Dozens of families leave encircled Eastern Aleppo under Russia-Damascus plan

More than 150 civilians, mostly women and children, left besieged eastern parts of Aleppo through a safety zone that Moscow and its Syrian ally say they have set up to evacuate people trapped in opposition-held areas.

Syrian state television on Saturday showed scores of mostly women gathered in a government-controlled area of the city, saying how conditions in rebel-held areas were difficult and chanting praise for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Eastern Aleppo citizens cross over to government-held area of Aleppo [30/7/2016]

Russia’s defense ministry said that 169 civilians had left since Thursday through three safety crossings. The ministry also said in a statement that 69 rebels had handed themselves in to the army. Syrian state news agency SANA said 169 civilians, mostly women over the age of forty, had arrived at the Salahuddin checkpoint. Videos circulating on social media showed mostly women crossing over at Salahuddin checkpoint.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its Russian allies declared a joint humanitarian operation for the besieged area on Thursday, bombarding it with leaflets telling fighters to surrender and civilians to leave. But the United Nations has raised misgivings about the plan and U.S. officials have suggested it may be an attempt to depopulate the city – the most important opposition stronghold in the country – so that the army can seize it.

The Syrian opposition has called it a euphemism for forced displacement of the inhabitants, which it said would be a war crime. With rebel-held areas running out of food and medicine after the only supply route into the city was cut by the army after months of heavy Russian and Syrian aerial bombing, many vulnerable civilians are desperate to leave, while being suspicious of the plan.

The Russian defense ministry said Syrian authorities had prepared six humanitarian aid centres capable of accommodating more than 3,000 people.

Residents in these areas who were contacted said many were hesitant to enter into government-held areas for fear of arrest by government forces with no presence of any U.N. body or NGO’s to oversee the evacuation.

They also said the journey to the frontline where the crossings were located was fraught with danger with snipers from both sides at times shooting at civilians.

Sources: Reuters/Syria & Iraq News

 

CIA’s Brennan says the United States aim at a political transition in Syria

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said on Friday he was not optimistic about the future of Syria.

“I don’t know whether or not Syria can be put back together again. Whether it’s going to be some type pf confederate structure where the various confessional groups will have the lead in governing their portions of the country,” Brennan told the annual Aspen Security Forum. He added that the U.S. don’t want implosion of the Syrian government institutions but a clear political path for Bashar al-Assad’s departure from power. “Until that happens, Syrians will continue to die”, Brennan said.

Source: The Aspen Institute

If Aleppo operation is ruse, could hurt US-Russia cooperation: Kerry

If Russia’s humanitarian operation for Aleppo is a ruse, it risks completely disrupting cooperation between the United States and Russia on a political solution to end the Syrian civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday.

“It has the risk, if it is a ruse, of completely breaking apart the … cooperation,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.

“On the other hand, if we’re able to work it out today and have a complete understanding of what is happening and then agreement on (the) way forward, it could actually open up some possibilities.”

John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov during a bilateral meeting at the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos [26/7/2016. photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters]

Source: Reuters

Up to one million Iraqis could be forced to flee their homes as fighting intensifies: Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross believes that up to a million more people could be forced to flee their homes in Iraq in the coming weeks and months, posing a massive humanitarian problem for the country. As fighting intensifies in different areas, including near Iraq’s second city of Mosul, the ICRC is calling for additional funds from donors to replenish aid supplies.

More than ten million people are already in need of assistance in the country. More than three million people are already internally displaced. If there is the predicted upsurge in violence, then the figure of internally displaced could dramatically increase.

“The situation is unpredictable but we must prepare for the worst. There’s the likelihood that fighting will intensify, particularly in the Mosul area. Hundreds of thousands of people may very well be on the move in the coming weeks and months, seeking shelter and assistance. We need to be ready,” said the ICRC’s Regional Director for the Near and Middle East, Robert Mardini.

On Friday 29 July, the ICRC is asking for an additional 17 million Swiss francs ($17.1m, €15.6m) to its current budget for Iraq. The funds will be used to provide water, food, medical supplies and other assistance for those people caught up in the fighting. The ICRC will also focus efforts on promoting respect for international humanitarian law with parties involved in the conflict, and on visiting detainees. The money will allow the ICRC to step up its response throughout the country, reaching those most in need of help, as and when they need it.

Civilians fleeing from Fallujah [May 2016]

Source: ICRC

De Mistura says UN wants control of Aleppo humanitarian corridors

United Nations Syrian envoy Staffan de Mistura Friday urged Russia to let the U.N. take charge of humanitarian corridors allowing civilians to escape the besieged city of Aleppo. De Mistura voiced provisional support for the humanitarian passages proposed by Moscow, but said the U.N. wanted to see key changes to the plan. “Our suggestion is to Russia to actually leave the corridors being established at their initiative to us,” de Mistura told reporters in Geneva. “The U.N. and humanitarian partners know what to do.”

