Posted on 09/24/2014 7:16:21 PM PDT by markomalley
Activists and rebel groups have concerns about civilian casualties – particularly because ISIS has entrenched itself in residential areas.
Yesterday's U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria, targeting an al-Qaida command center in Idlib, resulted in the death of at least 11 civilians, according to the Center for Documentation of Violation in Syria (VDC).
On Monday the U.S., along with five Arab allies, began an airstrike campaign against ISIS and al-Nusra targets across northern and eastern Syria, including the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, and parts of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Hasakeh provinces.
As U.S. officials released photographic evidence of "significant damage" to ISIS training camps and headquarters, several activists and rebel groups in Syria are expressing serious concerns for the loss of a large number of civilian casualties because ISIS has entrenched itself in civilian areas.
Here, Bassam al-Ahmad of the VDC says that the military strikes against ISIS and al-Qaida targets in Syria must uphold international obligations to refrain from targeting civilians, and that the international community must not turn a blind eye to the potential for increased violence against civilians as the world’s attention is on the U.S. strikes.
Syria Deeply: What's the ground view of yesterday's strike? Why are civilians at such a risk of becoming casualties?
al-Ahmad: Yesterday, in Kafrderian, Jabhat al-Nusra's command center was targeted. There were civilians around this base, women and children, who died as a result.
ISIS has taken over several bases in Raqqa, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor where civilians are living. For example, in Raqqa, ISIS has military bases in villages outside Raqqa where it would be easy to target them without risking civilian casualties. However, ISIS has also taken over several bases in Raqqa, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor where civilians are living, and there is huge potential for civilian casualties.
ISIS also has a number of command centers that have been converted to detention centers, where ISIS is keeping thousands of inmates, including journalists, activists and people who have been kidnapped.
ISIS controls installations containing dangerous materials, including the Conoco gas plant, in the Khasham village near Deir Ezzor. If this gas stock were to be hit, it could potentially cause huge destruction as an environmental hazard of incalculable proportions.
Syria Deeply: What is the reaction from civilians on the ground?
al-Ahmad: I talked with many civilians yesterday. Most of them are very scared about the possibility of death. They have no idea when the strikes will hit and no way to prepare for them. There are also very serious fears about the number of civilian casualties increasing over time, especially considering the potential length of the airstrike campaign.
These strikes have the potential to lead to more displacement in areas like Raqqa. Hundreds of thousands of people are already displaced in Raqqa and Aleppo, and we think this trend will continue.
We fear that ISIS will retaliate and commit more violence against civilians during these strikes, especially if the strikes are not able to completely wipe out ISIS. With the international community’s attention on U.S. airstrikes on ISIS, the government of President Bashar al-Assad will use the situation to its advantage to take over more areas in Syria and target more civilians.
Obama will have to go all out to catchup with ISIS on civilian casualties
Two wrongs make right, right?
Two wrongs make right, right?
As long as the muzzie terrorists are beheading innocent civilians, I really don’t want to hear it.
If you are going to beat savages, you need to do savage things.
Obama admin was warned about I.S. as far back as January this year at least, according to the Kurds and Peshmerga said they warned the U.S., but Obama’s admin chose to do nothing until well after I.S. entered Iraq in June and only after much delay & deliberation. Maybe the situation could’ve been more easily dealt with had action been taken sooner. So, now we’re where we’re.
There’s no reason to believe they’d be stupider than Hamas and play fair by letting us slaughter them, which is a good enough excuse for Israel to not care about killing innocents. I wonder if we even feel the need to bother with an excuse; have we ever apologized for incinerating German and Japanese women and children en masse? Unlike Israel, we aren’t reliant on outside support to continue our wars, though like all good politicians our betters want good PR.
That’s exactly correct.
The situation is more akin to a situation where the thug is killing a hostage every hour on the hour. The SWAT team have to take collateral risks to prevent the next murder by the thug(s).
That’s okay for moral equivalency, but what about the innocent civilians themselves? There’s no balancing out there; there’s just more of them dead.
So what....win a war....destroy everything and kill everyone
Over fast
The thing is that in today’s world, it will work for ISIS just as it has worked for Hamas. If an air strike doesn’t kill civilians, ISIS will go our and kill some, just for the photo op. That’s the kind of people Islam creates.
In the first place obama ordered attacks on empty buildings— ( in the dark after everyone left!!!) total joke in the Pentagon. In the second place — the Islamic State military has now relocated is Mosul and Faluja and other cities they control. To kill them we have to kill thousands innocent people. All the tanks and trucks are now in buildings and mosques. Obama hasn’t done anything. What a joke about the “allies” No England— France Turkey Canada Australia, Japan— just a bunch of shiite countries and the house of Saud that will soon suffer horrible deaths at the hands of these butchers. I could care less.
Ah, the wisdom of millenia of Christian civilization. No wonder our betters don’t care about silly things like constitutions anymore. Their serfs rejoice in the slaughter of innocents for the sake of punishing supposed “savages” of whom they know virtually nothing, halfway across the world, not for anything they’ve done to us but to others, who knows why, all in the greater interest of...something. One world government is all that makes sense, but I can’t say anyone has that much of a plan.
Perpetual war for perpetual peace, at least. There will always be a worse guy to kill, and therefore never any reason to stop and think “Hey, when do we get to calm down and not be savage?”
I think you’re confusing war with a hissy fit.
I don’t recall any such handwringing over German or Japanese civilians 70 years ago. If you wage war, people die. That’s how it works.
It’s a tough job, isn’t it? Being superior...
Since isis seems so astute as in computer knowledge, one should not be surprised. Infiltration, deception, hiding are the hallmarks of killers within islam. When someone goes to stop the killers’ killing in islam ... the cries begin of innocents losing their lives. Classic traits of islam for centuries. islam loves death. islam will utilize Civilizations’ revulsion of having to kill innocents to kill the killers. islam is a master of propaganda and a true liar in every sense of the word lies. It is Islam’s way. To win against islam, innocents will have to die in multitudes because that is the way islam plans to fight by hiding within the innocents. Multitudes will die at the hand of islam. islam will always attempt to place the blame on something or someone else besides islam but the fault is that of islam for the deaths. Civilization must become adjusted to the nature of islam or submit to islam. Don’t think Civilization is willing to go under the sword of islam without a fight though and islam is probably in for the biggest surprise of their short to be lives. Civilization can be a mean Bitch when cornered.
You’re right no-to-illegals. The logic there is that if we know and understand all you say, then it should stand to reason to be more clever in fighting them too. So far we haven’t been. We feed these islamists, arm them, give them time to breed, and gain advantage and then go drop bombs - all very reactive. They need to be fought on multiple levels. One is not to allow them to gain advantage to begin with, including in our own country. Otherwise, someday we may even have to bomb western countries just to save Civilization.
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