Syrian forces shoot dead 82 Aleppo civilians in their homes

Syrian forces of president Bashar al-Assad have shot dead 82 Aleppo civilians in their homes and the citizens have posted harrowing 'death bulletins' pleading for help from the outside world. The UN has described it as a 'complete meltdown of humanity' in the war-torn city.
Reports indicate that 11 women and 13 children were among those killed in 'on the spot' shootings in the besieged Syrian city while 100 unaccompanied children are believed to be trapped in a building under heavy attack.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 13 December 2016.

Syrian troops were poised to recapture all of Aleppo, the country's war-torn second city and Rights group Amnesty International has described global inaction over the siege as 'shameful'. Thousands of civilians are trapped as rebels make a desperate last stand in their remaining pocket of territory in the former opposition stronghold.
The UN human rights office has received reports of the massacre by forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad in which at least 82 civilians have been killed as they entered the last remaining strongholds of the rebels in eastern Aleppo.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has expressed alarm over reports of atrocities against 'a large number of civilians, including women and children' in Aleppo.


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NATO troops on high alert in view of fears that President Putin might attack the West

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been accused of attempting to interfere with the US election process by hacking into the emails of senior members of the Democratic party. He has also recently moved the Iskander nuclear-capable missiles into the Kaliningrad enclave, on the borders with Poland. Therefore, NATO members like Estonia, Poland and Romania are feeling more and more threatened by Moscow.
Obviously, NATO chiefs are in panic that Russian President Vladimir Putin might attack the West and are, therefore, trying to get together a force of 300,000 troops which they can put on 'high alert'.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 November 2016.

Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated because of Moscow's insistence on backing its Syrian ally, President Bashar al-Assad, at all costs. This has led to serious tension with the US, Britain and France. While most of the NATO members have slashed their defense spending after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has been bolstering its military capabilities. It has been holding parades involving more than 100,000 troops each year.
It is understood that it would take NATO at least six months to deploy a force of 300,000 - and it was too slow. President Putin has assured that his country does not want world domination or expansion or confrontation with anyone. Russia values its independence and own identity.


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9300 people killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria during last year

It is now one year that Russia had launched its air campaign in Syria in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad. In this one year, Russian airstrikes on areas outside government control in Syria have killed more than 9,000 people, displaced tens of thousands and caused wide destruction.
These figures are made available by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) which is an opposition monitoring group.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 30 September 2016.

Russia had begun an air campaign backing the ground forces of President Bashar Assad. It helped him to turn the balance of power in his favor in many areas. These included the northern province of Aleppo and the suburbs of the capital Damascus. Opposition activists have held Russia responsible for most of the recent airstrikes against rebel-held neighborhoods of east Aleppo city that killed more than 320 civilians in the past two weeks and demolished many buildings.
As revealed by The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that keeps track of Syria's civil war, the Russian airstrikes have killed 9,364 people in the war-torn country. These include 3,804 civilians (906 of them were children). The dead also include 2,746 members of the Islamic State group and 2,814 from other rebel and militant groups, including Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.


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US and Russia to join forces to tackle the twin threats of ISIS and Al-Qaida

A landmark agreement has been announced that will see the US and Russia join forces to tackle the twin threats of ISIS and Al-Qaida. Both countries announced a ceasefire after a day-long meeting between secretary of state John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland. If the ceasefire, which begins Monday, holds for a week, the two countries will then launch a military partnership to target Islamic extremists in the region.
The deal comes after months of diplomacy that included four meetings between Kerry and Lavrov since August 26 followed by a lengthy face-to-face meeting between Presidents Obama and Putin in China.
This has been reported in dailymail.,co.uk dated 10 September 2016.

At a joint news conference, John Kerry has indicated that the plan could reduce violence in Syria and lead to a long-sought-after political transition because, it would end more than five years of bloodshed that has claimed the lives of 500,000 people.
Of course, success of the deal would depend upon support from both Syria's Russian-backed government, led by President Bashar Assad, and US-supported anti-Assad rebels. The arrangement hinges on Moscow pressuring Assad's government to halt all offensive operations against Syria's armed opposition and civilian areas.
Simultaneously, it would be the responsibility of Washington to persuade 'moderate' rebels to break away from the Nusra Front which is al-Qaida's Syria affiliate, and other extremist groups. Moreover, both sides would have to withdraw from demilitarized zones to allow civilian traffic and humanitarian deliveries. The ceasefire and traffic must hold for a week before collaboration between the countries begins after which the US and Russia will then begin intelligence sharing and targeting coordination and Assad's forces will focus their attention on ISIS instead of Nusra.


