referred to the Military Justice to receive the proper punishment.”
https://friendsofsyria.wordpress.com/20 ... -on-kurds/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
Syrians in Raqqa afraid, angry, frustrated as they rebuild
RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Across the ruins of Raqqa, the streets are cloaked in grey, the color of bare cement and rubble left behind by the bombing campaign that finally drove out Islamic State militants. Among the people of this Syrian city, the fear, anger and desperation are palpable.
Six months after IS’s ouster, residents feel they have been abandoned as the world moves on. They are trying to rebuild their lives, but they say they fear everyone around them: the Kurdish-led militia that administers the majority Arab city; the Syrian government, which has forces nearby; criminal gangs who kidnap or rob whoever shows signs of having money; and IS militants who may still be hiding among the people.
“Daesh is still among us,” said a businessman, using the Arabic acronym for IS. To give an example, he said, a man lobbed a hand grenade at a recent funeral when mourners played music, something hard-line Sunni Muslims view as sacrilegious
The Associated Press spoke to over a dozen residents on a recent visit, most of whom spoke of their woes on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety. The businessman asked to be identified by the diminutive of his first name, Abdu.
After fleeing Raqqa during the coalition-led assault on the city last year, Abdu returned once the militants were driven out in October. He found his restaurant and his home next to it destroyed. He was angry, but practical. His life has been on hold for too long and he wanted to get on with his business. So he hired workers and started to rebuild.
But local gangs had eyed him. He was kidnapped and held for $10,000 ransom, until his tribe intervened and rescued him without paying, he said.
He, like many others, lamented the loss of security, which he said was one prize feature of living under IS. He faulted the Kurdish-led forces for hastily recruiting local Arabs to boost their ranks and appease the local Arab tribes.
“We end up with thieves or former Daesh in the force,” he said.
For three years, Raqqa was the de facto capital of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate” stretching across much of Iraq and Syria. In the campaign of the U.S-led coalition and Iraqi and Syrian partners, the group has been uprooted from almost that entire territory.
U.N. officials say Raqqa has been left the most devastated city in all of Syria’s seven-year-old war, a conflict that has also seen Syrian government forces backed by Russian and Iranian forces battling rebels. All of Raqqa suffered intense airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition and the whole population of at least 350,000 had to flee. The infrastructure was destroyed, as were 65 percent of civilian homes, said Leila Mustafa, a member of the U.S.-backed Raqqa Civil Council that now runs the city.
A prominent Arab tribesman escorted the AP to see a building he owned that was gutted by airstrikes. He angrily complained that coalition bombing was indiscriminate. Like many, he said there should be compensation but didn’t expect any would be given.
“I wish I even found the bone of an IS member in there! But nothing. No reason,” he said. “Now, who will pay for this?” He refused to give his name, fearing his criticism would undermine his chances of ever getting money to rebuild.
Nothing is unaffected by the bombardment. Mosques, schools, squares and buildings have all taken hits, some repeatedly. Trees on the street are burned. Insects and dust saturate the air.
The stench of death rises from crushed buildings and remains long after the bodies are removed. Civil workers say they have pulled nearly 500 bodies from under the rubble in the past three months, working with just one bulldozer.
Some streets have been cleared of wreckage, giving way to a scene even more haunting because of how organized it is. Scrap metal and debris are neatly stacked in heaps at the foot of destroyed buildings. Row after row of buildings reduced to concrete skeletons run like a pattern through the city. Large chunks of cement dangle from twisted rebar above sidewalks like cryptic decorations. At least 8,000 explosives riddle the city center.
Major overpasses have been hit, as well as bridges across the Euphrates River, which cuts through the city. Residents and their cars cross on small barges.
Yet the buzz of activity is startling. Nearly 100,000 residents have returned, according to U.N. accounts. Mustafa said it was likely much higher.
Women in colorful scarves punctuated the grey monotone in the markets. A market for scrap metal has sprung up at one end of the city. Meat grills lined some streets, and warehouses were full of soft drinks, water, grains and other stock. Bulldozers drilled into the wreckage of buildings.
Workers from nearby provinces have come looking for opportunities. The driver of a truck full of mattresses with job hunters sitting on top said they came from the northwestern city of Aleppo.
“They can’t do it all alone,” a construction worker from the neighboring province of Deir el-Zour said at the site of a destroyed bridge.
