Russia creates anti-ISIS coordination groups with Syrian opposition.
http://rbth.com/news/2015/11/03/rus...dination-groups-with-syrian-opposition_536919
http://rbth.com/news/2015/11/03/rus...dination-groups-with-syrian-opposition_536919
ISIS in Iraq and Syria
- Thread starter Suli
- Start date
I miss Jen Psaki. This new spokesperson has nothing on her.
http://observer.com/2015/02/state-d...regnant-leaving-russians-both-sad-and-elated/
How tens of thousands of Syrians have 'disappeared'
Report reveals massive scale of systematic state campaign to eliminate dissent through enforced disappearances.
Megan O'Toole | 05 Nov 2015 04:59 GMT | Human Rights, Humanitarian crises, Middle East, Syrian crisis,Syria
The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented more than 65,000 cases of enforced disappearances since 2011 [Amnesty International]
What Raneem Matouq remembers most vividly are the screams.
Two years after her father, human rights lawyer Khalil Matouq, suffered the same fate, Raneem was kidnapped by Syrian authorities in 2014. She was released after two months in detention, while her father remains missing to this day.
Raneem Matouq was forcibly disappeared by Syrian authorities in 2014 [Private photo courtesy of Amnesty International]
For Raneem, the worst part is knowing what conditions her father faces in Syria's prisons.
"Our cell was in this corridor, and usually they take the men and children to ask them questions, and when they torture them, we would hear the screaming all the time," Raneem told Al Jazeera, noting she was beaten by guards and, through a window in her cell door, saw dead bodies in the corridors. In one of the most horrific methods of torture, Raneem said, prisoners were strapped to a chair, the back of which was pulled downwards, snapping the spine.
When she was ultimately released under a presidential amnesty, Raneem said, it was cold comfort. Her father's continuing absence has left a hole in the family.
"When we were in Syria, it was really hard because he was protecting us from everything in the war. We were trying to be like him in detention, not eating so much, feeling cold because we didn't know if he was cold or warm... It's not easy, because I have a picture of what's going on [in prison]," Raneem said.
"Sometimes our imagination is infinite."
RELATED: Soaring number of deaths in Syria prisons
The Syrian government has forcibly disappeared more than 65,000 people since the country's civil war broke out in 2011, according to a new report from Amnesty International, which cites an "organised" and "systematic" campaign by the state security apparatus to silence dissent.
The disappeared
"Neither I, nor my sister has feelings any more. We are numb. Every morning, I forget. I will think to myself, 'I didn't call my mother,' and then I remember she is gone."
-Rami al-Attar, whose mother was forcibly disappeared in 2013
"I live in constant fear. I am always worried about how they are torturing him, whether he has had enough to eat. His disappearance is unbearable for the family. We don't know where he is, whether he is dead or alive."
-Samar, wife of political activist Faeq al-Mir, who was forcibly disappeared in 2013
"With my son, I am always, always wondering. The abuse never ends. Even if he is dead, I know that I will never see the evidence of this. They will never give me his body."
-Adnan, father of Muhannad al-Jasm, a citizen journalist who was forcibly disappeared in 2012
"My mother is sick now. Sometimes she cannot breathe, and she has panic attacks. We have to throw water on her head to make her wake up… The bill for this revolution is very expensive, and we are paying it."
-Son of Majd, an imam who was forcibly disappeared in 2012
"We feel we are lost. We are paralysed. We cannot smile, we cannot cry. We are just waiting."
-Brother of Farouq, a student who was forcibly disappeared in 2014
"I did not leave the cell for the whole three years, not once. I did not see the sun for three years. Many people became hysterical and lost their minds. It is not easy being away from daylight for years at a time."
-Salam Othman, a lawyer who was forcibly disappeared in 2011 and released in 2014
Source: Amnesty International
An enforced disappearance occurs when someone is abducted by state agents, who then conceal the person's whereabouts, denying them legal protections. The scale and scope of this practice in Syria amounts to crimes against humanity, the Amnesty report concluded, mirroring previous findings from the United Nations.
