The Syrian Conflict Thread

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-29/iraq-washington-we-dont-need-your-help-fighting-terrorism

The Iraqi government said Wednesday it didn't ask for — and doesn't need — the "direct action on the ground" promised by the Pentagon.

The revelation came a day after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the U.S. may carry out more unilateral ground raids — like last week's rescue operation to free hostages — in Iraq to target ISIS militants.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's spokesman told NBC News that any military involvement in the country must be cleared through the Iraqi government just as U.S.-led airstrikes are.

"This is an Iraqi affair and the government did not ask the U.S. Department of Defense to be involved in direct operations," spokesman Sa'ad al-Hadithi told NBC News. "We have enough soldiers on the ground."
Click to expand...
 
Carter is the guy who told McCain off, saying that Russians were not targeting US sponsored fighters in Syria who were engaging ISIS.

Mr. McCain also asked the defense secretary whether he planned to try to protect pro-U.S. Syrian rebels who are being targeted by Russia and Syria with barrel and cluster bombs.

Mr. Carter asserted that no rebel group directly supported by the Defense Department under the law has been attacked.
Click to expand...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...net-preps-more-american-boots-groun/?page=all
 
Kurdish family fleeing Syria stuck in Moscow airport for over 50 days

A Kurdish family that fled the Syrian civil war has landed in a bureaucratic purgatory: the Moscow airport.

Hassan Abdo Ahmed Mohammed, his wife and four children want to settle in Russia, but the government says their visas are fake. Returning home is out of the question because of the dangers there.
So the family set up camp inside Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport and wait while their lawyer tries to untangle the red tape.

Their home for the last 50 days: A barren corner of the airport terminal overlooking the tarmac. Air mattresses are spread on the floor for napping. Suitcases have been pushed against the walls. They can't cook, so UNICEF brings them food. They use airport restrooms.
With no doors to keep out passersby, they family stretched a cord to mark their space. A hand-written sign says, "Please don't touch our thing (sic) becaus (sic) we are living here."

The situation improved a little bit recently. The United Nations and a non-governmental organization convinced Russian authorities to let the family spend nights in a hotel located inside the airport terminal, Mohammed told CNN.
"After 44 days of sleeping on the ground of the airport, in the cold, they decided to put us in a hotel," he said. "The condition of the room is not great, and they put us in the smoking area."
But they must spend their days on the the hard floor of the terminal, hearing every announcement on the blaring public address system and enduring the looks of travelers passing by.
It's not a good place for the couple's children: three boys, ages 8 to 13, and a 3-year-old daughter.
"We have not seen the sun for 49 days," Mohammed said to CNN.
Conditions were so bad that Mohammed's wife became sick and had to spend two weeks in a hospital, he said.
"We were not allowed to see her, even her kids," he said. "She is back now, but she still does not feel well."
After leaving Syria, they ended up in Ibril, a Kurdish city in north Iraq. They applied for visas to Russia and flew to Istanbul and then to Moscow. That's when their forward progress came to a halt.
"When we arrived the airport in Moscow, we were told to wait for a security check," Mohammed said. "After few days we were told that our visas are fake."

Russia wanted to deport the family back to Syria. But "if I go back, the regime will kill me and my family," Mohammed said.
He asked for permission to return to Istanbul or Ibril, but the Russians refused, he said.
Mohammed thinks Russia's close ties with the embattled Syrian government are interfering with his plans to enter Russia.
"Russia has a very strong relation with the Syrian regime, and they don't want to encourage Syrians to leave the country," he said.
Mohammed's lawyer said the Syrian government checked out their passports and said they were authentic. Russian authorities are now investigating the the passports, the lawyer said, and should come to a decision soon.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the country has taken in 1 million refugees from Ukraine and accepted 8,000 people from Syria in September.

Unlike some European countries, Russia has not relaxed its immigration laws for the recent wave of Mideastern immigrants, Zakharova said, and will not change the laws for this family. People wanting to enter the country must have proper documentation, she said.
The family has mounted a small-scale media campaign to make their case.
"Hi, my name is Raynass Mohammed," the 13-year-old son says on a video. "We are from Syria. We are living in an airport, and this is our life. We want you to help us, please. The airport is very cold for sleeping and for sitting."
Mohammed can only fume -- and keep waiting.
"Officials at the airport treated me like a terrorist," he said. "Do I look like a terrorist? Is this how they treat a father surrounded by his wife and his four kids, all desperate to live a normal life?"
Click to expand...
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/29/asia/kurdish-family-stuck-in-moscow-airport/index.html
 
Militants execute 56 Syrian regime soldiers at captured airbase

Islamist insurgents shoot dead 56 members of Syrian government forces in a mass execution at airbase captured from the army earlier this month in north-west Syria, says monitor


By Nabih Bulos

11:24AM BST 19 Sep 2015

Islamist rebels operating in north-west Syria executed at least 56 government troops after overrunning a strategic military airport, a watchdog group confirmed on Saturday.

The soldiers had been captured after the fall of Abu al-Duhur airbase in Idlib earlier in September.

On Friday, opposition supporters on Twitter uploaded a video depicting soldiers lined up on the tarmac as militants walk nearby.