Those with money rebuild. Painters added some color to the facade of a former car dealership. Its owner, who asked only to be identified as Ismail, said IS had used its back rooms as a prison.
When he came back to Raqqa, he heard of masked gangsters who rob returnees. But it has not stopped him. He is turning his dealership into an internet cafe, much needed in a city that has no phone lines and relies heavily on personal generators for electricity.
He said he paid $600 to clean the wreckage from his street. “I want to make it feel safe,” he said.
Mustafa, the council member, said most of the restoration work was self-financed, with some U.S. money, though she would not say how much. On Thursday, with American officials attending, she inaugurated a new pre-fab bridge to connect the city to neighboring villages. One U.S. official said installing the bridge cost $7,000.
The city is getting “very limited” support — “no match to the size of the needs,” she said. Infrastructure was totally destroyed, as were 65 percent of civilian buildings, and mines and rubble still need to be cleared, she said. She could not say the total cost for rebuilding since it is constantly being reevaluated.
Raqqa paid a “hefty price” for the war on terrorism, she said, but “international organizations and some countries didn’t live up to their responsibilities.”
U.S. officials have led operations to clear land mines and restore basic services like water and electricity in the city. But those programs would likely have to be called off if President Donald Trump goes forward with plans to withdraw American troops within five or six months. In meeting with national security aides, he has railed against the trillions the U.S. has spent in the Mideast, saying it brought no return.
Instead, Trump has asked Saudi Arabia to contribute $4 billion toward reconstruction and stabilization in Syria.
Despite the devastation, signs of IS remained around Raqqa.
The infamous Naim Square — Arabic for “Paradise” — where Islamic State militants displayed hanged bodies or heads, was empty aside from a single chair in the street that marked a former checkpoint of the militants. On the other end were remains of an IS media center with broken chairs and a stand where the screen was once set to show IS videos to the public.
A juice shop and a supermarket were the only signs of life in the square, surrounded by destroyed buildings. Seals used by IS were still visible on the metal shutters of shops, numbering them for tax collection purposes.
Nahla Mustafa walked absent-mindedly nearby, pulling her seven-year old son Baseel behind.
Asked how she is, she immediately said, “Everything is lost,” and her eyes welled with tears. The war had impoverished her well-to-do family. Militants confiscated her husband’s clothing store. The three homes they owned were destroyed in coalition strikes and she had multiple miscarriages, which she blamed on fear from the bombing.
She now makes clothes for a living and asks around houses for odd jobs. Looking at her purse, she said, “I have 3,000 liras ($7) in here. What do I do with this?” Her husband works in a grocery store, earning the equivalent of $45 a month.
“I am tired and I am scared,” she said. “When will we be able to save to fix our homes — when (my husband) is 100?” Her son doesn’t go to school because she worries about land mines.
“What will become of his future? What is our fault in all of this?”
https://apnews.com/fc9da57f2c15465abab7a40f868e7bdf
This asswipe sez the people of Raqqa fear the Syrian government. Well, perhaps those who collaborated with the terrorists do, but then we look at Aleppo, the care that was taken to prevent collateral damage, the rebuilding and revitalization, and one must wonder what they fear and why.
RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Across the ruins of Raqqa, the streets are cloaked in grey, the color of bare cement and rubble left behind by the bombing campaign that finally drove out Islamic State militants. Among the people of this Syrian city, the fear, anger and desperation are palpable.
Six months after IS’s ouster, residents feel they have been abandoned as the world moves on. They are trying to rebuild their lives, but they say they fear everyone around them: the Kurdish-led militia that administers the majority Arab city; the Syrian government, which has forces nearby; criminal gangs who kidnap or rob whoever shows signs of having money; and IS militants who may still be hiding among the people.
“Daesh is still among us,” said a businessman, using the Arabic acronym for IS. To give an example, he said, a man lobbed a hand grenade at a recent funeral when mourners played music, something hard-line Sunni Muslims view as sacrilegious
The Associated Press spoke to over a dozen residents on a recent visit, most of whom spoke of their woes on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety. The businessman asked to be identified by the diminutive of his first name, Abdu.
After fleeing Raqqa during the coalition-led assault on the city last year, Abdu returned once the militants were driven out in October. He found his restaurant and his home next to it destroyed. He was angry, but practical. His life has been on hold for too long and he wanted to get on with his business. So he hired workers and started to rebuild.
But local gangs had eyed him. He was kidnapped and held for $10,000 ransom, until his tribe intervened and rescued him without paying, he said.
