#syrian war report 2018

[blueiscoool]

Stunning Greek Mosaics Uncovered in Syria

A rare and stunning mosaic panel depicting Greek scenes has recently been uncovered in the Homs province of Syria. Experts say it dates back to the Roman era.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that archeologists unearthed the sizeable mosaic panel constructed 1,600 years ago in the city of al-Rastan, adding that “the panel has no parallel in the world”.

The Syrian Directorate of Antiquities noted that it was found in an area previously held by the opposition forces of Syria.

Dr. Humam Saad, director of excavation studies and the archaeological mission in al-Rastan, said that the discovery actually took place in 2018. But the Syrian opposition forces who controlled the Homs province meant that archeologists could not uncover it earlier.

However, with the return of Bashar Assad’s regime forces, archaeologists finally received access. This allowed them to reveal the mosaic, which has a length of 20 meters and a width of 6 meters.

Archaeologists still believe there is a possibility of finding more remains under the mosaic.

Unearthed Mosaic depicts two main Greek Scenes

The uncovered Mosaic features two main scenes. One depicts soldiers carrying swords with shields seen with the names of Greek leaders who took part in the Trojan War. The war was a legendary conflict between the ancient Greeks and the people of Troy more than 2,000 years ago.

The second is a portrayal of Neptune(Greek Poseidon), the Ancient Roman/Greek god of the sea, and 40 of his mistresses.

Around the 12th century BC when the rift between the ancient Greeks and the people of Troy began, the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of king Menelaus of Sparta.

When Menelaus demanded her return, the Trojans refused. In turn, Menelaus persuaded his brother Agamemnon to lead an army against Troy.

The Greeks ravaged Troy’s surrounding cities and countryside for nine years. The city held out nonetheless, being well-fortified and commanded by Hector and other sons of the royal household.

On the 10th and final year of war, the Greeks had the brilliant idea to build a large hollow wooden horse and hide a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. In this manner, they entered the city of Troy and won the war.

A long-held argument about whether the battle actually took place is still raging. Nevertheless, there is enough evidence indicating its truth. Unfortunately, however, no one has ever found the giant wooden horse.

The reality of the battle now justifies all the stories spread about the war. This includes the tale of Achilles. The great ancient Greek warrior was invulnerable because his mother dipped him in the River Styx while a child. Yet according to ancient Greek mythology, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him; his left heel.

Greek Mosaic in Syria “complete and rarest of its kind”

Dr. Saad said “It is not the oldest of its kind, but it’s the most complete and the rarest,”

“We have no similar mosaic,” referring to the significance and uniqueness of the unearthed mosaic.

He also told the press that “What is in front of us is a discovery that is rare on a global scale.” Furthermore, he stated, the images are “rich in details, and includes scenes from the Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans”.

In Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the Greek demigod hero Hercules slayed Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, in one of his 12 labours. That finding apparently connects with history.

Saad further added, “We can’t identify the type of the building, whether it’s a public bathhouse or something else, because we have not finished excavating yet.”

Prior to the armed conflict in Syria, there had not been significant excavation efforts in the city of al-Rastan, despite its historical significance in the country, Saad said.

He added that “Unfortunately, there were armed groups that tried to sell the mosaic at one point in 2017 and listed it on social media platforms.”

By James Ssengendo.

[mariacallous]

Nine others died in the August 23 plane crash that reportedly killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary leader who staged a brief mutiny against Russia’s Defense Ministry in late June. Prigozhin’s death isn’t verified yet, but Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency has confirmed that he was on the passenger list. The other high-profile passenger aboard the doomed flight was Dmitry Utkin, the Wagner Group commander whose callsign is the basis for the company’s very name. Journalists at BBC Russian and the Dossier Center collected information about the other passengers and crew members who perished in the crash. Meduza summarizes these reports.

Passengers

Valery Chekalov

Chekalov managed multiple companies in St. Petersburg that were linked to Prigozhin. BBC Russia learned that his acquaintances logged his number in their phones as “Valery Evgenievich Syria,” “Valery Chekalov Concord Army,” and “Valery Evgenievich Chekalov from Prigozhin.” From 2011 to 2018, he headed the company “Kollektiv-Servis,” which won a contract with the Defense Ministry’s Commissary in 2012 to supply food to the army. Around the same time, the company registered an entity with a mess hall in Sevastopol, the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Chekalov also managed a company created in 2014 called “Neva,” which operated the subsidiary “Evro Polis” — the same Evro Polis that signed a memorandum with the Syrian government in 2016 to recapture and guard oil facilities in exchange for the value of 25 percent of the oil and gas produced there, according to reporting by the news outlet Fontanka. 

