Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The UN has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after a devastating attack on its lorries near Aleppo on Monday.

The strikes, which witnesses say came from the air, came hours after Syria declared a week-old US-Russia brokered cessation of hostilities at an end.

Russia and Syria have both insisted that their forces were not involved.

But UN chief Ban Ki-moon launched a stinging attack on the Syrian government, saying it had killed the most civilians in the civil war.

In unusually blunt language, Mr Ban said "powerful patrons... feeding the war machine, also have blood on their hands".

US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, insisted the ceasefire deal was "not dead", following talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on New York on Tuesday.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura also said there was still hope but said delegates from the Syria Support Group had agreed the truce deal was in danger.

Source and full story here.

[Esquire]

Why, it's almost as though the Syrian Civil War isn't being conducted in accordance with international law. How odd.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The Americans are blaming the Russians, who are blaming militants, based on grainy drone footage that apparently shows a pickup towing a mortar alongside the aid convoy.

[cosmicalstorm]

Syria is heating up. Russians are now reporting that they directly target Americans, Saudis, Turkish officers with cruise missile (whats a sub kalibr btw?).


""Russian warships fired caliber rockets onto the command posts of the terrorists in western Aleppo, where Turkish, Saudi, Israeli, UK, and US officers are deployed to aid their operations," Sputnik News Agency reported on Tuesday."

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/ru ... es-aleppo/

[Broomstick]

Between that and the recent riots in the US I'm starting to feel like I'm living in the 1960's again... and no, I don't consider that a good thing in this context.

Syria is starting to look more and more like a proxy war to me, like the civil wars of Korea and Viet Nam. Anyone else get that vibe?

[cosmicalstorm]

The accidental US airstrike a couple of days ago, a few minutes after US jets and A-10's hit the SAA position, it was attacked by ISIS forces who waited. After the attack the nearby base will be under fire control of IS, no more airdropped supplies for them. Soon they will surrender and that part of Syria will be a Salafist state. Wouldn't you know, accidental airstrike.

To me it's obvious that IS is in part a US creation, a tool to be used to fragment that part of the world. But the US does not have to care, they have the Atlantic ocean border.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/18/middl ... me-forces/

[Broomstick]

Are you claiming that the IS is a proxy for the US and under US control?

[Grumman]

Syria is starting to look more and more like a proxy war to me, like the civil wars of Korea and Viet Nam. Anyone else get that vibe?

Unfortunately, yes. Our opportunity to get rid of Assad through violence or threat of violence passed with Obama's red line. At this point we should be working with the Russians to keep our proxies in check while we kill the fuck out of Abu Bakr together, and then negotiate a lasting peace once he's in the ground.

[K. A. Pital]

Keeping Saudi scumbags in check lol.

Look at Yemen. The US can't keep nothing in check, including its jihadist proxies of Qatar and Saudi Arabia in check. The ME bloodbath will rage on from Iraq and Syria to Yemen and Libya.

All because the US can't keep its weapons, its allies and its moronic fucking presidents and militaristic crazies like General Buck Turgidson in check.

I just hope the US suffers badly, and I mean badly, for what has happened in ME over the last decades.

[Broomstick]

Do you have some form of suffering to recommend for me personally, or are you just proposing general suffering?

Do keep in mind that I'm on record here as wanting the US to have absolutely zero involvement in the Syrian clusterfuck since the whole mess started. Of course, I have no personal power to affect anything on the world stage (well, I vote and I write my representatives, but I'm one small voice among millions) but I suppose that's irrelevant when it comes to assigning collective guilt.

Would it be that much more difficult to suggest that those actually responsible be the ones to suffer? Because if it's just "the US" it will, as always, be the little people who pay the price while the overlords retire to protected luxury. Until the ones at the top have their feet held to fire and actually suffer personally for this bullshit it will just continue.

[K. A. Pital]

I mean that the US as a nation-state must face some observable consequences of its actions.

