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90 people (including women and kids) killed in air raids in Aleppo, Syria

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Smellycat

Member
I am surprised there isn't a thread for this....

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/02/world/meast/syria/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Ninety people were killed in a day of punishing air assaults on Aleppo as so-called barrel bombs rained down on the city, an opposition group said.
Women and children were among the victims in Saturday's raids in various neighborhoods in the rebel stronghold
, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday.
It added that 10 fighters from the radical Nusra Front were killed when their headquarters were targeted. Nine people were killed near Aleppo's central prison, it said.
Barrel bombs -- drums packed with explosives and shrapnel -- can level entire buildings with one hit.

In four hours, the area of Ansari was targeted with about 17 air strikes, one medical staffer from a field hospital in Aleppo told CNN.
"The humanitarian situation is very bad, there is a huge number of wounded people," he said from the Turkish border, where he had gone to get supplies.
"I am so nervous because my staff inside (have) become so confused, I have to calm them, I don't know what I will have to do for tomorrow."

'Urgent situation'

In a report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch said the Syrian government "deliberately and unlawfully" demolished thousands of homes in rebel strongholds in the cities of Damascus and Hama in one year.
CNN cannot independently verify daily death tolls, but the United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since 2011.
Aleppo has come under punishing, sometimes near-daily, air raids.
"The situation is very urgent," the medic said. "We need U.S. pressure on the regime for us to be able to take a breath, to have them stop this aggressive shelling on Aleppo."
He said all the roads to the city were blocked.
The Syrian government has previously said the operations are targeting "terrorist groups" in neighborhoods of Aleppo.
Syrian refugees flood into Jordan
Peace talks
News of the bombings came after a first round of Syrian peace talks ended in Geneva on Friday with no progress towards ending a nearly three-year civil war.
The contentious first round began with bitter exchanges and repeatedly seemed on the verge of collapse before the two sides entered the same room.
The next round of negotiations is due to start February 10 but the government has been unable to say whether it will return.
According to Syrian state news agency SANA, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem ruled out any direct talks with the U.S. unless "Secretary of State, John Kerry, apologizes for what he had said during the opening speech of the conference."
Syrian government non-committal on more talks
In opening remarks, Kerry said the path to peace had to involve the world community and could not include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he accused of widespread human rights abuses.
The conflict has also been mired by accusations that the Damascus government used chemical weapons and that the opposition includes al Qaeda-affiliated groups.
"This is a modest beginning, but it is a beginning on which we can build," U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters after the talks ended Friday.

The situation just keeps getting worse and worse :( I feel so bad for the people stuck in the middle of all of this mayhem .
 

Smellycat

Member
Seriously GAF, not even one reply?

An actor dies from a heroin overdose and everyone cries their eyes out, but no one gives a shit about tragedies like this.
LLShC.gif
 

Valhelm

contribute something
Horrible. Does any group except the Syrian government have the capability to do an air raid?
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
It's a tragedy, but it's really unclear what can be done at this point. This conflict should have been ended back in early 2012, when key rebel groups were pro-democracy and al-Qaeda had yet to really get strongly involved, but the West failed to act. Now, it's just a mess, and terrifyingly, Assad is probably the least bad faction that has a conceivable chance of ending the war. What a wasted opportunity.
 

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
I heard about this, I care, sorry :( It seems like an intimidatingly complicated situation at this point, such that I'm hesitant to take any sides. Obviously Assad is a dick but the opposition sounds like it is made up of increasingly questionably characters. Obviously no excuse for such an attack, but may be why you didn't get any responses.

What do you think a solution might look like? It sounds like Assad is hell bent on staying and it sounds like he theoretically has the support from important international players to do so. I'm not sure what I'd do about it, the rebels don't seem to have the capability to win the current military conflict without outside intervention, which isn't happening, and Assad has all of the leverage in any negotiations (since he doesn't care about murdering tens of thousands of his citizens)

It's a pickle and it sucks and I don't know what else to say.
 

Smellycat

Member
Horrible. Does any group except the Syrian government have the capability to do an air raid?

Oh, it was definitely the government's doing. I honestly don't care about either side in this conflict. They are both wrong, I am just pissed off because of all those innocent people stuck in the middle of this conflict. :(
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
But why? Why is this kind of violence still happening? Man, my thoughts go to the families :(
 

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
But why? Why is this kind of violence still happening? Man, my thoughts go to the families :(

It's going on because they've fought to a stalemate where Assad can't eradicate the rebels and the rebels can't make any substantial gains against the regime and neither side seems interested in negotiating so they just keep killing each other. Edit: as a guy says below, the rebels are slowly losing, but veeerrrrry slowly, with lots of deaths along the way.
 
Seriously GAF, not even one reply?