Staffan de Mistura

He also echoed calls by U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien for a 48-hour truce to allow life-saving supplies into the city’s rebel-held east, which has been surrounded by pro-government forces since July 17. “How can you expect people to want to walk through a corridor, thousands of them, while there is shelling, bombing fighting,” the U.N. envoy said.

Russia, a key ally of President Bashar Assad, called for the opening of the passages on Thursday for civilians and surrendering fighters seeking to exit Aleppo. “We are in principle and in practice in favor of humanitarian corridors under the right circumstances,” de Mistura said, adding that the U.N. had been “studying” the Russian plan. He said Moscow needed to provide more information on how the system would work, while reiterating the U.N. position that no civilian should be forced to leave Aleppo.

“The clock is ticking for the Aleppo population,” said de Mistura, who estimated that essential supplies including food in the east were likely to run out within three weeks.

Source: AFP

American volunteer dies fighting Daesh alongside YPG in Manbij

Former US marine Levi Jonathan Shirley, known by his Kurdish comrades as Agir Servan, was killed on 14 July in offensive to recapture town of Manbij.

An American volunteer fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria has been killed during an ongoing offensive to recapture the town of Manbij from Islamic State militants. Levi Jonathan Shirley, known by his Kurdish comrades as Agir Servan, died on 14 July in Manbij, according to a statement on the official website of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in whose ranks he was fighting. The statement said Shirley, who was born in Nevada, had first travelled to Kurdish-controlled territory in Syria’s north-east in February 2015 and joined the YPG and then returned to the US.

Jonathan Shirley, in a picture release by the Kurdish Defense Units

That winter he returned to Syria and rejoined the YPG, helping defend Kurdish-held areas from Islamic State and recently participating in the battle for the northern town of Manbij, which began in May and is backed by a US-led coalition bombing the militants in Iraq and Syria. Shirley was “known for his discipline and sense of responsibility” and his presence among the SDF fighters “always raised the morale of his co fighters” according to the statement. “Comrade Agir was known for his bravery and sense of self-sacrifice.”

Jayson Pihajlic, 30, a former marine, who spent a year in Rojava and fought alongside Shirley in the battle for Shadadi earlier this year described him as a former marine full of life. “He was always full of life, and comedy. The kind of guy that went out of his way to make everyone laugh. Even doing standup comedy shows for us,” said Pihajlic who served two tours in Iraq from 2005-2009.

Source: The Guardian

Nour al-Din al-Zenki rebels behead a 12-year old boy in northern Aleppo

Videos have emerged online that appear to show Syrian rebels taunting and then beheading a boy they say is a captured Palestinian pro-government fighter. One video shows five men posing with the frightened child, who could be as young as 10, in the back of a truck. One of the men grips him by the hair. The same man is later filmed apparently cutting the boy’s head off.

The incident is reported to have taken place in Handarat, north of Aleppo, where there has been heavy fighting. The area is the location of the unofficial Palestinian refugee camp of Ein El Tal, which was home to some 7,000 people before they were displaced by armed groups in 2013. Pro-government forces have been attempting to capture Handarat in recent weeks, as part of an offensive that has seen the last remaining road out of rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo cut, trapping an estimated 300,000 people living there.

A blurred screenshot from the video of the beheading in Handarat [19/7/2016]

The footage of the boy, who some on social media identified as “Abdullah Issa”, first appeared online on Tuesday morning. The men in the first video say he is a fighter from Liwa al-Quds (the Jerusalem Brigade), a Palestinian pro-government militia operating in the Aleppo area.
Enab Baladi, a pro-opposition news website, said the boy was captured in Handarat by members of a local rebel group, the Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement. It quoted Yasser Ibrahim Youssef, a member of the group’s political bureau, as saying on Facebook that an independent judicial commission had been appointed to investigate the incident. Anyone proven to have been involved in any violations would be referred to military justice, he added.

A legal adviser for the Western-backed Free Syrian Army was also cited by Enab Baladi as saying it would hold to account those responsible for such a violation.
A report published by the human rights group Amnesty International earlier this month detailed a series of violations allegedly committed by Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement fighters, including abductions and torture. The group is reported to have benefited from financial and military support from the US, UK, France, Turkey, Qatar and other Gulf Arab states in the past.

Source: BBC News

Muqtada al-Sadr tells followers to target U.S. troops fighting Daesh

Powerful Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr instructed his followers on Sunday to target U.S. troops deploying to Iraq as part of the military campaign against Islamic State. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday the Pentagon would dispatch 560 additional troops to help Iraqi forces retake the northern city of Mosul in an offensive planned for later this year.

Muqtada al-Sadr, pictured here during a rally in Baghdad in June 2016

Sadr, who rose to prominence when his Mahdi Army battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion, posted the comments on his official website after a follower asked for his response to the announcement. “They are a target for us,” Sadr said, without offering details.

The Mahdi Army was disbanded in 2008, replaced by the Peace Brigades, which helped push back Islamic State from near Baghdad in 2014 under a government-run umbrella, and maintains a presence in the capital and several other cities. Sadr, who commands the loyalty of tens of thousands of supporters, is also leading a protest movement that saw demonstrators storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone government district twice this year, hampering parliament for weeks.