I understand the vast majority of its people have little influence on the decisions of the elites.

But it was that way in the British Empire too when they violently took over a huge part of the world. And it did not mean that calling for the destruction of said Empire was wrong.

In the end, the very concept of Empire has to fall. Perhaps, in some ways, it will even improve the situation for the ordinary citizen. When the government stops starting wars to distract people's attention from internal problems, it can finally start working on solving them.

If some Third World government would behave as the US does, it would be sanctioned for messing in the affairs of other states. But there's no one to sanction the US.

[Broomstick]

I think the US has been sanctioned in the past, the US just ignored it. For the past 70 years it's been a problem that no one is powerful enough to counterbalance the US. Well, arguably the USSR, at least for awhile, but they're no longer around

Although the suffering of the average US citizen is very tiny compared to the suffering of those in Syria (as just an example) the average US citizen does, in fact, suffer from the current state of affairs. Perhaps if the average US citizen truly understood that on a visceral level we'd have fewer power-mad asshats voted into office, which would be better for everyone.

Likewise, I don't expect Assad to personally suffer from all the mayhem he's contributed to, although I'd like to see karma bitchslap him into next Tuesday.

[cosmicalstorm]

Are you claiming that the IS is a proxy for the US and under US control?

Partially they appear to co-ordinate very closely. The attack on Deir Ezzor by US planes was followed by a ISIS attack minutes afterwards. And the result is the final blow to a regime lair in that area. Now its morphing into a Salafist state that will be a permanent thorn in the side of SAA/Russia.

[Broomstick]

So... are you also going to suggest that the US and IS are working closely to recruit nutjobs to plant bombs inside the US as well?

I can certainly see that IS takes advantage of US actions for IS purposes whenever possible but that by itself is not proof the two groups are working together.

[Simon_Jester]

I assure you, that if the US was working with Da'esh, it would not be cheerfully accepting that Da'esh-aligned lone crazy people were staging terrorist attacks on US soil.

Moreover, the US is supporting the Iraqi military against Da'esh in northern Iraq- I know someone whose son is over there trying to train Iraqi soldiers to not run away every time Da'esh shouts "BOO!" at them, for instance.

More likely is that Da'esh has spies that have penetrated the security of the US's local allies in Syria, and therefore knows everything those allies know about the US's intentions and strategies.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah. I mean, they're not exactly uniformed combatants for the most part out there, you know? One guy (and I know I'm stereotyping here but it *is* largely true) in civilian clothes with a beard toting around an AK looks largely like another guy in civilian clothes with a beard toting around an AK.

If they could institute something like compulsory shaving or a proper uniform, it might get a bit more difficult for Da'esh sympathizers to infiltrate US-allied forces... until they knock one of those guys on the head and steal his uniform, anyway, or text a photo of them holding guns to some guy's kid's head and say something along the lines of "Tell us where you're going tomorrow or he gets it".

When *both* sides are conducting unconventional warfare... things get sticky. No way around that.

[K. A. Pital]

In this case it is indeed quite likely that Salafist groups like IS, Al-Nusra and Ahrar ash-Sham actually use US intelligence to plan their operations - and not vice-versa (US trying to use the Salafists against Assad - that's what the US tried to do in 2013 and 2014, and it blew in their face, so...)

Because the Salafists, to a large degree, know everything the "US-supported rebels" know. And they're a hell lot better at fighting, too.

[cosmicalstorm]

The US is... possibly.. consdering some kind of new No Fly zone in Syria. Wonder how Russia will respond?

Asked what the United States will do if the Russians do not agree to take “extraordinary steps,” another senior official said that was “something we’re giving a lot of thought to. . . . I don’t think tonight and right now, as we’re approaching a climactic stage of this, is the time to say where we go from here. . . . But that is very much on our minds.” Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... story.html

[Esquire]

By ignoring it, and daring us to shoot down planes bombing ISIS. Which we won't do.

