Heroic defenders of a besieged city slaughtered by cowboys who have no business being there
Pentagon has just released a statement saying it has ceased its ongoing air strikes around the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor. The reason for this? Their aircraft have wiped out around 80 Syrian soldiers and wounded an additional 100!
A pair of American F-16s fighter-bombers and another pair of A-10 ground attack planes struck Syrian troops encircled by ISIS near Deir ez-Zor airport. Deir ez-Zor is a city in eastern Syria which has been continuously besieged for three years now, first for a year by the anti-Assad coalition and for the past two years by ISIS.
The city's residences represent the largest community in Syria under siege (but you won't read much about them) and can only receive limited supplies via air drop (meaning that with the humanitarian's no-fly zone its inhabitants would starve and be overrun by ISIS). Ironically the city is home to an Armenian Christian minority which stems from the rare survivors of death marches from their homeland into the Syrian desert that Armenians were subjected to by the Ottoman Empire during WWI -- those who miraculously avoided annihilation in 1915 may still be eradicated in 2016 -- all under the watchful gaze of Washington.
Americans have explained that "coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit" and added that "the coalition will review the strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons can be learned".
So great, US military didn't set out to massacre the Syrian defenders of Deir ez-Zor but neither is it exactly crying itself to sleep here. Never mind an apology, there is not even a statement of simple regret for the tragedy. The US statement simply leaves a bad taste in ones mouth:
US CENTCOM statement on alleged US airstrike against the Syrian Army.— Syrian Civil War Map (@CivilWarMap) September 17, 2016
Current situation: https://t.co/CjWNUf1bWP pic.twitter.com/GopnFF1JGB
Consider that US aircraft are in the skies over Syria uninvited, illegally, without the permission of the standing government in Damascus which has called on them to leave many times. Consider also that the reason that Deir ez-Zor is encircled and besieged by ISIS in the first place is that vast material, monetary and moral support that was given to the Syrian rebellion/jihad (of which ISIS was an early member) by the US and its Middle Eastern Islamist allies.
There is indeed a lesson here; the US should get the hell out of Syria or else act versus ISIS only to the extent it is approved by Syrians themselves. But no chance of that from the Masters of the Universe. US is convinced it owns Syria and furthermore is so enamoured with itself and its supposed moral greatness that it considers that even just having a line of direct communications to the Syrian military (responsible for far less carnage in the world than the out of control US variant) would sully its honor and besmirch its innocence.
http://russia-insider.com/en/us-air-strikes-kill-80-syrian-soldiers-besieged-isis/ri16504
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