The new troop deployment, which is expected to happen within weeks, would raise the number of U.S. forces in Iraq to around 4,650, far below the peak of about 170,000 reached during the nearly nine-year occupation.

Other Shi’ite militias, particularly those backed by Iran, have made similar pledges to attack U.S. soldiers in the past year, but the only casualties since American forces returned to Iraq to battle Islamic State two years ago have come at the hands of the Sunni militant group.

Source: Reuters

Aleppo ‘completely besieged’, Syrian govt forces cut off Castello Road

Opposition-controlled parts of Syria’s battered northern city Aleppo came under total siege on Sunday, after government forces severed the last route out of the east. An estimated 300,000 civilians live in rebel-held neighborhoods of Syria’s second city, according to the United Nations, and there are fears that they could face starvation. Beleaguered rebels have failed to thwart a major Russian-backed army offensive around Aleppo, which has been devastated by the country’s five-year conflict.

On Sunday, regime fighters descended on the Castello Road and fully cut it, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “The eastern neighbourhoods are now completely besieged,” he told AFP. The Observatory said at least 16 rebel fighters were killed Sunday in the regime advance on Aleppo, which is divided roughly between government control in the west and rebel control in the east.

The Castello Road had been used by rebels but also by shopkeepers bringing in produce for residents and by villagers visiting relatives in the city. “Aleppo is now 100-percent besieged,” a rebel fighter from the Aleppo Revolutionaries group told AFP. “The army has reached the road and even arrested a group of civilians who were walking there,” the fighter said. “They are now setting up sandbag barriers,” he added. Facebook pages run by Aleppo-based activists urged civilians to stay away from the route to avoid being arrested or wounded.

Food shortages

Sieges by both the regime and its opponents have had a devastating impact on other areas of Syria, including the town of Madaya where aid groups say dozens of people have died from starvation and malnutrition. According to the United Nations, nearly 600,000 people are living under siege in Syria, most of them surrounded by government forces.

Eastern Aleppo is not yet designated by the UN as besieged, but residents have already complained of food shortages and skyrocketing prices. Shopkeepers have begun rationing their products and there have been long queues outside bakeries. A leading opposition group had warned last week that hundreds of thousands of civilians in Aleppo were at risk if the Castello Road was cut. Anas al-Abdeh, head of the Istanbul-based opposition National Coalition, said his group feared “that if the Castello route is totally cut off, more than 300,000 civilians will starve”.

Fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad sought to seize the Castello Road for nearly two years as part of their campaign to retake the whole of Aleppo. Armed forces pressed their campaign last week despite announcing several extensions to a fighting freeze marking Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Syria’s state media made no mention of the developments on Sunday, but pro-government websites like Al Masdar News reported the advance.

AFP’s correspondent in one rebel-controlled neighborhood said at least six air strikes targeted the eastern opposition neighborhoods after the route was severed. On Saturday, at least 28 civilians including children were killed in bombardment of the eastern districts, according to the Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources on the ground. Another four people died in rebel rocket fire on the western government-controlled neighborhoods, it said.

Castello Road, seen in a screenshot from a drone footage released by Syrian govt media

Source: AFP

Daesh officially announces Abu Omar al-Shishani killed in US airstrike

Omar al-Shishani, a top commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), has been killed in Iraq, a website affiliated with the armed group said. Citing a “military source”, ISIL’s website on Wednesday claimed that Shishani was killed “in the town of Sharqat as he took part in repelling the military campaign on the city of Mosul”.

Amaq, the ISIL-linked website, did not specify when Shishani was killed, but the loss of the commander is a significant blow to the group, which has suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq this year. The Pentagon announced in March that US forces had killed Shishani and said his death would likely hamper ISIL’s operations in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman, reporting from Washington DC, said his death “is not necessarily a big development, as far as the US is concerned”. “The question here is why is ISIL so willing to admit that he in fact is dead,” Ackerman said. “We’ll have to see exactly what comes out of the Pentagon and also what comes out of the Iraqi command as to what the actual effect of this will be on the fight for Mosul.” But US officials – who had previously, prematurely announced Shishani’s “likely” death from an air strike – did not specify how or where he was killed.

Abu Omar al-Shishani

‘Omar the Chechen’

Shishani, whose real name was Tarkhan Batirashvili, was a fierce, battle-hardened fighter with roots in Georgia. He had a thick red beard and was one of the most notorious faces of ISIL.

Shishani, whose nom de guerre means “Omar the Chechen”, was one of the ISIL leaders most wanted by Washington, which had put a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head. His exact rank was unclear, but US officials had branded him as “equivalent of the secretary of defence” for ISIL. Shishani came from the former Soviet state of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge region, which is populated mainly by ethnic Chechens. He fought as a Chechen rebel against Russian forces before joining the Georgian military in 2006, and battled Russians again in Georgia in 2008. He later resurfaced in northern Syria as the commander of a group of foreign fighters, and became a senior leader within ISIL.

Source: Al Jazeera