And next, Syria?

[brogdale]

Still, zionists eh ?

Seriously mojo, I really don't think people are even using that term in this thread.
You're coming over a bit Mencer-like, tbh.

 

[Gramsci]

I'd add to this the issue of Syrian Kurds displaced from areas bordering Turkey where the fighting is ongoing.

thread

Listening to world service this morning. Reporter on border was seeing lot of people trying to leave Syria. Now Assad has gone.

So for this country to pause applications really isn't right approach.

 

[teqniq]

Listening to world service this morning. Reporter on border was seeing lot of people trying to leave Syria. Now Assad has gone.

So for this country to pause applications really isn't right approach.

I am wondering if the Home Office can be challenged in law over this. I have made a couple of enquiries.

 

[zahir]

Interesting, assuming it's accurate.

https://archive.ph/O4MVG

Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 experienced drone operators and about 150 first-person-view drones to the rebel headquarters in Idlib, Syria, four to five weeks ago to help Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the leading rebel group based there, the knowledgeable sources said.

 

[zahir]

Liberation in Syria Is a Victory Worth Embracing

The country is now free, yet some remain trapped in the past

newlinesmag.com

No sooner had the rebel Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group approached Damascus, poised to topple the Assad regime, than starkly polarized reactions began to surface worldwide, including among Arabs. While most Syrians and their supporters understandably celebrated the downfall of their notorious despot, some self-styled Western “anti-imperialists” — including voices within the pro-Palestinian movement — adopted a more muted stance.

As a self-described anti-imperialist, a Syrian and a Palestinian, I initially struggled to grasp these supposed competing aspirations. Freedom from violent oppression unites all three identities — why wouldn’t they align on Assad’s ouster?

It was after a Syrian friend pointed out a lack of zeal among some of his freedom-fighting activist friends that I started to notice the trickle of belated and trepidatious congratulations on the fall of the regime. “Congratulations but watch out,” came the sentiments.

 

[zahir]

thread

eta:

Thread by @HussamHamoud on Thread Reader App

@HussamHamoud: Thread: A concerning trend of revenge operations in #Syria 🧵 This thread provides context on what's unfolding on the ground, NO justification. 1/ For days now, there have been alarming reports of indi...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[The39thStep]

thread

Unfortunately, this seems to be contradicted by other reports tbh.

 

[zahir]

This doesn't say much for the ceasefire.

Hussam Hamoud

Today, Raqqa city has experienced its first air raid since ISIS was expelled in 2017. Turkish aircraft targeted the general security intelligence headquarters of the SDF militia.

eta:
ScharoMaroof

New wave of Turkish airstrikes across Rojava and the AANES on the civil infrastructure of Rojava. The Turkish airforce carried out an airstrike on the Lafarge cement factory between Kobane and Ain Issa

 

[teqniq]

This doesn't say much for the ceasefire.

Hussam Hamoud

Fuck Erdogan and the AKP.

 

[belboid]

a good piece from one of the Salvage collective. It’s a video, but there is a transcript as well.

“And it’s important also to understand that this is not just a militia. This is not just fighting. As soon as the cities and villages started to fall, people started to come out and protest again. And that’s what happened in Damascus. And happened in Homs. Particularly interestingly, places that were not traditional opposition areas or were Druze areas (a smaller religious sect in the south) were very heavily involved and many non-Islamist militias from the south were actually the ones that took Damascus or came into Damascus from the south.”

Video | Everything is changing in relation to this

rs21 - revolutionary socialism in the 21st century

revsoc21.uk

 

[teqniq]

Too right they want justice, though I saw reports and a vid the other day that the commander responsible had shot himself.