Evgeny Makaryan

Born in Magnitogorsk, Makaryan was a former police officer. According to the Dossier Center, he joined Wagner Group in March 2016, serving in its fourth assault detachment in Syria, where he was wounded. BBC Russian calls him one of Prigozhin’s bodyguards.

Sergey Propustin

Propustin is listed at Myrotvorets, the Ukrainian website that names and sometimes doxxes people its authors consider to be “enemies of Ukraine.” Myrotvorets identifies him as a grenadier reconnaissance officer and Wagner Group fighter. According to the Dossier Center, Propustin fought in the Second Chechen War. He reportedly joined Wagner in March 2015 and fought in its second reconnaissance assault detachment, from which Prigozhin would later recruit several of his personal bodyguards. Accordingly, BBC Russian reports that Propustin was another Prigozhin bodyguard.

Alexander Totmin

Myrotvorets lists Totmin too. It’s unknown when he started working for Prigozhin, but journalists learned that he was living in St. Petersburg as recently as 2022. His phone number shows up in shared databases identified as “Sanya Work PMC,” “Totmin Sanya Kontora Piter,” and “Alexander W.” In August 2012, a court in the Altai Krai sentenced him to 300 hours of community service for stealing a chainsaw from a bathhouse located on someone else’s property. In September 2014, he was sentenced to two years of probation for car theft.

Nikolai Matuseev

Researchers at the Dossier Center believe that the Nikolai Matuseev listed among the plane-crash passengers is the same one who joined Wagner Group in January 2017. He was a gunner in the organization’s fourth assault detachment in Syria.

Crew

Rustam Karimov

The aircraft’s 29-year-old second pilot, Karimov lived with his wife in Perm. He graduated from the Sasovo Flight School in Russia’s Ryazan region in 2014. Karimov’s father told reporters that his son was unemployed at the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He says Rustam found work three months ago with MNT-Aero, the company that owns the crashed plane, and then moved to St. Petersburg.

Alexey Levshin

Levshin was the plane’s captain. His daughter Anastasia told the news outlet RBC that her father had worked with Prigozhin for many years, though she provided no further details. BBC Russian discovered that Levshin was featured in a 2018 broadcast by the television network Vesti Novosibirsk about an airshow that included military pilots. In the story, he was identified as the navigator of a Sukhoi Su-34 crew.

Kristina Raspopova

Raspopova was the plane’s flight attendant. Thirty-nine years old, she was born in what is now Kazakhstan. According to the news outlet 74.ru, her younger brother is the deputy prosecutor in Yemanzhelinsk, a city in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region. She attended the Moscow Finance and Law University and lived for some time in Yekaterinburg before moving to Moscow. The Telegram channel Baza reports that she relocated to St. Petersburg after finding a job at MNT-Aero.

Posts on social media indicate that Raspopova often traveled abroad, sharing photos from Jamaica, Singapore, Austria, and other countries. Multiple times, she flew aboard a business jet similar to the plane that crashed: an Embraer Legacy with the tail number RA-02857 based at Vnukovo International Airport, which she frequented. According to Baza, Raspopova spoke to her family a few hours before her final flight departed and said that the plane had been delayed for some reason.

[tkatsumi06j]

Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency removes Turkey's PKK and Palestine's HAMAS from "List of Global Terrorist and Armed Organizations"

by Hiroyuki Aoyama, Professor

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

November 29, 2023

Originally posted on Yahoo!News:

Translated/Post-edited using DeepL.com

On November 28, Turkey's Haber 7, Yeni Yasam, and Harwar News (ANHA) - which is close to the Democratic Unity Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish nationalist organization - all reported that Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency had removed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from "List of Global Terrorist and Armed Organizations" section on its official website.

トルコのハベル7、イェニ・ヤシャム、シリアのクルド民族主義組織の民主統一党（PYD）に近いハーワール・ニュース（ANHA）などは11月28日、日本の公安調査庁が公式サイト内の「世界のテロ・武装組織等」欄から、クルディスタン労働者党（PKK）を削除したと一斉に伝えた。

The PKK is an organization that Turkey considers a separatist terrorist organization. The Syrian PYD is a descendant of this organization.