[MKSheppard]

Why the fuck is "US intelligence" supporting salafists?

The only thing the allau akbars deserve is a bullet to the head and a shallow grave somewhere.

It's irrespective who delivers that, CIA SAD, Delta Force, SPETSNAZ, FSB VYMPEL, etc.

[cosmicalstorm]

Man Syria is heating up every week.

Gulf states (I.e. the US) to arm rebels with MANPADS
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN11W2NN

Wonder if Putin will back down fearing another Afghanistan, or he could try to call the bluff and do.. I'm not sure what more Russia could do right now that they are not doing. Bunker busters in use over Aleppo now, the rebels are probably building lots of tunnels.

Fisk writes about the escalation of tensions between Sunni and Shia
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sau ... 22716.html

And this popped up today, US troops to invade Syria in small numbers, probably to act as shields for Jihadi forces (by making airstrikes against them risky)
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/re ... ns-aleppo/

Moon of Alabama a fairly pro russian but interesting site, comments are very varied and some are unexpected.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/09/ex ... view-.html

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The amount of bullshit and hypocrisy the Russians are peddling beggars belief. They claim they're going after terrorists when they themselves are carrying out terrorist actions. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic

[cosmicalstorm]

Regarding the US support for Jihadis


How the US Armed-up Syrian Jihadists
September 29, 2016


Excerpt:

"No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort”, a former Green Beret writes of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian insurgents, “they know we are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘Fuck it, who cares?’”. “I don’t want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans,” the Green Beret added.
...
Murphy states bluntly: “distinguishing between the FSA and al-Nusra is impossible, because they are virtually the same organization. As early as 2013, FSA commanders were defecting with their entire units to join al-Nusra. There, they still retain the FSA monicker, but it is merely for show, to give the appearance of secularism so they can maintain access to weaponry provided by the CIA and Saudi intelligence services. The reality is that the FSA is little more than a cover for the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra. ...

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/29/h ... jihadists/


Here is another one, Moon of Alabama's take is that CIA, GCC, Nusra are losing. Moon is slightly pro Russia and anti-American so take it with a grain of salt. But I think he's on to something.
His theory is easy to test: Soon the US will escalate Syria, if not they will have to retreat.

Like the "moderate rebels" fantasy, such tales and the nonsense the "White Helmet" propaganda outlet distributes, are starting to fail. The UAE's National, a well established international newspaper, recently dug a bit around the White Helmet's creator, a "former" British military agent working for Gulf defense interests. That does not sound charitable. This is noticeable report, even as it still lacks any details, as it is the first in a major paper that shows some auspiciousness against that outlet.

The Obama administration's lies about the "moderate rebels" are now openly discussed in major media. The propaganda of #HolocaustAleppo (isn't abusing the holocaust meme anti-semitic?) is turning into a laughing stock.

Russia is upping its stake in Syria. Additional Russian SU-24, SU-25 and SU-34 jets are arriving. Nearly 6,000 Russian soldiers are on the ground. The CIA's al-Qaeda "rebels" are losing in east-Aleppo and are in stalemate and under pressure elsewhere. They will be bombed to smithereens. A few new BM-21 multiple missile launchers and heavier anti-air artillery was delivered to them. But those are just band-aids on lethally bleeding wounds. Even MANPADs will not change the situation one bit.

The U.S., the Saudis and especially Brennan's CIA have lost that fight. Will Obama and Kerry admit it? Or will they throw another Hail Mary and do something crazy?

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/09/sy ... .html#more

[Broomstick]

Why the fuck would Obama even care at this point? Come the New Year it's no longer his problem and he'll be looking for a new job.

[The Romulan Republic]

Why the fuck would Obama even care at this point? Come the New Year it's no longer his problem and he'll be looking for a new job.

Why would he care? Hopefully because its his job, and because its arguably the single biggest political crisis in the world today.

And he probably wants to leave his successor in the best possible position.