Amnesty's report, Between Prison and the Grave, found that enforced disappearances have been carried out by all four branches of the Syrian security forces, as well as by the armed forces and militias associated with the Syrian government.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, a local monitoring group, has documented 65,116 cases of enforced disappearances - including 58,148 civilians - between March 2011 and August 2015. The actual number is believed to be even higher, as many Syrians are reluctant to publicly discuss the issue for fear they, too, could be targeted.
"Since 2011, the Syrian government has carried out an orchestrated campaign of enforced disappearances," the report stated. "At the beginning of the crisis it arrested and forcibly disappeared large numbers of peaceful opponents of the government, including demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, media workers, doctors and humanitarian aid workers.
"As the conflict evolved, so too did the government's strategy," the report continued. "It forcibly disappeared those it considered to be disloyal, such as defectors, as well as government employees or soldiers who were believed to be considering defection. The government also began forcibly disappearing family members of individuals wanted by the security forces, usually in an effort to dissuade these wanted individuals from continuing their political activism or military activities."
Those subjected to enforced disappearance face horrific conditions in prison, and are routinely tortured with electric shocks, beatings, burnings, and sexual violence, noted the report, which relied on testimony from dozens of friends and family members of disappeared Syrians, former prisoners, investigators, analysts and monitors.
The practice has become so common that a black market has emerged, in which "brokers" with close ties to Syrian authorities offer to provide information to family members on their disappeared relatives in return for a fee, ranging from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands. Sometimes, the only information available is that the person is dead.
Nicolette Boehland, a Syria researcher at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that the Syrian public is paying a "huge price" for this campaign.
"The social fabric in Syria has been destroyed by this campaign of enforced disappearance. Countless families have been left without their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters. The cumulative effect of this cannot be underestimated," Boehland said.
"This campaign of disappearances has also terrorised the civilian population and silenced them, as many families fear that doing anything that could be interpreted as opposing the Syrian government could lead to further harm to or the death of their disappeared relatives... The government has, in effect, held large parts of the civilian population in Syria hostage."
Amnesty's report identified three main profiles of people targeted for enforced disappearances, including peaceful opponents of the government, individuals considered disloyal to the government, and family members of people wanted by the state.
Amnesty has called on the Syrian government to end enforced disappearances, to grant international monitors access to detention facilities, to provide legal assistance for all prisoners and to enact protections for the families of victims of enforced disappearance - but so far, those calls have gone unheeded. Amnesty is also urging the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against the Syrian officials who are responsible for enforced disappearances.
"Anticipating that the Syrian government will continue to commit these crimes against humanity with impunity, we are calling on states that support Syria, such as Russia and Iran, to press the government to end its brutal campaign of enforced disappearance," Boehland said.
Meanwhile, Raneem's family will continue to wait, and to hope that one day Khalil will be freed.
"It's crazy, but sometimes we try to contact [my father] with dreams... Sometimes he speaks to us," she said.
"Sometimes he tells us how he's doing and how he's feeling, [and] in some dreams, he seems strong," she added. "We always have this hope."
Report reveals massive scale of systematic state campaign to eliminate dissent through enforced disappearances.
Megan O'Toole | 05 Nov 2015 04:59 GMT | Human Rights, Humanitarian crises, Middle East, Syrian crisis,Syria
The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented more than 65,000 cases of enforced disappearances since 2011 [Amnesty International]
What Raneem Matouq remembers most vividly are the screams.
Two years after her father, human rights lawyer Khalil Matouq, suffered the same fate, Raneem was kidnapped by Syrian authorities in 2014. She was released after two months in detention, while her father remains missing to this day.
Raneem Matouq was forcibly disappeared by Syrian authorities in 2014 [Private photo courtesy of Amnesty International]
For Raneem, the worst part is knowing what conditions her father faces in Syria's prisons.