PKKは、トルコが分離主義テロリストとみなす組織。シリアのPYDはこの組織の系譜を組む。

In addition to Turkey, the PKK has also been designated by the United States as an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) on October 8, 1997. The U.S. CIA updated The World Factbook on its official website on January 24, 2018, equating the Syrian PYD with the PKK and designating the organization and its then co-leader, Salih Muslim, as a terrorist organization, a description that was removed shortly after (refer to my book, "膠着するシリア：トランプ政権は何をもたらしたか" (Stalemate in Syria: What Has the Trump Administration Brought?), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Press, 2021)

PKKは、トルコのほかにも、米国がFTO（外国テロ組織）に指定（1997年10月8日）している。米国はCIAが2018年1月24日に、公式サイト内の「ワールド・ファクトブック」（The World Factbook）を更新し、シリアのPYDをPKKと同一視して、同組織と当時の共同党首だったサーリフ・ムスリムをテロリストに指定したが、この記載はほどなく削除された（拙稿『膠着するシリア：トランプ政権は何をもたらしたか』東京外国語大学出版会、2021年）。

The People's Defenders of the Armed Forces (YPG), an armed group founded by the PYD, constitutes the main force of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which was formed in Syria in October 2015 at the behest of the United States. The SDF is positioned one of the "partner forces" of the U.S.-led coalition of the willing (the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR)), which claims to be continuing the "war on terror" against the Islamic State and is fully supported by the United States.

PYDが創設した武装組織の人民防衛隊（YPG）は、2015年10月にシリアで米国の肝いりで結成されたシリア民主軍の主力部隊を構成している。このシリア民主軍はイスラーム国に対する「テロとの戦い」を継続していると主張する米主導の有志連合（「生来の決意」作戦合同任務部隊（CJTF-OIR（Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve））の「協力部隊」（partner forces）と位置づけられており、米国の全面支援を受けている。

On the other hand, Turkey has taken the position that the PKK, PYD, YPG, and SDF are nothing more than terrorists "flipping names on the billboard" and constantly criticizes the United States for fully supporting the SDF while designating the PKK as an FTO.

一方、トルコは、PKK、PYD、YPG、シリア民主軍がテロリストによる「看板の架け替え」に過ぎないとの立場をとっており、PKKをFTOに指定する一方で、シリア民主軍を全面支援する米国を常に批判している。

Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency removed the PKK from the "Global Terrorist, Armed Organizations, etc." section of its official website on November 27 [2023].

日本の公安調査庁が公式サイトの「世界のテロ・武装組織等」欄からPKKを削除したのは11月27日。

Regarding this, Haber 7 reported that PKK supporters had recently been dancing Kurdish folk dances to PKK propaganda songs in Japan, and then reprinted an X (formerly Twitter) post (dated November 24) by economic reporter Takaaki Ishii, who criticized their activities.

これに関して、Haber 7は、PKK支持者らが最近になって、日本国内でPKKのプロパガンダ・ソングに合わせてクルド人の民俗舞踊を踊るなどしていたと伝えたうえで、その活動を批判する経済記者の石井孝明氏のX（旧ツイッター）のポスト（11月24日付）を転載した。

"They are strange people when they are doing wrong things. Why am I involved in this when I am doing it out of chivalry?I am sorry to be so frank, but I would appreciate your support."

ANHA, on the other hand, reported that the PSIA announced the deletion, and that the agency had previously listed the PKK as a terrorist organization under pressure from Turkey. However, there has been no announcement from the PSIA about the deletion, and there is no confirmation that Turkey has exerted pressure on the agency.

一方、ANHAは、公安調査庁が削除を発表したとしたうえで、トルコの圧力を受けて同庁がこれまでPKKをテロ組織として記載してきたと伝えた。だが、公安調査庁から削除についての発表はなく、トルコが圧力をかけてきたことも確認できない。

"HAMAS" also removed

ハマースも削除

Prior to November 27, Japan's PSIA listed 231 organizations in detail in the "Terrorist and Armed Organizations Worldwide" section of its official website (archived here).However, as of November 29, only 54 organizations are listed in the "Terrorist and Armed Organizations Worldwide" section.