An actor dies from a heroin overdose and everyone cries their eyes out, but no one gives a shit about tragedies like this.
LLShC.gif

not to be blunt...but that single actor probably had a bigger impact on the person's life who's crying their eyes out than some unknown person halfway across the world.

say we do care. what do you want us to do? as Americans, I don't want us to go into any more countries.

which country are you from? If you're not American, are u asking your gov to do the job for us? I only wish Europe takes a bigger step in world security
 
I heard about this, I care, sorry :( It seems like an intimidatingly complicated situation at this point, such that I'm hesitant to take any sides. Obviously Assad is a dick but the opposition sounds like it is made up of increasingly questionably characters. Obviously no excuse for such an attack, but may be why you didn't get any responses.

What do you think a solution might look like? It sounds like Assad is hell bent on staying and it sounds like he theoretically has the support from important international players to do so. I'm not sure what I'd do about it, the rebels don't seem to have the capability to win the current military conflict without outside intervention, which isn't happening, and Assad has all of the leverage in any negotiations (since he doesn't care about murdering tens of thousands of his citizens)

It's a pickle and it sucks and I don't know what else to say.

There is no solution. Assad is an example of a dictator with enough firepower to defeat a resistance army, but the hostilities could last year years. It's a long defeat for the rebels unless they receive US aide, which I wouldn't support under any circumstances. Sad situation, but it's not our problem.
 

Espada

Member
It's a tragedy, but it's really unclear what can be done at this point. This conflict should have been ended back in early 2012, when key rebel groups were pro-democracy and al-Qaeda had yet to really get strongly involved, but the West failed to act. Now, it's just a mess, and terrifyingly, Assad is probably the least bad faction that has a conceivable chance of ending the war. What a wasted opportunity.

Wait, why should the West have intervened again? People here (U.S.) don't really want to get involved in another middle eastern adventure. The situation is ridiculously complex, and even when you had moderate rebel groups there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be coopted by opportunistic al-Qaeda asshats. Syria is stuck between a butcher like Assad who has no problem using chemical weapons on his own people and radicals who kill anyone who doesn't like their brand of kool aid.

My thoughts go out to the Syrians who have to suffer through this.
 

dgrane

Banned
I am pissed that the other pussy arab leaders are sitting on their thrones and not doing a single thing. Pathetic

They're the ones funneling the money and arms to the rebels that keep them fighting.

If they had really done nothing then this would likely be over.
 
I am pissed that the other pussy arab leaders are sitting on their thrones and not doing a single thing. Pathetic

considering these leaders are all dictators in their own right, which democratically elected arab leader are you referring to then?

Because Iran is supporting Asad. Saudi Arabia/Qatar is supporting the rebels.
 

Smellycat

Member
considering these leaders are all dictators in their own right, which democratically elected arab leader are you referring to then?

Because Iran is supporting Asad. Saudi Arabia/Qatar is supporting the rebels.

When did I ever refer to a democratically elected leader? But I see your point, and yes many of these leaders don't want to do anything in fear that the same thing will happen to them.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Wait, why should the West have intervened again? People here (U.S.) don't really want to get involved in another middle eastern adventure. The situation is ridiculously complex, and even when you had moderate rebel groups there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be coopted by opportunistic al-Qaeda asshats. Syria is stuck between a butcher like Assad who has no problem using chemical weapons on his own people and radicals who kill anyone who doesn't like their brand of kool aid.

My thoughts go out to the Syrians who have to suffer through this.

The West could have intervened in late April 2012 after the rebels (meaning at this point the Free Syrian Army) had successfully fortified and held Homs, and captured major supply centres responsible for allowing the government to retain control of Damascus and Aleppo. At this point, it's likely the holdout would have been relatively brief - with sustained air support (not even any need for ground troops), the rebels would probably have been able to take Aleppo, and with both Aleppo and Homs under Free Syrian control, Assad would effectively have been done for. Instead, the West negotiated a temporary ceasefire that Assad used to reinforce his positions, and when the ceasefire was broken Aleppo became the scene of urban warfare which rapidly drained the morale of the Free Syrian Army and internal support for the rebels. From this point on, the opposition becomes increasingly influenced by terrorist cells and religious fanatics as the enthusiasm for revolution died out among the ordinary people, until you reach the absolute mess you see today. Yes, right now Syria has a choice between Assad and 'radicals who kill anyone who doesn't like their brand of kool-aid' - but that's right now, and is a development that has only really occurred since the closing months of 2012. That wasn't the situation in early 2012.
 

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
I am pissed that the other pussy arab leaders are sitting on their thrones and not doing a single thing. Pathetic

I've been wondering this too, and I have a few options. Can anybody expand on them or refine them?

A) They are worried about upsetting a precarious regional balance

B) They are incapable of having a substantial effect on the conflict

C) They are evil and are profiting from the conflict

I know the answer is nowhere near as simple as any of these options, and it's probably a combination of all three.
 
To Allah we belong and to Allah we return. RIP

Reason why there is not much shock about this is because it has become background noise now. Assad has been slaughtering people wholesale, and the Al Qaida types are just as bad. This is a very depressing situation from all fronts.
 
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