"Our cell was in this corridor, and usually they take the men and children to ask them questions, and when they torture them, we would hear the screaming all the time," Raneem told Al Jazeera, noting she was beaten by guards and, through a window in her cell door, saw dead bodies in the corridors. In one of the most horrific methods of torture, Raneem said, prisoners were strapped to a chair, the back of which was pulled downwards, snapping the spine.
When she was ultimately released under a presidential amnesty, Raneem said, it was cold comfort. Her father's continuing absence has left a hole in the family.
"When we were in Syria, it was really hard because he was protecting us from everything in the war. We were trying to be like him in detention, not eating so much, feeling cold because we didn't know if he was cold or warm... It's not easy, because I have a picture of what's going on [in prison]," Raneem said.
"Sometimes our imagination is infinite."
RELATED: Soaring number of deaths in Syria prisons
The Syrian government has forcibly disappeared more than 65,000 people since the country's civil war broke out in 2011, according to a new report from Amnesty International, which cites an "organised" and "systematic" campaign by the state security apparatus to silence dissent.
The disappeared
"Neither I, nor my sister has feelings any more. We are numb. Every morning, I forget. I will think to myself, 'I didn't call my mother,' and then I remember she is gone."
-Rami al-Attar, whose mother was forcibly disappeared in 2013
"I live in constant fear. I am always worried about how they are torturing him, whether he has had enough to eat. His disappearance is unbearable for the family. We don't know where he is, whether he is dead or alive."
-Samar, wife of political activist Faeq al-Mir, who was forcibly disappeared in 2013
"With my son, I am always, always wondering. The abuse never ends. Even if he is dead, I know that I will never see the evidence of this. They will never give me his body."
-Adnan, father of Muhannad al-Jasm, a citizen journalist who was forcibly disappeared in 2012
"My mother is sick now. Sometimes she cannot breathe, and she has panic attacks. We have to throw water on her head to make her wake up… The bill for this revolution is very expensive, and we are paying it."
-Son of Majd, an imam who was forcibly disappeared in 2012
"We feel we are lost. We are paralysed. We cannot smile, we cannot cry. We are just waiting."
-Brother of Farouq, a student who was forcibly disappeared in 2014
"I did not leave the cell for the whole three years, not once. I did not see the sun for three years. Many people became hysterical and lost their minds. It is not easy being away from daylight for years at a time."
-Salam Othman, a lawyer who was forcibly disappeared in 2011 and released in 2014
Source: Amnesty International
An enforced disappearance occurs when someone is abducted by state agents, who then conceal the person's whereabouts, denying them legal protections. The scale and scope of this practice in Syria amounts to crimes against humanity, the Amnesty report concluded, mirroring previous findings from the United Nations.
Amnesty's report, Between Prison and the Grave, found that enforced disappearances have been carried out by all four branches of the Syrian security forces, as well as by the armed forces and militias associated with the Syrian government.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights, a local monitoring group, has documented 65,116 cases of enforced disappearances - including 58,148 civilians - between March 2011 and August 2015. The actual number is believed to be even higher, as many Syrians are reluctant to publicly discuss the issue for fear they, too, could be targeted.
"Since 2011, the Syrian government has carried out an orchestrated campaign of enforced disappearances," the report stated. "At the beginning of the crisis it arrested and forcibly disappeared large numbers of peaceful opponents of the government, including demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, media workers, doctors and humanitarian aid workers.
"As the conflict evolved, so too did the government's strategy," the report continued. "It forcibly disappeared those it considered to be disloyal, such as defectors, as well as government employees or soldiers who were believed to be considering defection. The government also began forcibly disappearing family members of individuals wanted by the security forces, usually in an effort to dissuade these wanted individuals from continuing their political activism or military activities."
Those subjected to enforced disappearance face horrific conditions in prison, and are routinely tortured with electric shocks, beatings, burnings, and sexual violence, noted the report, which relied on testimony from dozens of friends and family members of disappeared Syrians, former prisoners, investigators, analysts and monitors.