He, like many others, lamented the loss of security, which he said was one prize feature of living under IS. He faulted the Kurdish-led forces for hastily recruiting local Arabs to boost their ranks and appease the local Arab tribes.
“We end up with thieves or former Daesh in the force,” he said.
For three years, Raqqa was the de facto capital of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate” stretching across much of Iraq and Syria. In the campaign of the U.S-led coalition and Iraqi and Syrian partners, the group has been uprooted from almost that entire territory.
U.N. officials say Raqqa has been left the most devastated city in all of Syria’s seven-year-old war, a conflict that has also seen Syrian government forces backed by Russian and Iranian forces battling rebels. All of Raqqa suffered intense airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition and the whole population of at least 350,000 had to flee. The infrastructure was destroyed, as were 65 percent of civilian homes, said Leila Mustafa, a member of the U.S.-backed Raqqa Civil Council that now runs the city.
A prominent Arab tribesman escorted the AP to see a building he owned that was gutted by airstrikes. He angrily complained that coalition bombing was indiscriminate. Like many, he said there should be compensation but didn’t expect any would be given.
“I wish I even found the bone of an IS member in there! But nothing. No reason,” he said. “Now, who will pay for this?” He refused to give his name, fearing his criticism would undermine his chances of ever getting money to rebuild.
Nothing is unaffected by the bombardment. Mosques, schools, squares and buildings have all taken hits, some repeatedly. Trees on the street are burned. Insects and dust saturate the air.
The stench of death rises from crushed buildings and remains long after the bodies are removed. Civil workers say they have pulled nearly 500 bodies from under the rubble in the past three months, working with just one bulldozer.
Some streets have been cleared of wreckage, giving way to a scene even more haunting because of how organized it is. Scrap metal and debris are neatly stacked in heaps at the foot of destroyed buildings. Row after row of buildings reduced to concrete skeletons run like a pattern through the city. Large chunks of cement dangle from twisted rebar above sidewalks like cryptic decorations. At least 8,000 explosives riddle the city center.
Major overpasses have been hit, as well as bridges across the Euphrates River, which cuts through the city. Residents and their cars cross on small barges.
Yet the buzz of activity is startling. Nearly 100,000 residents have returned, according to U.N. accounts. Mustafa said it was likely much higher.
Women in colorful scarves punctuated the grey monotone in the markets. A market for scrap metal has sprung up at one end of the city. Meat grills lined some streets, and warehouses were full of soft drinks, water, grains and other stock. Bulldozers drilled into the wreckage of buildings.
Workers from nearby provinces have come looking for opportunities. The driver of a truck full of mattresses with job hunters sitting on top said they came from the northwestern city of Aleppo.
“They can’t do it all alone,” a construction worker from the neighboring province of Deir el-Zour said at the site of a destroyed bridge.
Those with money rebuild. Painters added some color to the facade of a former car dealership. Its owner, who asked only to be identified as Ismail, said IS had used its back rooms as a prison.
When he came back to Raqqa, he heard of masked gangsters who rob returnees. But it has not stopped him. He is turning his dealership into an internet cafe, much needed in a city that has no phone lines and relies heavily on personal generators for electricity.
He said he paid $600 to clean the wreckage from his street. “I want to make it feel safe,” he said.
Mustafa, the council member, said most of the restoration work was self-financed, with some U.S. money, though she would not say how much. On Thursday, with American officials attending, she inaugurated a new pre-fab bridge to connect the city to neighboring villages. One U.S. official said installing the bridge cost $7,000.
The city is getting “very limited” support — “no match to the size of the needs,” she said. Infrastructure was totally destroyed, as were 65 percent of civilian buildings, and mines and rubble still need to be cleared, she said. She could not say the total cost for rebuilding since it is constantly being reevaluated.
Raqqa paid a “hefty price” for the war on terrorism, she said, but “international organizations and some countries didn’t live up to their responsibilities.”
U.S. officials have led operations to clear land mines and restore basic services like water and electricity in the city. But those programs would likely have to be called off if President Donald Trump goes forward with plans to withdraw American troops within five or six months. In meeting with national security aides, he has railed against the trillions the U.S. has spent in the Mideast, saying it brought no return.
Instead, Trump has asked Saudi Arabia to contribute $4 billion toward reconstruction and stabilization in Syria.
Despite the devastation, signs of IS remained around Raqqa.
