Syria

Idlib, the next humanitarian disaster

With Russian support the proposed assault on the Syrian province of Idlib could be one of the bloodiest of the war. Idlib is the last outpost of significant rebel control. It’s 2.5 million civilians, many who are internally displaced, may face a determined regime campaign to conquer the territory no matter the outcome. Idlib does not resemble an ordinary province, it has hundreds of thousands of people living in camps or out in the open, people who are already the victims of the regime, Iranian troops and Russian bombs. As troops amassed on the border, civilians were advised to accept...

Yarmouk: from refugee to “death” camp

Before the Syrian civil war the Yarmouk district on the outskirts of Damascus was home to almost 150,000 registered Palestinian refugees. It was probably the largest and most well-developed refugee settlement in the world; it was certainly the biggest in Syria. In May 2018 the last Daesh fighters who had occupied the camp, along with other Syrian rebels, were driven out. The area now stands in ruins and is completely uninhabitable. There are plans for the complete redevelopment of southern Damascus, and the former camp residents may find themselves excluded. During the war the Syrian...

Syria, Chemical weapons, and bombing

On 14 April the USA, Britain, and France made air-strikes which, so the US says, disabled some of the Syrian government’s chemical-weapons sites. US Defence Secretary James Mattis described the operation as a “one-off”, and in fact further substantial military action by the USA and its allies seems unlikely in the near future in Syria, where Russia, Iran, the Assad government which Russia and Iran support, and Turkey in some areas, control most of the territory ( bit.ly/syria-t ). The Russian government, which vehemently condemned the air-strikes, made no charges about civilian casualties from...

Douma atrocity is a sign of Assad's victory

After nearly seven years of unrest and civil war in Syria, Assad’s chemical attack on the civilian population trapped in Douma, a city near the capital Damascus, no longer seems shocking; it was the action of a regime that is able to kill and maim with impunity. The attack on the city followed negotiations which ended on 25 March with an agreement for a cessation of armed attacks, to allow for civilian evacuations. People were allowed stay, including members of the main rebel group there, HTS, on condition they became civilian police. 4,500 people were evacuated before the attack. But on April...

The Morning Star on the Douma massacre, Russia, and Israel

The Morning Star's editorial of 10 April 2018 shows how perception of world affairs can be skewed by the Star's fixed insistence on seeing Russia (even way-post-USSR, blatantly capitalist Russia) as the good guy, and Israel as the world's prime source of evil. Israel did a bombing raid against Assad on 8 April after the Douma massacre of 6 April, says the Star... as a ploy to divert attention from the killings in Gaza. The Star stops short of claiming that the Assad regime's chemical-weapons slaughter in Douma - which is what "diverted attention" from Gaza, if anything did - was in fact done...

Afrin cannot be ignored

Kurdish forces retreated from Afrin in northern Syria on 19 March after Turkey seized control of the centre of the city. On 25 March Turkish state media said they had full control of the city and were now “sweeping for landmines and IEDs to allow citizens to return.” The 200,000 Kurds who were in Afrin prior to the assault are likely to be forced into internal exile; many are heading towards Aleppo. And Turkey’s seizure of Aleppo could be catastrophic for the Kurdish cause not just in Syria but across the Middle East. One of the first acts of the encircling armies was the destruction of a...

Turkey out of Afrin!

Lively and disruptive protests took place on Sunday 11 March at Kings Cross and Manchester Piccadilly rail stations, blocking the track in Manchester and closing King’s Cross. They have pushed the Turkish military assault on Kurdish-held Afrin in Syria back into the headlines. While a siege on the enclave of Eastern Ghouta has dominated much press coverage, what has happened in Afrin has been just as brutal. Turkey, a NATO member, is also conducting a siege, surrounding Afrin, “neutralising” almost 4,000 combatants, and shelling positions of the Kurdish militia, the YPG. 35,000 people lived in...

Syria: massacre in Ghouta

Almost 400,000 people are trapped in Eastern Ghouta, the last enclave on the outskirts of Damascus that is still not under the control of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime. The UN Security Council has asked for a month-long ceasefire and for a humanitarian corridor to be opened up to allow civilians to leave. Putin, on whose army and air support Assad has relied, has instead called for a daily five-hour “humanitarian pause” Russia’s call will carry more weight than the UN’s. Meanwhile, one of the regime’s worst bombing campaigns has been allowed to kill 500 people in eight days. The ceasefire...

Kurdish leader arrested

Salih Musleem was formerly the co-president of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the political arm of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), in Syria. He was invited to take part in a conference on the Middle East, but was arrested in a hotel in Prague by Czech security forces following a request from the Turkish Government. He has now been released. The Turkish government accused Musleem of being a terrorist. As a matter of fact, it is Turkey and Erdogan who have backed ISIS and terrorist groups… who has victimised civilians in Syria, assassinated its political opposition within Turkey...

Defend migrants, defend free movement, fight for socialism!

Look around the world. Look at EU migrants who have made the UK their home now wondering how long they can stay and on what terms, all under the threat of Brexit. If they want to stay, they will have to apply for “settled status”. 1.2 million UK citizens living in other EU member states face similar anxieties. There are 3.7 million non-UK EU citizens in the UK; about 6% of the population and 7% of the working population. Look just across the Channel — at Calais, which has long been a focus for migrants trying to reach the UK. Now that the French authorities have cleared out the migrant camps...

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