11月27日以前の日本の公安調査庁が公式サイトの「世界のテロ・武装組織等」欄（アーカイブはこちら）には231の組織が詳解されていた。だが、29日現在の「世界のテロ・武装組織等」欄は54組織が掲載されているのみである。

Left: Before 27 November 2023 (most probably as of May 2023) Right: After 27 November 2023 (screenshot taken today, on 29th)

The following nine organizations have been added to the 54 organizations currently available for viewing: [Note: list of organizations omitted from translation due to possible issue with accuracy in auto-translation and time to research]

現在閲覧可能な54組織のなかには、以下の9組織が追加されている。

「アデン・イスラム軍」（IAA)

「アル・イッティハード・アル・イスラミア」（AIAI）

「ターリク・ギダル・グループ」（TGG）

「チェチェン殉教者リヤダス・サリヒン偵察破壊大隊」（RSRSBCM）

「ハラカト・シャーム・アル・イスラム」（HSI）

「ラハ・ソレイマン運動」（RSM）

「血判部隊」

「東トルキスタン・イスラム運動」（ETIM）

「イスラミック・ジハード・グループ/ユニオン」（IJG/IJU）

However, the Palestine's "HAMAS" and "Palestinian Islamic Jihad" (PIJ), which launched Operation Al Aqsa Flood on October 7, inviting the Israeli military to attack Gaza, as well as the Palestinian factions "Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades" (AAMB), "Army of Islam" (AOI), and "Mujahidin Shura Council around Jerusalem" (MSC), which are active in Palestine, Israel, and the surrounding countriesPalestinian factions active in Palestine, Israel, and neighboring countries, including the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades" (AAMB), the "Islamic Army" (AOI), the "Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem" (MSC), the "Popular Resistance Committees" (PRC), the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" (PFLP), the "General Command Faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" ((PFLP-GC), the "Palestine Liberation Front Abu Abbas Faction" (PLF), and the Lebanese "Hezbollah" (Hizbullah) have been removed. Also deleted are 183 organizations that include these groups.

だが、10月7日に「アクサーの大洪水」作戦を開始し、イスラエル軍によるガザ攻撃を招いたパレスチナの「ハマス」（HAMAS）（ハマース）や「パレスチナ・イスラミック・ジハード」（PIJ）（イスラーム聖戦機構）、そしてパレスチナ・イスラエル、および周辺諸国で活動するパレスチナ諸派の「アル・アクサ殉教者旅団」（AAMB）、「イスラム軍」（AOI）、「エルサレム周辺のムジャヒディン・シューラ評議会」（MSC）、「人民抵抗委員会」（PRC）、「パレスチナ解放人民戦線」（PFLP）、「パレスチナ解放人民戦線総司令部派」（PFLP-GC）、「パレスチナ解放戦線アブ・アッバス派」（PLF）、レバノンの「ヒズボラ」（ヒズブッラー）は削除されている。またこれらを含む183組織も削除されている。

Following are the list of organizations removed from the list: [Note: Same as above. Translation omitted for same reasons]