The practice has become so common that a black market has emerged, in which "brokers" with close ties to Syrian authorities offer to provide information to family members on their disappeared relatives in return for a fee, ranging from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands. Sometimes, the only information available is that the person is dead.
Nicolette Boehland, a Syria researcher at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that the Syrian public is paying a "huge price" for this campaign.
"The social fabric in Syria has been destroyed by this campaign of enforced disappearance. Countless families have been left without their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters. The cumulative effect of this cannot be underestimated," Boehland said.
"This campaign of disappearances has also terrorised the civilian population and silenced them, as many families fear that doing anything that could be interpreted as opposing the Syrian government could lead to further harm to or the death of their disappeared relatives... The government has, in effect, held large parts of the civilian population in Syria hostage."
Amnesty's report identified three main profiles of people targeted for enforced disappearances, including peaceful opponents of the government, individuals considered disloyal to the government, and family members of people wanted by the state.
Amnesty has called on the Syrian government to end enforced disappearances, to grant international monitors access to detention facilities, to provide legal assistance for all prisoners and to enact protections for the families of victims of enforced disappearance - but so far, those calls have gone unheeded. Amnesty is also urging the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against the Syrian officials who are responsible for enforced disappearances.
"Anticipating that the Syrian government will continue to commit these crimes against humanity with impunity, we are calling on states that support Syria, such as Russia and Iran, to press the government to end its brutal campaign of enforced disappearance," Boehland said.
Meanwhile, Raneem's family will continue to wait, and to hope that one day Khalil will be freed.
"It's crazy, but sometimes we try to contact [my father] with dreams... Sometimes he speaks to us," she said.
"Sometimes he tells us how he's doing and how he's feeling, [and] in some dreams, he seems strong," she added. "We always have this hope."
Morek in northern Hama captured by rebels. 
#dem gains
#dem gainsMorek in northern Hama captured by rebels.
Captured by Jund al-Aqsa according to many reports - they apparently lie somewhere between Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS on the famous 'moderate-extremist' scale. Others saying it was a joint Jaysh al-Fatah effort, but Jund al-Aqsa's is the only flag I've seen in any pictures yet.
Syrian free press has reported it as opposition rebels
Since Putin has entered the fray:
Assad has lost 100+ tanks, personnel carriers, and a couple of fighter jets.
Iran/Hezbollah have lost 15 generals, incl. Hossein Hamadani (held 4th highest rank in the Iranian army). A Second Lieutenant was killed earlier today.
Morek has been taken.
IS have made gains in Homs and threatening Assad's supply lines to Aleppo.
Assad has made minor gains in Aleppo's countryside (but these are mainly reversing rebel held areas).
Assad has lost 100+ tanks, personnel carriers, and a couple of fighter jets.
Iran/Hezbollah have lost 15 generals, incl. Hossein Hamadani (held 4th highest rank in the Iranian army). A Second Lieutenant was killed earlier today.
Morek has been taken.
IS have made gains in Homs and threatening Assad's supply lines to Aleppo.
Assad has made minor gains in Aleppo's countryside (but these are mainly reversing rebel held areas).
Apparently this is Morek in 2012, not a jihadi flag in sight:
Now:
Ultimately, Assad is the cause of this (with help from pretty much all the other powers involved in the conflict).
Another way to deal with refugees: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/05/iran-recruits-afghan-refugees-fight-save-syrias-bashar-al-assad
More on Jund al-Aqsa here - http://www.longwarjournal.org/archi...t-group-claims-success-in-key-syrian-town.php
Despicable.
It's been going on for some time, quite a number of Hazara refugees have already died according to my Afghan friends.
Why? They're volunteering to fight against radical jihadists, so what's the problem?
Because they are forced through coercion, they are threatened with the revoking of the right to work without which they may as well be dead.
Look it as conscription lol
War times - you want to prove your loyalty to your new country...fight for it.