The infamous Naim Square — Arabic for “Paradise” — where Islamic State militants displayed hanged bodies or heads, was empty aside from a single chair in the street that marked a former checkpoint of the militants. On the other end were remains of an IS media center with broken chairs and a stand where the screen was once set to show IS videos to the public.
A juice shop and a supermarket were the only signs of life in the square, surrounded by destroyed buildings. Seals used by IS were still visible on the metal shutters of shops, numbering them for tax collection purposes.
Nahla Mustafa walked absent-mindedly nearby, pulling her seven-year old son Baseel behind.
Asked how she is, she immediately said, “Everything is lost,” and her eyes welled with tears. The war had impoverished her well-to-do family. Militants confiscated her husband’s clothing store. The three homes they owned were destroyed in coalition strikes and she had multiple miscarriages, which she blamed on fear from the bombing.
She now makes clothes for a living and asks around houses for odd jobs. Looking at her purse, she said, “I have 3,000 liras ($7) in here. What do I do with this?” Her husband works in a grocery store, earning the equivalent of $45 a month.
“I am tired and I am scared,” she said. “When will we be able to save to fix our homes — when (my husband) is 100?” Her son doesn’t go to school because she worries about land mines.
“What will become of his future? What is our fault in all of this?”
https://apnews.com/fc9da57f2c15465abab7a40f868e7bdf
This asswipe sez the people of Raqqa fear the Syrian government. Well, perhaps those who collaborated with the terrorists do, but then we look at Aleppo, the care that was taken to prevent collateral damage, the rebuilding and revitalization, and one must wonder what they fear and why.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
13 April، 2018
London, SANA- The British “Hands off Syria” group has called on British citizens to take to streets in central London and in front of the residence of Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street to express the public’s rejection of Britain’s participation in any possible military aggression against Syria.
” We must stand against the war before it is too late” the group said in its statement published on its Facebook page on Friday.
“The British government is playing a game that could lead us into a World War 3 in an attempt to reverse the victories achieved by the Syrian army and its success in liberating the last areas were controlled by the terrorists in Eastern Ghouta and returning life to normal gradually after years of brutal practices,” the statement said.
“Britain and its imperialist partners dream and promote a new story about another chemical attack in Syria, despite the lack of evidence or logic and even though there is no attack on the ground,” the statement said.
It added that all calls for independent investigations into the alleged incident were rejected by the United States, Britain and France, while the facts show that all previous allegations of this kind have been shown by refutable evidence to be false.
“Nevertheless, our government, along with Washington and Paris, are trying hard to invade Syria and thus fight a war with Russia,” the statement included.
The group concluded by saying: “ This time, it’s very important, join us in Downing Street this evening to show the British public’s opposition to this huge amount of war threats . We say no to war with Syria or to war with Russia. Let all hear your voice”.
Ghossoun /
https://sana.sy/en/?p=134126
Yeah man, did I hear that Move-On is doing the same in DC?
Nope. They are Democratic Party tools and nothing else.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
Shame and shame for imperialist imperialists.
Statement by the Syrian Communist party
O masses of our proud people!
The Imperialist States: The United States of America, the United Kingdom and France have re-established their continued aggression on our homeland several years ago. In the morning of 14 April 2018., the armed forces of these states directed a barrage of rockets into several locations on the land of our homeland, and our valiant armed forces responded to this colonial aggression and dropped many of the rockets they fired. Aggressor forces.
This escalation of the brutal colonial aggression, with its false and false view, is in response to the victories of our fearless armed forces against colonial agents, compelling their criminal gangs and their threat from the capital of Damascus.
This aggression is evidence of the inability of the colonists and their people to overthrow our homeland, the goal that they have set for themselves for the provisions of their colonial domination over our region and, indeed, the entire world. This aggression is the addition of a new page to the black record of the American, British and French colonialism that is crimes against the peoples of the world, against all Israel is also contributing to its ongoing crimes in this record of shame.
This Zionist imperialist aggression will not discourage our Syrian people, who are proud to be able to confront the colonists and privileged to freedom, from their determination to defend the homeland, full national sovereignty and the unity of the homeland.
History tells us that in all our major battles with the western colonists, we came out victorious. We defeated the conquest of the frankish crusaders and Syria was a volcano in the face of the They are valiantly responding to the imperial wagon and their working crimes.
Yes, the land of our homeland will see a new hittin.