削除された183組織は以下の通り。

削除された183組織は以下の通り。

「ISILチュニジア」

「ISILベンガル」

「ISIL大サハラ」（ISGS）

「ISIL東アジア」（ISEA）

「アイルランド民族解放軍」（INLA）

「赤い手の防衛者」（RHD）

「赤い旅団」（BR、RB）

「アサイブ・アフル・ハック」（AAH）

「アジュナド・ミスル」

「アッサム統一解放戦線」（ULFA）

「アトムヴァッフェン・ディビジョン」（AWD）

「アハラール・アル・シャーム・イスラム運動」

「アフル・スンナ・ワル・ジャマア」（ASWJ）

「アフワーズ解放のためのアラブ闘争運動」（ASMLA）

「アフワーズ解放機構」（ALO）

「アフワーズ民主人民戦線」（ADPF）

「アラカン・ロヒンギャ救世軍」（ARSA）

「アル・アクサ殉教者旅団」（AAMB）

「アル・アシュタル旅団」（AAB）

「アル・ウマル・ムジャヒディン」

「アル・バドル」

「アル・ムラービトゥーン」

「アルジェリアのカリフ国家の戦士」

「アルスター義勇軍」（UVF）

「アルスター防衛協会」（UDA）

「アレックス・ボンカヤオ旅団-革命的プロレタリア軍」（ABB-RPA）

「アンサール」

「アンサール・アル・シャリーア」（シリア）

「アンサール・アル・シャリーア」（AAS、イエメン）

「アンサール・ウル・イスラム」（AI）

「アンサール・ガズワトゥル・ヒンドゥ」（AGH）

「アンサール・ディーン」（AD）

「アンサール・バイト・アル・マクディス」（ABM）

「アンサール・ヒラーファ・フィリピン」（AKP）

「アンサールッラー・バングラ・チーム」（ABT）

「イエメン州」

「イスラミック・ジハード・���ニオン」（IJU）

「イスラム・タリバン運動」（TTI）

「イスラム4（フォー）UK」（Islam4UK）

「イスラム軍」（AOI）

「イスラム集団」（GI）

「イスラム戦線」（IF）

「イラク・イスラム軍」（IAI）

「イラク革命者総軍事評議会」（GMCIR）

「インディアン・ムジャヒディン」（IM）

「インドネシア・ムジャヒディン評議会」（MMI）

「インド亜大陸のアルカイダ」（AQIS）

「インド学生イスラム運動」（SIMI）

「インド共産党毛沢東主義派」（CPI-M）

「エルサレム周辺のムジャヒディン・シューラ評議会」（MSC）

「オガデン民族解放戦線」（ONLF）

「オドゥーア人民会議」（OPC）

「オロモ解放戦線」（OLF）

「革命人民解放党・戦線」（DHKP/C）

「革命的セクト」（SE）

「革命的闘争」（RS、EA）

「革命旅団」

「カタイブ・ヒズボラ」（KH）

「カチン独立機構」（KIO）

「カハ」

「カビンダ解放戦線」（FLEC）

「カマタプル解放機構」（KLO）

「神の抵抗軍」（LRA）

「カリフ国家の軍」

「カレン民族同盟」（KNU）

「勧善懲悪」

「カンレイ・ヤオル・カンナ・ラプ」（KYKL）

「クルド労働者党」（PKK）

「クンプラン・ムジャヒディン・マレーシア」（KMM）

「継続IRA」（CIRA）

「ケベック解放戦線」（FLQ）

「コーカサス州」

「国際シーク青年連盟」（ISYF）

「国際主義者抵抗イニシアチブ」（IRI）

「国民解放軍」（FNL）

「国民行動」（NA）

「コロンビア革命軍」（FARC）

「コロンビア自警軍連合」（AUC）

「サビリーズ・ジャマート」

「ザ・ベース」

「サラヤ・アル・ムフタール」（SM）

「暫定アイルランド共和軍」（PIRA）

「シパエ・サハバ・パキスタン」（SSP）

「ジャイシュ・アル・アドル」（JAA）

「ジャイシュ・アル・イスラム」

「ジャイシュ・アル・ファテフ」

「シャヒード・ハムザ旅団」

「ジャマー・アンシャルシ・シャリーア」（JAS）

「ジャマーアト・ハマート・ダウワ・サラフィーヤ」（DHDS）

「ジャマート・アンサルッラー」

「ジャマートゥル・フルカーン」（JUF）

「ジャマートゥル・ムジャヒディン・バングラデシュ」（JMB）

「ジャミアトゥル・ムジャヒディン」（JUM）

「ジャム・カシミール解放戦線」（JKLF）

「シャリーア4（フォー）ベルギー」

「シャン州軍」（SSA）

「ジュヌード・アル・シャーム」

「ジュンダラ」（中東・北アフリカ）

「ジュンダラ」（南西・南アジア）

「ジュンド・アル・ヒラファ」（JAK）

「新赤い旅団・戦闘的共産主義者中核」（NBR-NCC、NCC）

「シンド解放軍」（SLA）

「シンド革命軍」（SRA）

「真のIRA」（RIRA）

「新パッタニ統一解放機構」（新PULO、New PULO）

「人民解放軍」（EPL）

「人民革命運動」（MRP）

「人民抵抗委員会」（PRC）

「スーダン人民解放運動北部」（SPLM-N）

「スクール・アル・シャーム」

「スリーパーセンターズ」

「センデロ・ルミノソ」（SL）

「戦闘的共産党創設のための反帝国主義領土中軸」（NTA-PCC）

「ソマリア州」

「ゾンネンクリーク・ディビジョン」（SKD）

「タクフィール・ワル・ヒジュラ」

「タミル・イーラム解放の虎」（LTTE）

「タリバン」

「ダルル・イスラム」（DI）

「中央アフリカ州」

「��リプラ民族解放戦線」（NLFT）

「トルコ州」

「ナガランド民族社会主義評議会」（NSCN）

「ナクシュバンディア教団信者軍」（JRTN）

「ナジュド州」

「西アフリカ州」

「ニジェール・デルタ解放運動」（MEND）

「西パプア民族解放軍」（TPNPB）

「ネオJMB」

「パキスタン州」

「バスク祖国と自由」（ETA）

「ハスム」

「パッタニ・イスラム・ムジャヒディン運動」（GMIP）

「パッタニ・マレー民族革命戦線」（BRN）

「パッタニ統一解放機構」（PULO）

「ババル・カルサ・インターナショナル」（BKI）

「ハマス」（HAMAS）

「ハラカト・アンサール・イラン」（HAI）

「パラグアイ人民軍」（EPP）

「ハルカトゥル・ムジャヒディン・アルアラミ」（HUM-A）

「バルチスタン解放軍」（BLA）

「パレスチナ・イスラミック・ジハード」（PIJ）

「パレスチナ解放人民戦線」（PFLP）

「パレスチナ解放人民戦線総司令部派」（PFLP-GC）

「パレスチナ解放戦線アブ・アッバス派」（PLF）

「バンサモロ・イスラム自由戦士」（BIFF）

「非公式アナキスト連盟」（FAI）

