Posted on 06/05/2016 2:54:20 PM PDT by Navy Patriot
Nearly 50 air strikes hit rebel-held areas in and around the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday in some of the heaviest recent raids by Russian and Syrian government aircraft, residents and a monitoring group said.
The group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also said an unidentified war plane had crashed in countryside south of Aleppo, in an area where Islamist rebel fighters are battling the Syrian army and Iranian-backed forces. It had no information on what caused the crash.
A civil defense worker said at least 32 people were killed in the rebel-held parts of the city during the air strikes, with 18 bodies pulled from flattened buildings in the Qatrji neighborhood, the worst hit.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Further in the article is this gem: Syria issued a toughly worded statement denouncing Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, holding them responsible for the latest surge in rebel attacks and accusing them of wrecking any effort to reach a U.N.-backed political settlement.
Kurds are heavily involved in destroying the Sunni backed Syrian "Rebels" as payback for Turkish and Sunni atrocities.
Drop your bombs between the minarets.
Probably a good idea.
These are the toughest times to maintain resolve. Some of the civilians are not ISIS or "Rebel" supporters, and they are used as human shields by the terrorist scum. Others are providing food and materiel support, and are legitimate collateral.
The US is facing similar challenges in their combined operations in Iraq.
It's sad, discomforting, but necessary.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights seems to think that a civillian is a person who is separated from the nearest firearm by a meter or more.
Will hillary comment on her contribution while sos to the situation in syria? Maybe, just maybe, she can “bark” her comments.
Syria and Russia are moving on Raqqa in the east, but have to shore up their flank against the other Islamist outfit in Syria.
I believe even the US supported Al Nusra at one point, at least indirectly via the Free Syrian Army.
That was Turkish special forces and Al Qaeda.
Russia has shifted from surge mode to longer term maintenance mode, and is coordinating on a larger field.
Thus the Syrian publicity focusing on outside support of the "Rebels". If they can bring popular pressure to coerce abandonment of the "Rebels", then they stand a better chance of closing the ring on 'em.
I have it on good authority, a new shipment of virgins has arrived and are in stock. Vlad! I wish your pilots good hunting!
The only way Turkey will abandon the Islamists is if they are compelled to do so via external forces. Their irrational fear of a Kurdistan drives their actions.
They would certainly suffer a NATO expulsion rather than give up their support for Islamists.
Directly. Even Biden and McCain admitted as much I believe.
Manbij City itself, is (was) the main reception station for foreign jihadis joining ISIS, and for planning ISIS attacks back in the West. English and German were common languages heard around town. Fighting has reached the Southern edge of town, they are enveloped to the North and East, and airstrikes have begun in the city.
The main Highway that ISIS was using for supply and reinforcements from Turkey is now cut. They can still divert around, but at this rate, the whole gap could be shut in a month. Checkmate.
ISIS is nothing more than a gang of brigands and they recognize no rules. They hide behind children, women, elderly, in hospitals, in houses of worship and shuck what they call uniforms and hide as civilians even as women all while fighting. Anyone that is in their logistics train is fair game and that includes all civilians within their power sphere. The turks will also be brought to account.
Kurds, though they are an Irani people, they are majority sunni (like the Irani people futher east, the Tajiks), not Shia -- however they are Irani people and the Semitic people of Syria and Iraq don't like them for that racial reason.
Kurds, though they are an Irani people, they are majority sunni (like the Irani people futher east, the Tajiks), not Shia -- however they are Irani people and the Semitic people of Syria and Iraq don't like them for that racial reason.
The "Turks" (though racially they are mostly Aryanic/Hurrian - a mix of Hurrian, Hittite, Armenian, Greek, Celtic (Galatians) etc. with a thin veneer of central Asian Turkic on top) - they hate the Kurds because they refused to get Turkicised.
You are correct, Kurds are genetically close to Iranian peoples or the group that were formerly called "Persians".
They have a strong tribal self identity that significantly predates Islam and contributes to their cohesiveness across partial territories in six nations.
Kurds have a way of thinking that puts Kurdish first over sect and even Islam, and they tend to mind their own business in relations to neighbors.
...they hate the Kurds because they refused to get Turkicised.
Exactly, and the Saudi Sunnis envision a Sunni World Caliphate and resent and attack all Kurds because they won't be Sunni Islamicists before being Kurdish, and they really resent that all the Kurds will stand up to them.
Secular Strongmen leaders (Tyrants) of middle East and North African states are in the same boat, and if they have treated the Kurds decently the Kurds will ignore how they treat Sunnis in general, at least at this time.
Thus Kurdish support of Assad despite US opinion of him and waning US influence over Kurds.
They would certainly suffer a NATO expulsion rather than give up their support for Islamists.
I believe you are correct, and I should have clarified by posting:"If they can bring popular international pressure to coerce abandonment of the "Rebels"
Yes, cutting ISIS/Turkish supply and eventually all access to Syria will be a major turning point.
The association with Persians is because two of the greatest Irani empires (the Achaemenid (Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes etc) and the Sassanid (Khosrau etc)) arose in Pars and spoke Farsi.
The Kurds themselves seem to be the descendants of the Medes (the group of Irani peoples that, allied with the BAbylonians, overthrew the Assyrian Empire circa 700 B.C.) and possibly the Cardussi -- an Irani tribe that were recorded as living on the south-western shore of the Caspian sea.
Good points about why the Sauds hate them
Your detailed stats are much more accurate than my general description.
General descriptions are a little risky with these very tribal, close knit and independent peoples, and the criteria they choose to define themselves.
Several groups also have the anonymity of practicing a mind-your-own-business way of life.
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