The Atrocities And Tragedies Destroying Aleppo, Syria

Riggs 12/14/2016 12:07 PM

Al Jazeera (aka al Qaeda) — Pro-government forces have reportedly executed scores of civilians in Aleppo, including women and children, according to the UN, as the battle for Syria’s largest city nears its end.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have in some cases entered homes and killed those inside, and in others “caught and killed on the spot” fleeing civilians, Rupert Colville, UN rights office spokesman, said on Tuesday.

He called the situation “a complete meltdown of humanity”.

Colville said government forces on Monday killed 82 civilians – including 13 children and 11 women – in the neighbourhoods of Bustan al-Qasr, al-Kalleseh, al-Firdous and al-Salheen – taken over that day by government forces.

Aleppo, Syria was once the largest and most thriving city in Syria. Four years ago, the Arab Spring reached Aleppo and changed all that — it’s been a tragic, violent war zone ever since. Eastern Aleppo, where the focus is now, has been controlled by Syrian rebels. Syrian government forces (Assad’s regime), Russia, and Iran have bombarded the area for years.

Two weeks ago, however, Syrian forces took to the offensive to reclaim eastern Aleppo. They successfully isolated the area, cut off the rebels, and forced them back to just a handful of small neighborhoods.

Then on Monday, Syrian forces reportedly executed 82 civilians, 13 of which were children, in their homes and on the streets. You can’t do that — that’s evil. In total, 500,000 have died from the Syrian war; 50,000 of those have been children.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We have collectively failed the people of Syria.”

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power — addressing Syria, Russia and Iran — said, “are you truly incapable of shame?” and “is there nothing you will not lie about?”

It’s important to note that Russia and Iran both back and assist the Syrian government. The U.S. backs the rebels in an effort to unseat Assad.

An estimated 50,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in eastern Aleppo. The situation has become so dire that final goodbyes are being recorded with phones and uploaded online by people certain they’ll soon meet their deaths.

Bana Alabed, a 7-year-old eastern Aleppo girl who’s gained international fame for using twitter as the Anne Franke of the crisis, has posted increasingly concerning tweets in recent days. Her mom assists her in running the account.

In a series of events that reflects perfectly the chaos and irresponsibility that’s led to such devastation in the region, Syrian government forces and rebels both confirmed a ceasefire Tuesday. It was considered a “surrender deal,” in which rebels and civilians would be allowed to leave the city…

… but just hours later, more shells hit the city, violating the ceasefire. Civilians remained trapped in the city.

This morning, 7-year-old Bana’s mother tweeted this.

There are a lot of forces at play here. The “ceasefire” was brokered by Turkey and Russia, issued to keep Syria from shelling Aleppo and killing civilians. Upon its violation, Turkey immediately blamed Syrian forces.

It’s a brutal cycle that’s continued for years. SE Cupp, a conservative political commentator and good friend of the Stool, has championed the cause for raising awareness of the humanitarian crisis.

Before the election, I sat down with her to discuss this situation. We’re working on cutting that up to produce a short and hopefully interesting and informative little bit on the crisis.

This isn’t what you typically come to Barstool for, but I’m a believer this should a) be on everybody’s radar, and b) is important for reinforcing the perspective on how lucky we are to have been born into the most fortunate circumstances in human history.

Blogger’s Note: I’m clearly not an expert, journalist or historian. If I’m wrong about something, please email me (riggs@barstoolsports.com) so I can be sure people are getting the correct information. My goal with these is not to pretend like I’m smarter than everyone else — it’s to take important global information and present it to an audience that typically may not consume it, in a way that audience finds interesting, from a pretty normal guy they know is much like they are.

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