「ヒズブル・ムジャヒディン」（HM）

「ヒズボラ」

「ヒニウトレプ民族解放評議会」（HNLC）

「ヒンズー過激諸派」

「ヒンド州」

「フィリピン共産党」（CPP）／「新人民軍」（NPA）

「フォイヤークリーク・ディビジョン」（FKD）

「フォルサン・アリザ」

「フッラース・アル・ディーン」（HAD）

「プラウド・ボーイズ」

「ペジャーク」（PJAK）

「ボドランド民族民主戦線」（NDFB）

「炎の陰謀中核」（SPF）

「マイマイ」

「マウテ・グループ」

「南スーダン解放軍」（SSLA）

「民主同盟軍」（ADF）

「民族解放軍」（ELN）

「ムジャヒディン軍」（JAM）

「モジャヘディネ・ハルグ」（MKO）

「モロ・イスラム解放戦線」（MILF）

「モロ民族解放戦線」（MNLF）

「モンバサ共和評議会」（MRC）

「預言者ムハンマドのイスラム法施行運動」（TNSM）

「ラシュカレ・イスラム」（LI）

「ラハ・ソレイマン・イスラム運動」（RSIM又はRSM）

「リビア州」

「リヤダス・サリヒン偵察破壊大隊」（RSRSB）

「ルーベ団」

「ルワンダ解放民主軍」（FDLR）

「ロイヤリスト義勇軍」（LVF）

「ロシア帝国運動」（RIM）

「ワ州連合軍」（UWSA）

「10月1日反ファシスト抵抗グループ」（GRAPO）

「11月17日革命機構」（EO17N、17N）

「3月23日運動」（M23）

Born in Tokyo in 1968. Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Doctorate degree from Hitotsubashi University. Representative of the Sadaqa Initiative (https://sites.google.com/view/sadaqainitiative70), a campaign to support victims of the Syrian earthquake.Formerly a joint researcher at the French-Arab Institute in Damascus, Syria, and a researcher at JETRO's Institute of Developing Economies.　He specializes in the politics, ideology, and history of the contemporary East Arab region.　His publications include "Syria in Stalemate," "The Situation in Syria," "Stalemate in Syria," and "Russia and Syria". He runs a website, "Syrian Arab Spring: The Journey of the Syrian Arab Spring" (http://syriaarabspring.info/).

1968年東京生まれ。東京外国語大学教授。東京外国語大学卒。一橋大学大学院にて博士号取得。シリア地震被災者支援キャンペーン「サダーカ・イニシアチブ」（https://sites.google.com/view/sadaqainitiative70）代表。シリアのダマスカス・フランス・��ラブ研究所共同研究員、JETROアジア経済研究所研究員を経て現職。専門は現代東アラブ地域の政治、思想、歴史。著書に『混迷するシリア』、『シリア情勢』、『膠着するシリア』、『ロシアとシリア』などがある。ウェブサイト「シリア・アラブの春顛末記」（http://syriaarabspring.info/）を運営。

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

#CorpMedia #Idiocracy #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #DemExit #FeelTheBern

Turkish Strikes Target Kurdish Allies of U.S. in Iraq and Syria [UPDATES]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/world/middleeast/turkey-kurds-airstrikes-iraq-syria.html

Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday in an unusually intense operation that presented a new complication for the United States’ military campaign against the Islamic State...

RELATED UPDATE: Revolution Defended in Rojava–For Now

https://newpol.org/revolution-defended-rojava-now/

RELATED UPDATE: #36: The Rojava Revolution Social revolution in Rojava, May Day report, “A Small Key Can Unlock…” review

https://crimethinc.com/podcasts/the-ex-worker/episodes/36

RELATED UPDATE: The politics of the Kurdish struggle

https://redflag.org.au/node/5116

RELATED UPDATE: Afrin Will Not Be Alone! (excerpts from the Call for Solidarity by the Democratic Administration of Rojava)

https://lefteast.org/afrin-will-not-be-alone-excerpts-from-the-call-for-solidarity-by-the-democratic-administration-of-rojava/