Our people will be victorious in their national unity in the face of aggressors aggressors.
Our cause is fair and victory will be ours.
Syria will not kneel!
Damascus 14/4/2018
Central Committee of the Syrian Communist party
Original:
Syrian Communist Party - الحزب الشيوعي السوري
2 hrs ·
الخزي والعار للمعتدين الإمبرياليين
بيان من الحزب الشيوعي السوري
يا جماهير شعبنا الأبيّ!
لقد قامت الدول الإمبريالية: الولايات المتحدة الأميركية وبريطانيا وفرنسا بتصعيد عدوانها المستمر على وطننا منذ عدة سنوات. إذ قامت القوات المسلحة لهذه الدول بتوجيه وابل من الصواريخ إلى مواقع عدة على أرض وطننا في صبيحة يوم 14 نيسان 2018. وقد تصدت قواتنا المسلحة الباسلة لهذا العدوان الاستعماري وأسقطت العديد من الصواريخ التي أطلقتها القوات المعتدية.
ويأتي هذا التصعيد للعدوان الاستعماري الغاشم، بذرائعه الكاذبة والزائفة، رداً على الانتصارات التي حققتها قواتنا المسلحة المقدامة على عملاء المستعمرين، قاهرةً عصاباتهم الإجرامية ومبعدة خطرها عن عاصمة وطننا دمشق.
إن هذا العدوان هو دليل على عجز المستعمرين وأعوانهم عن إسقاط وطننا، هذا الهدف الذي وضعوه لأنفسهم من أجل إحكام هيمنتهم الاستعمارية على منطقتنا، بل وعلى العالم بأسره. وهذا العدوان هو إضافة صفحة جديدة إلى السجل الأسود للاستعمار الأميركي والبريطاني والفرنسي المليء بالجرائم بحق شعوب العالم، بحق البشرية جمعاء. كما تسهم إسرائيل الصهيونية بجرائمها المستمرة في سجل العار هذا.
إن هذه العدوانية الإمبريالية الصهيونية لن تثني شعبنا السوري، العريق في تصديه للمستعمرين والمتميز بتوقه للحرية، عن إصراره في الدفاع عن الوطن وعن السيادة الوطنية الكاملة وعن وحدة تراب الوطن.
والتاريخ يدلنا أنه في جميع معاركنا الكبرى مع المستعمرين الغربيين خرجنا منتصرين. فقد هزمنا غزوات الفرنجة الصليبيين وكانت سوريا بركاناً في وجه المستعمر الفرنسي. وها هي تتصدى ببسالة لعربدة الإمبريالية وجرائم عملائها الظلاميين.
نعم ستشهد أرض وطننا مأثرة حطين جديدة.
إن شعبنا سينتصر بوحدة صفه الوطني في وجه المعتدين البغاة.
قضيتنا عادلة والنصر سيكون لنا.
سوريا لن تركع !
دمشق 14/4/2018
اللجنة المركزية للحزب الشيوعي السوري
Statement by the Syrian Communist party
O masses of our proud people!
The Imperialist States: The United States of America, the United Kingdom and France have re-established their continued aggression on our homeland several years ago. In the morning of 14 April 2018., the armed forces of these states directed a barrage of rockets into several locations on the land of our homeland, and our valiant armed forces responded to this colonial aggression and dropped many of the rockets they fired. Aggressor forces.
This escalation of the brutal colonial aggression, with its false and false view, is in response to the victories of our fearless armed forces against colonial agents, compelling their criminal gangs and their threat from the capital of Damascus.
This aggression is evidence of the inability of the colonists and their people to overthrow our homeland, the goal that they have set for themselves for the provisions of their colonial domination over our region and, indeed, the entire world. This aggression is the addition of a new page to the black record of the American, British and French colonialism that is crimes against the peoples of the world, against all Israel is also contributing to its ongoing crimes in this record of shame.
This Zionist imperialist aggression will not discourage our Syrian people, who are proud to be able to confront the colonists and privileged to freedom, from their determination to defend the homeland, full national sovereignty and the unity of the homeland.
History tells us that in all our major battles with the western colonists, we came out victorious. We defeated the conquest of the frankish crusaders and Syria was a volcano in the face of the They are valiantly responding to the imperial wagon and their working crimes.
Yes, the land of our homeland will see a new hittin.
Our people will be victorious in their national unity in the face of aggressors aggressors.
Our cause is fair and victory will be ours.
