Syria

Syria: the return of US “world policing”

During the US election Trump’s advice to Obama was, “do not attack Syria... if you do many very bad things will happen and from that fight the US gets nothing.” Therefore Trump was not heeding his own advice when he gave the go-ahead for 59 missiles to be fired at an Assad military airfield on 6 April. Trump’s non-interventionist stance had been based on an assessment that the Syrian opposition is dominated by various strands of Islamism, while Assad is a known quantity. In October 2016 Trump said: “If they ever did overthrow Assad... you may very well end up with worse than Assad.” While...

Israel enters Syrian conflict

A surprise rebel assault on the eastern suburbs of Damascus has been driven back by the Syrian Army. Meanwhile a further round of peace talks in Geneva, between the government and major rebel factions, will soon begin. Since the so-called ceasefire began in December last year, both sides have, with justification, accused the other of breaching the agreement. Israel has increased its involvement in the war, with a drone killing of an alleged pro-Assad fighter, part of a militia supported by the Lebanese Hezbollah. Exchanges of fire between the Syrian army and Israel have also intensified after...

A human slaughterhouse: inside Assad’s Syria

A report by Amnesty International released on 7 February 2017 says that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were murdered in a secret prison in Syria from 2011 to 2016. Inmates at the prison were mostly civilians who supported the opposition to President Bashar al Assad. The information comes from interviews with 84 people who were former prisoners, guards, judges and doctors. The report describes killing and torture on an industrial scale, “trials” lasting between one and three minutes, mass hangings of between 50 and 80 people that took place twice a week. The hangings were conducted extremely...

Assad forces move forward, Russia and Turkey cooperate

Assad’s so-called “liberation” of Aleppo has destroyed and ransacked the city. More than 400,000 people have been displaced in a city that once had a population of 1.5 million. Attempts to rebuild the infrastructure will be a slow process. Much of the city was obliterated in Russian-aided bombardments that sought to show both the might of Assad and the determination of Russia to cement itself as his key ally. Any lasting ceasefire is likely to break down. The UN’s efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Syria remain blocked by various obstructions including the need for permits from the...

London protest over Aleppo

Maybe a thousand protesters gathered at short notice outside 10 Downing Street on 13 December to protest against Putin's and Assad's bombardment of Aleppo. Many of the protesters may have been Syrians living in London, but visibly the majority were not: they were people of all backgrounds who had rallied to protest against the atrocities and solidarise with the civilian population of Aleppo. There were placards that suggested UK military action in Syria, such as "No-Bomb Zone Now", but the main focus was on non-military aid for the civilian population. I asked a film crew who were doing short...

Aleppo doomsday

With the aid of Russian military jets and intelligence units, Syrian armed forces tightened their grip over eastern Aleppo in early December. The fall of the whole city to Assad’s regime is now increasingly likely. Many more civilians are dying, and thousands are fleeing the city. Since the latest offensive began last month, the territory under the control of Syrian rebels has fallen by 50%. The combined forces of the Syrian army, Shia militias from Iraq, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah have made significant and probably irreversible gains. 30,000 people have already been displaced by the...

Daesh stages murderous fightback in Mosul

With the assault on Mosul advancing quickly, Daesh have mounted a last ditch fightback. Seven eastern districts of Mosul have been lost; fighters who remain are hiding amongst the civilian population and launching repeated smaller guerilla style attacks on the approaching troops. 34,000 people have now fled the city. Daesh leader and supposed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called unremitting opposition to the army, militias and Kurdish forces that are retaking Mosul. A spokesman for the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service told Reuters: “Sometimes they climb to the rooftops of houses where...

End the silence on Russia

A group of Syrian solidarity activists disrupted a speech by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at Stop the War’s Conference on 8 October. They wanted to highlight the ongoing and murderous bombing of Aleppo by Russian forces and the continuing crimes of the Assad regime. Disgracefully, they were removed by the Stop the War organisers as a chant of “No more war” by the audience was used to drown them out. Whilst we do not share the optimism of some of the Syria solidarity activists for the prospects and dominant politics of the Syrian opposition, we fully support their protest in exposing the...

Russia strengthens Assad but not decisively

It is five years since the birth of the oppostion to Assad's regime in Syria. There are now 4.8 million refugees. Of these a mere 10% have gone to Europe. An additional 6.5 million Syrians have been “internally displaced”. 13.5 million rely on humanitarian aid. This is a country, and a population that has changed beyond all recognition. Bombardment by Russian jets and the combined force of the Syrian army and Iranian controlled Shia militias continues to starve and brutalise areas still governed by different rebel factions. This brutality goes far beyond the siege of Aleppo which has so...

Syria: risk of aid stopping

The ceasefire in Syria had already appeared to be on the verge of collapse following a US-led attack on Syrian troops, who, so Russia has said, were fighting Daesh. Then came an air attack on UN aid convoys near Aleppo. Russia and Syria have both denied responsibility, but are suspected of being involved. The US has said the ceasefire is not dead. The US said its attack on Deir al-Zour was aimed at Daesh, and it was unaware Syrian government troops were present. The Russians declared it was a “display of heavy handedness” by the US. Russia has called on the US to coordinate airstrikes...

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