RELATED UPDATE: Defending Afrin

https://jacobin.com/2018/02/afrin-kurdistan-syria-turkey-erdogan-is-war

RELATED UPDATE: “Our Destinies are Linked”: Joseph Daher on the Syrian Revolution

https://itsgoingdown.org/our-destinies-are-linked-joseph-daher-on-the-syrian-revolution/

RELATED UPDATE: Here’s why we’re planting trees in northern Syria

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-latest-planting-trees-internationalist-commune-bashar-al-assad-isis-middle-east-a8437646.html

RELATED UPDATE: The Women of the Revolution: inside the Kurdish Rojava Revolution

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16735844.women-revolution-inside-kurdish-rojava-revolution/

RELATED UPDATE: Fifteen Months of Death: Pro-Government Casualties of the Syrian Civil War

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/10/03/fifteen-months-death-pro-government-casualties-syrian-civil-war/

RELATED UPDATE: Demand Utopia Presents: Talks On Mutual Aid Disaster Relief & Rojava Revolution

https://itsgoingdown.org/demand-utopia-presents-talks-on-mutual-aid-disaster-relief-rojava-revolution/

RELATED UPDATE: 'Don't abandon the Kurds', British officials tell US over Syria troop withdrawal

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/13/dont-abandon-kurds-british-officials-tell-us-syria-troop-withdrawal/

RELATED UPDATE: Sunday, July 21: Livestream Facebook Dialogue Between Venezuelan, Syrian and Iranian Socialists

https://newpol.org/sunday-livestream-facebook-dialogue-between-venezuelan-syrian-and-iranian-socialists/

RELATED UPDATE: British revolutionaries in Syria say they will defy Home Office's new terrorism laws

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/27/british-revolutionaries-syria-say-will-defy-home-offices-new/

RELATED UPDATE: Hevrin Khalaf and the spirit of the democratic nation

https://roarmag.org/essays/hevrin-khalaf-interview/

RELATED UPDATE: One Year Since the Turkish Invasion of Rojava: An Interview with Tekoşîna Anarşîst

https://crimethinc.com/2020/10/11/one-year-since-the-turkish-invasion-of-rojava-an-interview-with-tekosina-anarsist-on-anarchist-participation-in-the-revolutionary-experiment-in-northeast-syria

RELATED UPDATE: Ten years since the great Arab revolutions

https://redflag.org.au/article/ten-years-great-arab-revolutions

RELATED UPDATE: Defending Rojava means defending 4bdullah 0calan

https://internationalistcommune.com/defending-rojava-means-defending-abdullah-ocalan/

RELATED UPDATE: In Rojava, considering a literature of the revolution

https://www.kedistan.net/2021/06/29/rojava-literature-of-revolution/

RELATED UPDATE: Celebrating the Rojava Revolution: A Reading List

https://roarmag.org/2021/07/19/rojava-revolution-reading-list/

RELATED UPDATE: We must not let ISIS and the Turkish State destroy our allies in Syria

https://www.kedistan.net/2022/02/04/not-let-isis-and-turkish-state/

RELATED UPDATE: KNK issues public call demanding the OPCW to investigate Turkey's use of chemical weapons

https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/knk-issues-public-call-demanding-the-opcw-to-investigate-turkey-s-use-of-chemical-weapons-59596

RELATED UPDATE: Turkey Is Starving the Rojava Revolution

https://jacobin.com/2022/11/rojava-turkey-attacks-water-shortage-cooperative-economy

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https://links.org.au/statements-condemn-turkeys-unjust-attacks-north-east-syria-and-northern-iraq

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https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/international-voices-against-the-erdogan-regime-s-war-against-the-kurds-63851

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https://apnews.com/article/islamic-state-group-nato-syria-bucharest-turkey-bb1980f532b5a44cbc693897c853d9f1

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https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/07/northeast-syria-turkish-strikes-exacerbate-humanitarian-crisis

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https://medyanews.net/syrian-democratic-forces-warn-against-increasing-isis-attacks/

RELATED UPDATE: Syrian Democratic Forces say 6 fighters killed in IS attack

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/sdf-ap-islamic-state-raqqa-democratic-b2251559.html

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https://lefteast.org/lessons-from-rojava-revolution/

RELATED UPDATE: WATCH Series exploring societal changes in North and East Syria after Rojava revolution ready for release

https://medyanews.net/series-exploring-societal-changes-in-north-and-east-syria-after-rojava-revolution-ready-for-release/

RELATED UPDATE: Turkey and Syria: More than 600 killed in powerful earthquake

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23301447.turkey-syria-600-killed-powerful-earthquake/