Subsequent pictures show the soldiers killed, their bloodied corpses on the ground. A bearded fighter triumphantly poses before the camera, one foot placed on the head of a dead soldier.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a pro-opposition monitor based in the UK with a network of activists on the ground, confirmed the executions on Saturday, raising the death toll on the government side to 71 loyalists, according to SOHR head Rami Abdul Rahman.
...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...rian-regime-soldiers-at-captured-airbase.html

// so these executioners are the ones the US supports??!! \\
 
Space_Chief said:
But Hezbollah are the bad guys. Anti-ASSAD Non-Al Nusra, Non-ISIS fighters are the good guys.
Click to expand...

Yeah if you read the American propaganda, if you read the Russian propaganda its the other way around, except in the case of ISIS. Both sides realise they are the bad guys.
 
Sweden:
http://www.thelocal.se/20151030/in-the-long-run-our-system-will-collapse-in-sweden
'In the long run our system will collapse'

Sweden's outspoken foreign minister, Margot Wallström, has hit out at fellow EU member states over the refugee crisis, saying the union needs to do more to relieve the pressure on her country.

Refugee homes made 'secret' amid attack fears (28 Oct 15)
Refugee talks planned between UK and Sweden (27 Oct 15)
Swedish parties reveal temporary asylum plan (23 Oct 15)
Wallström, who was deputy chairperson of the EU commission in 2004-2010, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that Sweden would be taking a tougher stance in summits in an attempt to secure financial support and help to accommodate the 140,000-190,000 asylum seekers the country is expected to receive in 2015.

Sweden is currently campaigning for other EU member states to take in a greater share of refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East and Africa. But the minister said negotiations have so far not produced the desired result.

“I have to admit that there have been moments recently of very great disappointment. I have heard statements from member states that have been completely astonishing and very discouraging,” Wallström said in the interview which was published on Friday morning.

An unprecedented number of people are expected to seek asylum in the Nordic nation in 2015 and while Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has widely praised his country's response to the crisis he has said that Sweden is "approaching the limit" of its reception capacity.

“I think most people feel that we cannot maintain a system where perhaps 190,000 people will arrive every year – in the long run, our system will collapse. And that welcome is not going to receive popular support,” said Wallström, echoing her Social Democrat colleague's comments.

Löfven is expected to push the same argument when he meets his UK counterpart David Cameron, leader of one of the countries reluctant to take in more asylum seekers, on Monday next week.

The meeting comes after representatives from six parties – the ruling Social Democrat-Green coalition and the opposition of the Moderates, the Liberals, the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats – agreed to request that the EU include Sweden in its refugee relocation scheme, alongside front-line states Italy and Greece, to ease the burden on the Nordic country.

Wallström told The Local in May that how the union manages the crisis is going to determine its record in the history books.

“What if we lived in a war zone? We would also want to flee somewhere safe with our children, or try to secure a future elsewhere. It has to do with whether or not we are serious in the EU about our guiding principles – this will affect our credibility,” says Wallström.

READ ALSO: The Local's interview with Sweden's foreign minister

For more news from Sweden, join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Local ([email protected])
Click to expand...

I mean.... that's the idealism of your ideology failing in reality. The solution is to be more realistic, not to try to convince the rational realists to be more idealistic.
 
Last edited:
Nearly 150 killed in deadly day of air strikes in Syria


More than 140 people were killed in government and Russian air strikes across Syria within 24 hours, according to sources and monitors.

At least 80 people were killed in Aleppo city and nearby towns by a series of Russian and regime air strikes on Friday, sources told Al Jazeera.

About 25 areas within Aleppo province were hit by the air strikes.

The deadly raids came after at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded after Syrian government air strikes hit a marketplace in a Damascus suburb, sources said.

An officer of the Syria Civil Defense in the Damascus suburbs branch told Al Jazeera that the air raids struck a busy market in Douma on Friday, killing at least 61 and injuring more than 100 others.

Douma, east of Damascus, has been under intense government attack for weeks now.

Witnesses said missiles were fired into the marketplace in a rebel-held part of Douma.

"This is the second time this market has been targeted in Douma," the civil defence officer said over phone from Douma.

"There are only civilians here - no army and no opposition forces. Residents do not permit any armed person in this area.

"This market is at the heart of Douma and supplies everyone here. Lots of farmers come here every morning to sell their items. The market was intentionally targeted."
Click to expand...

Full article: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/150-killed-deadly-day-air-strikes-syria-151031015240812.html
 
Video of the Syrian/Russian strike on the market place - NSFL

[video=youtube;3YlBc4svVQU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YlBc4svVQU[/video]
 
US special forces in Syria are Obama's latest broken foreign policy promise
In 2012, Obama unequivocally said he would end the war in Afghanistan, and chided Mitt Romney the Republican nominee for not promising that. In 2013, Obama said: “I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria.” In 2014, Obama said: “We will not be sending US troops back into combat in Iraq”. At this point, all of those promises have been completely broken.

Worse, the Obama administration has effectively removed the democratic process (and Congress) from any decision making on whether to go to war. We now have ground troops inside Syria without any sort of legal authorization from Congress. Obama explicitly campaigned in 2012 on ending the Afghanistan war, which he has now extended beyond his term. The Obama administration also went into Libya and removed Muammar Gaddafi, despite the House voting against it beforehand.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X