Couldn't find any of it in the article. Where did you get that coercion info from? Free Syrian Press?
Haha, not from fsp, from the mouth of Hazaras.
I think the problem people have with it is the use by the Iranian government of a particular group who are generally treated pretty badly in Iran (the Hazaras) to carry out a dirty job that ordinary Iranians clearly have little interest in.
She might have got pregnant just to get out of there.
No need to explain really. Everybody knows what it is. We're in 2015 now, everybody knows the "Syrian rebels" is now just a code name for Al-Qaeda. It's just that some people don't want to celebrate Al-Qaeda's victories openly here, or now.
Ah, so I guess the US is ultimately the cause of 9/11.
Poor logic, and it's not true for many reasons.
1- There were moderate "rebels" in Syria a couple of years ago, but they didn't disappear because of the half which Assad is still ruling, they disappeared because of the other half, that actually fell.
The moderate rebels in Syria (who are mainly not fighters) didn't disappear because Assad didn't fall, they've actually lost hope when they looked at the parts that fell out of Assad's control. They realised exactly what I said a few years ago, if Assad is toppled militarily, Al-Qaeda-like group will be the one seizing power and ruling Syria. When they realised that they decided to either join the stronger side (well funded Al-Qaeda fractions), or flee. The same is happening now (and happened repeatedly) even with the handpicked people the US decided to train as the "moderate rebels".
2- Al-Nusra was active from the beginning. It's just that the media tried to hide it for a while, but in the end it was too obvious for them to hide.
3- The ideology didn't arise in Syria. Tens of thousands of foreign fighters have poured into Syria in the first couple of years (including from Europe), and they weren't ruled by Assad. The moderate Syrians could easily keep fighting while not adopting Al-Qaeda's ideology. There is no connection between a terrorist (Wahhabi) ideology and fighting for freedom.
4- Making excuses for terrorism is the first step in being/supporting a terrorist. Laying the blame on anybody other than the people directly responsible for the ideology itself and the people supporting it means you're not serious about being against terrorism. Terrorism should not be a tool, that when it serves your political goals, then "yeaaaaah I can understand why they became terrorists", but when it doesn't then "you're either with us or with the terrorists!!!". Of course I'm not talking about you personally. You have just been affected by the propaganda war that's going on right now. People who have 'super strong' memories and can remember the propaganda in 2001 can really smell the hypocrisy here.
@Danny1982 before I reply, can you tell me exactly what you mean by 'terrorism' in your post?
I think it's all a bit premature.
Russian Defense Ministry publishes aerial photos of hospital allegedly destroyed in Syria.
http://tass.ru/en/defense/833789
http://tass.ru/en/defense/833789
It's irrelevant here because we're talking about groups everybody agrees they're terrorists now, including you. My post was a direct reply to your post.
Some people on this very forum don't consider these groups 'terrorist'.
I'm not talking about the terrorists and their sympathisers. And even those admitted they're terrorists by the way.
It's relevant for the purpose of my response to you. Personally I find 'terrorism', along with 'genocide', to be one of the most useless terms around for describing certain acts or groups, so I generally try to avoid using it at all. But it's hard for me to know what to make of your point number 4 without knowing exactly what you mean by 'terrorism'.
I agree totally with this, but I'm going with what the other side is using to describe the group he's trying to make excuses for (or shift the blame to other sides in the conflict, rather than blame the group and the direct supporter of the group).
As I said in my post, number 4 wasn't directed at you personally, it's directed at the way the known propaganda machines are trying to blur the picture, and twist the reality. They themselves use the word terrorists to describe these groups.
By repetition though, some do seem to have semi-accepted the stupid idea that we should blame Assad for the rise of these terrorist groups, instead of the sides that directly support and supply these groups with money and weapons, in addition to the extremist ideology on which they build their hideous actions (not only in Syria but pretty much everywhere in the world). If we start giving excuse to shift the blame, then there is an excuse for every terrorist in the world, and the US will also ultimately be the one responsible for 9/11.