Victims of Syria chemical attacks speak freely for first time

The UN's chemical watchdog says dozens were killed in a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta in 2018.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[zahir]

Selfies with rebel fighters seems to be a new trend: photos

 

[_Russ_]

Been reading up/reminding myself about Timber Sycamore and considering the odds on that shit actually having been stopped in 2017

 

[zahir]

Will Erdoğan crush the Syrian Kurds?

unherd.com

In practice, however, the situation seems grim: and Turkey is to blame. Up to 100,000 Kurds have already been displaced in the latest round of fighting. Yet that’s not the fault of HTS, whose campaign has been marked by relative restraint toward local minorities, but rather Ankara-backed militias taking advantage of the chaos to attack internally displaced Kurds and Yazidis. “The situation remains critical,” says Mohammed Sheikho, a local council leader who weathered attacks by Turkey’s jihadist proxies to lead thousands of people to safety in regions still under DAANES control. “Many thousands of [displaced people] remain outside. Houses are not to be found. We lack blankets, ways to keep warm, heaters, bread, food. Many other people were detained [by Turkish-backed forces], and their fate is unknown until now.”

Even worse, Turkish proxies, united under the banner of the Syrian National Army (SNA), are now staging a fresh assault on the DAANES heartland. To paraphrase Voltaire, these militias are neither Syrian, nor national, nor an army. Rather, they’re funded and armed by Turkey; dedicated to executing Turkish aims against the Kurds; and encompass a muddled collection of mostly jihadist militias, including some sanctioned by the US for war crimes.

 

[tim]

Hafez Assad goes up in flames

Tomb of Assad’s father set on fire in Syria hometown – Middle East crisis live

Pictures emerge of what appears to be a coffin on fire at Hafez al-Assad mausoleum in the family’s ancestral village

www.theguardian.com

 

[nino_savatte]

Hafez Assad goes up in flames

Tomb of Assad’s father set on fire in Syria hometown – Middle East crisis live

Pictures emerge of what appears to be a coffin on fire at Hafez al-Assad mausoleum in the family’s ancestral village

www.theguardian.com

He's already dead ffs. shrugs

 

[zahir]

A couple of articles by Zaina Erhaim

Opinion | Al-Assad Is Gone, and One Idea Fills My Brain

On Sunday at 3 a.m. my mother woke me with a shaky voice. All our phones were ringing and the TV was loud. “He fell, Zaina, he fell. Assad fell.”

www.nytimes.com

During the civil war that began in 2011, I lived in areas controlled by different rebel groups — including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that finally toppled the regime — in eastern Aleppo and my hometown Idlib. When what would eventually become H.T.S. started to form in Idlib in late 2012, it was just one of the many Islamist groups around, focusing mainly on fighting the regime.

Back then, I could still move around without wearing my head scarf, and if Islamist rebels harassed me at their checkpoints, I would fight back. I wasn’t scared of them: I, too, was fighting the regime in my own way, as a journalist.

But then foreign jihadists, with their extreme ideology, started to join the H.T.S. ranks. They had the upper hand; they had the better funding. To align with them, many Syrian jihadists I encountered dropped their local dialects and started communicating in the modern standard Arabic — Fusha — to give the impression that they, too, were foreigners.

Archived here: https://archive.ph/Jfn7r

Carrying Home Within

My dear Idlib, how I wish for you to go back to being forgotten and ours again. Until then, we’ll always have your accent in our world, your olive oil in our cells, your trees etched in our memories. And most importantly, “wlad al-balad” to count on wherever we go.

newlinesmag.com

My last visit to Idlib was completely different. I entered the city as it was in the process of being captured by a coalition of rebels led by the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate, on March 28, 2015 (the group is now called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS). I headed to Idlib from eastern Aleppo, where I was based.

I was crying all the way, perhaps out of longing, or maybe anger. Our car was the only civilian one moving toward Idlib city, while all the others were fleeing from it, carrying hundreds of scared, faceless, displaced families, I could hardly see through my tear-filled eyes how much my city had changed. I changed, too, as I was forced to wear a headscarf and coat to be able to continue working in the rebel-held north.

 

[Rompipalle]

He's already dead ffs. shrugs

I’m never convinced that desecrating a grave or tomb is a particularly justifiable thing to do, regardless of whose it is.