Syria will not kneel!
Damascus 14/4/2018
Central Committee of the Syrian Communist party
Original:
Syrian Communist Party - الحزب الشيوعي السوري
2 hrs ·
الخزي والعار للمعتدين الإمبرياليين
بيان من الحزب الشيوعي السوري
يا جماهير شعبنا الأبيّ!
لقد قامت الدول الإمبريالية: الولايات المتحدة الأميركية وبريطانيا وفرنسا بتصعيد عدوانها المستمر على وطننا منذ عدة سنوات. إذ قامت القوات المسلحة لهذه الدول بتوجيه وابل من الصواريخ إلى مواقع عدة على أرض وطننا في صبيحة يوم 14 نيسان 2018. وقد تصدت قواتنا المسلحة الباسلة لهذا العدوان الاستعماري وأسقطت العديد من الصواريخ التي أطلقتها القوات المعتدية.
ويأتي هذا التصعيد للعدوان الاستعماري الغاشم، بذرائعه الكاذبة والزائفة، رداً على الانتصارات التي حققتها قواتنا المسلحة المقدامة على عملاء المستعمرين، قاهرةً عصاباتهم الإجرامية ومبعدة خطرها عن عاصمة وطننا دمشق.
إن هذا العدوان هو دليل على عجز المستعمرين وأعوانهم عن إسقاط وطننا، هذا الهدف الذي وضعوه لأنفسهم من أجل إحكام هيمنتهم الاستعمارية على منطقتنا، بل وعلى العالم بأسره. وهذا العدوان هو إضافة صفحة جديدة إلى السجل الأسود للاستعمار الأميركي والبريطاني والفرنسي المليء بالجرائم بحق شعوب العالم، بحق البشرية جمعاء. كما تسهم إسرائيل الصهيونية بجرائمها المستمرة في سجل العار هذا.
إن هذه العدوانية الإمبريالية الصهيونية لن تثني شعبنا السوري، العريق في تصديه للمستعمرين والمتميز بتوقه للحرية، عن إصراره في الدفاع عن الوطن وعن السيادة الوطنية الكاملة وعن وحدة تراب الوطن.
والتاريخ يدلنا أنه في جميع معاركنا الكبرى مع المستعمرين الغربيين خرجنا منتصرين. فقد هزمنا غزوات الفرنجة الصليبيين وكانت سوريا بركاناً في وجه المستعمر الفرنسي. وها هي تتصدى ببسالة لعربدة الإمبريالية وجرائم عملائها الظلاميين.
نعم ستشهد أرض وطننا مأثرة حطين جديدة.
إن شعبنا سينتصر بوحدة صفه الوطني في وجه المعتدين البغاة.
قضيتنا عادلة والنصر سيكون لنا.
سوريا لن تركع !
دمشق 14/4/2018
اللجنة المركزية للحزب الشيوعي السوري
This act was a matter of face saving, their story was weak and falling apart. As noted above, over 100 missiles, 71 shot dawn, and according to another source only 3 hit target. So much for 'smart' missiles...Syria air strikes: US and allies attack 'chemical weapons sites'
35 minutes ago
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Related TopicsSyria air strikes
Media captionMoment cruise missiles were launched from a French naval ship
The US, UK and France have bombed three government sites in Syria in an early morning operation targeting chemical weapons facilities, they say.
The move is a response to a suspected chemical attack on the town of Douma last week which killed dozens.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he condemned the Western strikes "in the most serious way".
Russia, Syria's main ally, had threatened military retaliation if any Russian forces had been hit.
"The nations of Britain, France, and the United States of America have marshalled their righteous power against barbarism and brutality," US President Donald Trump said in an address from the White House at about 21:00 local time (01:00 GMT).
"The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons," he said.
The wave of strikes is the most significant attack against President Bashar al-Assad's government by Western powers in seven years of Syria's civil war.
Syria 'chemical attack': What we know
Where was hit?
At a Pentagon briefing shortly after Mr Trump's announcement, General Joseph Dunford listed three targets that had been struck:
A scientific research facility in Damascus, allegedly connected to the production of chemical and biological weapons
A chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs
A chemical weapons equipment storage site and an important command post, also near Homs
Media captionA CBS reporter in Damascus says he heard the air strikes as Donald Trump was speaking on TV
Reuters news agency cites a pro-Assad militia commander saying other locations were hit, including various sites close to Damascus: a military base in the Dimas area; army depots in the eastern Qalamoun; the Kiswah area, where Iran is believed to have been building a base; and a site in the Qasyoun hills, plus a research centre in Masyaf, further north. These reports are unverified.
UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights suggested more targets than the three listed by the Pentagon had been hit.
Russia said Syria had shot down 71 of 103 missiles fired.
Was anyone killed?
According to a Russian defence ministry statement, "preliminary information" said there had been no casualties among the Syrian army or civilians.
There were initial reports that three civilians had been injured in Homs.
US Secretary of Defence James Mattis told journalists there were no reports of US losses in the operation.
He also said the scale of the strikes was about "double" what was launched in April 2017 after a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 people.
Syria state TV showed images it claimed were of sites where it had brought down foreign missiles
Will the strikes continue?
In his earlier address, President Trump had said: "We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents."
But Secretary Mattis said that "right now, this is a one-time shot".
Gen Dunford said the US had communicated with Russia ahead of the strikes through the normal procedures of their "deconfliction" hotline, which is used to prevent accidental clashes in a war zone with multiple international players. There had been concerns that if the US strike had hit Russian military personnel on the ground, it would further escalate tension.
Media captionDonald Trump and Theresa May on the air strikes in Syria
What role did the UK and France play?
According to the UK Ministry of Defence, strikes carried out by four RAF Tornado jets hit one of the targets mentioned by the Pentagon - a military site near the city of Homs which is believed to have housed precursor materials for chemical weapons.
Eight Storm Shadow cruise missiles were fired by the jets.
Prime Minister Theresa May said there was "no practicable alternative to the use of force".
But she also said the strikes were not about "regime change".
She later added that while the assessment of the strikes' results was ongoing, she was confident of their success.
PM has chosen which way to jump on Syria
SWhat can Western military intervention achieve?
Were the Syria air strikes legal?
Media captionMay: 'We are acting together with our allies'
French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country's participation in the operation.
"Dozens of men, women and children were massacred with chemical weapons," he said of the Douma incident a week ago - adding that "the red line had been crossed".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43762251
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Syria
Eastern Ghouta Militants to Be Deployed to Yemen Via Saudi Arabia – Reports
16:56 14.04.2018
The Russian Defense Ministry has reported that a total of 170,152 people, including 63,117 militants and their relatives, had been evacuated from the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta during a large-scale humanitarian operation in the area.
500 Jaysh al-Islam* militants who were earlier evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, plan to go to Yemen, according to the pan-Arabic satellite television channel Al Mayadeen.
It cited its own source as saying that the terrorists first intend to illegally arrive in Saudi Arabia, from where they will try to enter Yemen.
On Friday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a news briefing that the Russian Reconciliation Center along with Syrian authorities are wrapping up a large-scale humanitarian operation in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta.
"A total of 170,152 people were evacuated from the area, including 63,117 militants and members of their families," Konashenkov said.
The relocation of Jaysh al-Islam militants from Eastern Ghouta to the northern Syrian province of Aleppo began late last week, in line with a Russia-brokered deal to release the militants' prisoners.
The Syrian Army gained control of most of Eastern Ghouta on March 31, when it managed to lift the militants' blockade of a major highway between Damascus and the rest of the country.
The liberation came after Syrian troops launched their major offensive on Eastern Ghouta in February, in a bid to do away with the militants' occupation of the area, which had been in place since 2012.
Residents leave the territory of Eastern Ghouta
© SPUTNIK/ MUHAMAD MARUF
Humanitarian Corridor in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta in Action (VIDEO)
February 27 saw the beginning of daily humanitarian pauses in Eastern Ghouta, part of efforts by Russia and the Syrian Arab Republic to help civilians withdraw from the combat zone.
Yemen has been embroiled into a violent conflict between the government headed by ex-President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi Shia movement, also known as Ansar Allah, which is backed by army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed in 2017.
Since March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request.
https://sputniknews.com/amp/middleeast/ ... nts-yemen/
These redeployments have been on-going since the US used AlQueda troops in Yugoslavia. Cannot help but think of the Thirty Years War, where gangs of mercs were transferred from one front/forage opportunity to another. And which, btw, was not a 'religious conflict' as the vulgar partisans would have it but rather a fight over the final disposition of Church Lands confiscated during the Reformation. A few of the Players having religious motivations does not change that. Every 'war of religion' has a material basis.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