We don't need those photos. The "rebels" themselves exposed their lies accidentally by releasing a video documenting the strike. Everybody knows now this lie has been busted.
"We can't tell you where the hospital is because we can't expose the sources and methods"
I'll tell where it is, in Afghanistan and Yemen.
There's a difference though between excusing or justifying certain acts or the agendas of particular groups, and seeking the causes/reasons behind their existence. So while obviously the perpetrators of the act on 9/11 are to blame, any discussion of the broader factors which made America a target that day which avoids considering the impact of America's general role in the world (and especially the Islamic world) is not really worth getting into. Or to go all Godwin on it, no analysis of the rise of Nazism and the appeal of fascism in interwar Europe in general is complete without considering the impact of stuff like the Versailles Treaty, the failure of Weimar, the Great Depression, etc.
I'm not really interested in the whole 'my side is less bad than your side' circular pissing contest that runs through a lot of threads in the CE forum, I'm more interested in looking at how we got to here and where we might be going next. My feelings on the 'opposition' are pretty clear throughout this thread, I've never placed any hope in them, even the FSA in its early days (see for e.g. my back and forth with @Uzz in this thread - https://www.redcafe.net/threads/putin-and-russia-in-syria.410326/page-3#post-18262300). My critique of Assad and his father is based on a broader view of the failure of the so-called 'secular' regimes in the Middle East in general - to avoid repetition, you can get the gist of it here - https://www.redcafe.net/threads/isis-in-iraq-and-syria.392179/page-122#post-18095069.
I know what you're trying to do here, I just disagree with what you think are the "causes/reasons" for their existence. The reason for their existence is Saudi Arabia and the way it's actively promoting its extremist ideology in the whole world. Why do I think it has a lot to do with Saudi Arabia rather than Assad? Because:
1- Wahhabi terrorists exist and are active in many parts of the world, including European countries, not only in Syria.
2- The kurds also have a problem with Assad but that didn't make them adopt a terrorist/extremist ideology.
This notion that to be a freedom fighter you have to become eventually a terrorist/extremist is simply not true. Extremism exist because there are countries that support and spread extremism.
I'm 100% with you on the pernicious impact of Saudi oil money in the Islamic world since the 1970s, although I think the problem of militant jihadism goes far deeper than 'Wahhabi ideology' as you would have it. But while any ideology is sustained by its core beliefs and whatever material resources are given to propagate it, only a variety of other factors can explain the strength of its appeal in certain places at certain times.
Given 41 years of Assad rule, the Syrian society which emerged in 2011 very much reflected the regime's image - oppressive, violent, paranoid, intolerant of political pluralism, etc. At the same time there was an obsession with the notion of sacrifice and martyrdom for 'the cause', values which the regime had presented as the most noble enterprise a Syrian could engage in (in support of the Arab nation, the 'resistance', or whatever) all while it pursued a foreign policy as unprincipled as any other in the region and continued to visit terror and oppression on its own people. So Syria in 2011 was ripe for the spread of Salafi-Jihadi/jihaidst/Wahhabi ideology. The fact that the ideology has (or hasn't as with the Kurds) adherents in many other places only means those places have their own unique issues which must be looked at.
Of course, it can be argued that the nature of Ba'thist rule was itself a product of Syrian society and Syria's traditionally volatile politics (something like 10 coups from independence until Hafiz al-Assad seized power in 1970), but that's a much deeper conversation probably best left for another thread.
Shocking footage shows ISIS militants massacring 200 children.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...oodthirsty-jihadis-latest-mass-execution.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...oodthirsty-jihadis-latest-mass-execution.html
Audhubillah. That is horrible.
But it's not children is it, not that it isn't abhorrent mind.
Can't believe I fell for @antihenry 's clickbaity headline. You got me.
You need to read the links bro
I had a quick scan on my commute home. I don't read things properly when my internet is intermittent!You need to read the links bro