 

[belboid]

The French are telling Israel to pullback the the demarcation line agreed fifty years ago. At least some are recognising how their intervention can’t do any actual good.

 

[_Russ_]

He's already dead ffs. shrugs

Shame they didnt get their hands on the cunt a long time ago

 

[belboid]

I’m never convinced that desecrating a grave or tomb is a particularly justifiable thing to do, regardless of whose it is.

It’s not just a grave though, is it? It’s a memorial, a tribute, not really any different to a statue. Gotta go.

 

[zahir]

Haaretz podcast with Syrian journalist Hassan Hassan

'They're no Zionists': How Syria's rebels toppled Assad and what it means for Israel

***

www.haaretz.com

The Syrian rebels who toppled Bashar Assad are highly unlikely to pose an immediate threat to Israel, leading Middle East expert Hassan Hassan said on the latest episode of the Haaretz Podcast.

"I suspect they will probably send signals to Israel directly or indirectly, that they're not interested in igniting anything there," said Syrian-born journalist and author Hassan, editor-in-chief of New Lines Magazine. Hassan said he believes that their posture towards Israel would be "cut from the same cloth" as Assad's, who "never really waged war against Israel since 1973."

He does mention in passing that al-Jolani's family is from the Golan Heights although he was born in Riyadh. His real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa with 'al-Jolani' being a nom-de-guerre referring to the Golan.

 

[Rompipalle]

It’s not just a grave though, is it? It’s a memorial, a tribute, not really any different to a statue. Gotta go.

It's not the same thing as toppling a statue or removing a monument, such as was done with the headstone of Jimmy Savile's grave, for example.

The thing that has been destroyed is described as his tomb, suggesting that his body is interred within it. If it contains human remains, then it's a grave or its equivalent.

It's absolutely in no way a defence of anything he did in life but the remains of the dead should be left alone.

 

[TopCat]

I’m never convinced that desecrating a grave or tomb is a particularly justifiable thing to do, regardless of whose it is.

To be fair the Duke of Beaufort getting dug up by the ALF in the 80’s was funny.

 

[mojo pixy]

... 'al-Jolani' being a nom-de-guerre referring to the Golan.

I was wondering if that was where he'd got that name from.

 

[brogdale]

It's absolutely in no way a defence of anything he did in life but the remains of the dead should be left alone.

I think when someone has been responsible for the misery, imprisonment, torture and death of countless thousands of innocent people, the norms and niceties surrounding respect for the dead can safely been jettisoned. Fuck the monsters.

 

[teqniq]

Huge amounts of Captagon discovered at more than one location including production facilities and means of hiding the drug for shipment:

Thread by @QalaatAlMudiq on Thread Reader App

@QalaatAlMudiq: #Syria: Rebels did not only overthrow one of the most oppressive Regimes on Earth, they also took down Assad's narco-State. Millions of Captagon pills were found inside Mazzeh Airbase. Geolocated in ...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[Rompipalle]

I think when someone has been responsible for the misery, imprisonment, torture and death of countless thousands of innocent people, the norms and niceties surrounding respect for the dead can safely been jettisoned. Fuck the monsters.

It just turns the perpetrators into monsters and it serves no purpose.

It's effectively desecrating and mutilating corpses and all that does is dehumanise those who carry out such pointless acts.

 

[Dystopiary]

I’m never convinced that desecrating a grave or tomb is a particularly justifiable thing to do, regardless of whose it is.

I'm the same, but with the atrocities the Assads have committed on people, it's not the time or place to judge imo.

 

[TopCat]

Huge amounts of Captagon discovered at more than one location including production facilities and means of hiding the drug for shipment:

Thread by @QalaatAlMudiq on Thread Reader App

@QalaatAlMudiq: #Syria: Rebels did not only overthrow one of the most oppressive Regimes on Earth, they also took down Assad's narco-State. Millions of Captagon pills were found inside Mazzeh Airbase. Geolocated in ...…

threadreaderapp.com

It was always suspected