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Super powers Russia and America still undecided on military cooperation in Syria

In spite of several meetings and discussions at different forums, the solution to the situation in Syria keeps eluding the super powers. America and Russia have, yet again, failed to arrive at an agreement on military co-operation and a cessation of hostilities in Syria.
The latest round of talks in Geneva between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on for nine hours and, at the end of the talks, all they agreed upon was that they had "achieved clarity on the path forward", but still have issues to resolve before an agreement could be reached.
They have indicated that teams on both sides would try to finalize details in the coming days.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 27 August 2016.

Both the sides agreed that they were looking for a deal that would work for the people of Syria and make the region more stable and secure. Kerry's counterpart echoed the same sentiments and said that "very important steps" had been made on a deal to stop the violence.
It is now for the technical teams comprising US and Russian military and intelligence experts, to try and figure out how best to separate the opposition groups, backed by the US and Gulf Arab countries, from the jihadis. The future of President Assad is not a part of the current talks. Rather, the focus is on finding an effective and lasting solution to end the violence, which would open negotiations on a political transition in Syria.


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Suspected chlorine gas attack in Aleppo kill at least four

A suspected chlorine gas attack in Aleppo in Syria has led to at least four deaths. It is believed that the gas was dropped alongside barrel bombs on the Zubdiya neighborhood. This is in the rebel-held part of the city. A manager of the Al Quds hospital has indicated that he had recorded four deaths and 55 injuries and was preserving pieces of patients' clothing and pieces of the bombs as evidence.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has confirmed that a woman and her child were among the dead.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 11 August 2016.

A video posted by an opposition news portal showed a child and adults wearing breathing apparatus. Moreover, two of the men reported about the strong smell of gas. They also said about seeing barrel bombs before people began to suffer breathing and eye problems.
It seems both the sides have denied using chemical weapons but United Nations investigators say that sarin gas was used in Eastern Ghouta three years ago. This had killed an estimated 1,429 people, including at least 426 children. Subsequently, in late 2015, mustard gas was used in the conflict. This was confirmed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Aleppo is Syria's most populous city before the war and has been the subject of a bitter fight between rebel forces and those under the command of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.


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CIA reveals - ISIS have used chemical weapons and can make chlorine and mustard gas

#ISIS #peshmerga #mustardgas #chlorinegas CIA director John Brennan has revealed that Islamic State fighters have used chemical weapons in the past and are capable of making small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas. Last year, officials in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan had indicated that blood tests had shown that IS fighters had made use of mustard agent in an attack on Kurdish peshmerga forces in August. As many as 35 Peshmerga fighters had been exposed and some of them were taken abroad for treatment. At that time, there were apprehensions that IS had used mustard agent.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 12 February 2016.

The director of CIA has indicated that there has been several instances of where ISIL has used chemical munitions on the battlefield. The CIA also believes that the IS group has the ability to make small amounts of mustard or chlorine gas for weapons. Moreover, there are possibilities that the Islamic State group could export the weapons to the West for financial gain.
Hence, it is necessary to cut off the various transportation routes and smuggling routes that they have used to carry on their activities. President Bashar al-Assad`s regime and rebel forces have accused each other of using chemical agents in the nearly five-year war that has killed more than 250,000 people.


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MQ-1 Predator drone of the US shot down in Syria

#predatordrone #ISIS #Syria #Latakia #PresidentAssad The destruction of a MQ-1 Predator drone in Syria was the first direct attack carried out on any US aircraft. The drone had gone missing and, later, images surfaced that showed burned metal and mangled electronics. These are believed to belong to the first American aircraft to go down in Syria since the U.S. began airstrikes on ISIS inside the country.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 18 March 2015.
The images are thought to be from the coastal city of Latakia which is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad. His regime is still fighting a bitter civil war against Islamic State militants.
From circumstantial evidence like two charred panels bearing the logo of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc - the company who produce the MQ-1 drone – it is presumed to be the drone that had gone missing. The Pentagon is trying to find out reasons of why the operators lost control of the drone.
It is not clear as to who shot it down – was it ISIS or forces of Syria?

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