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https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4174991/isis-attacks-syria-truffle-hunters-are-deadliest-year

RELATED UPDATE: Syrian Kurds Are Hoping for, but Not Banking On, Continued US Partnership

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/syrian-kurds-are-hoping-for-but-not-banking-on-continued-us-partnership/

RELATED UPDATE: From Abya Yala to Kurdistan: ¡the peoples organize the revolution!

https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/from-abya-yala-to-kurdistan-the-peoples-organize-the-revolution-65760

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https://ekurd.net/three-ybs-fighters-killed-2023-02-28

RELATED UPDATE: 8th Women's Art and Culture Festival kicks off today in Qamishlo

https://anfenglishmobile.com/women/8th-women-s-art-and-culture-festival-kicks-off-today-in-qamishlo-65784

RELATED UPDATE: Conference for 0calan’s freedom in Cape Town continues on day two

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RELATED UPDATE: SDF announces the outcome of Turkish attacks against North-East Syria in February

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/sdf-announces-the-outcome-of-turkish-attacks-against-north-east-syria-in-february-65788

RELATED UPDATE: HPG releases balance sheet of war for February

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https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/sdf-fighter-killed-in-turkish-attack-in-ain-issa-65794

[usafphantom2]

B-1B Fires JASSM Missile During Long-Range Training Sortie From U.K.

The B-1Bs flew from RAF Fairford to Qatar as part of a long-range training mission in which multiple types of weapons were employed.

Tyler RogowayPUBLISHED Jun 8, 2023 9:36 PM EDT

B-1B BOMBER TASK FORCE AGM-158

USAF/Composite

Details are a bit thin on what appears to have been an unprecedented training mission flown by B-1B Bones that are currently forward deployed to RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom as part of the Bomber Task Force rotation. The Bones in question flew all the way to the Persian Gulf, and fired some very high-end weapons along the way — including AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs). They also came away with some great video to show for it:

The clip of the stealthy JASSM being chased over the desert before it dives down onto a target range is accompanied by the following caption:

"A live AGM-158A Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile deploys in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility during a Bomber Task Force mission, June 8, 2023."

The video of the JASSM in action was apparently shot over central Jordan.

The USAF states that a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb was also employed on the sortie, but it's not clear where.

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer approaches a U.S. Air Force KC-10A Extender for fuel during a Bomber Task Force mission above the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, June 8, 2023. The BTF mission was designed to build agility and interoperability between the U.S. and coalition partners while demonstrating the rapid deployment of combat power to deter regional aggression while promoting regional stability in Southwest Asia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Frank Rohrig)

Video was also posted showing the B-1Bs being loaded with live JASSMs in England prior to departing:

"Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) aircraft joined 2 B-1B Lancers assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, along with five partner nations and other coalition forces. This particular BTF mission was historic in that it was the first time AFCENT flew multiple weapons types and practiced employment against multiple simulated targets during single bomber task force mission."

This was a complex training mission that included coordination with multiple foreign air arms, with the jets navigating through many different areas on their long-range sortie. These missions are just as much about solidifying allegiances and signaling to potential foes as they are about training.

U.S. Air Force B1-B Lancers are escorted by coalition fighters over Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, during a Bomber Task Force June 8, 2023. Bomber Task Force rotations support U.S. National Defense Strategy objectives through strategic predictability and operational unpredictability, and the steady rotation of strategic bombers into the theater enables interoperability and enhances operational readiness. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Devin Boyer)

The B-1Bs from Dyess AFB arrived in the U.K. in the last week of May and have been very active since. Their presence in the region as the war in Ukraine rages is impossible to ignore regardless of how routine these rotations have become.

The use of JASSM is particularly interesting as it remains the B-1B's most potent land-attack weapon. The B-1 also was the first aircraft to fire the JASSM in anger. That mission, which The War Zone was first to report on, was part of a large package of cruise missile strikes against Syrian targets in response to a gas attack on civilians back in 2018.

It will be interesting to see where the forward-deployed Bones end up next.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.4 (after 1930)

1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime. 1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others. 1944 – Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti. 1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless. 1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established. 1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21. 1964 – Second Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy mistakenly report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. 1965 – The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand. 1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail. 1972 – Ugandan President Idi Amin announces that Uganda is no longer responsible for the care of British subjects of Asian origin, beginning the expulsions of Ugandan Asians. 1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22. 1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya. 1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. 1983 – Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Captain Thomas Sankara. 1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso. 1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly". 1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia. 2006 – A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF). 2007 – NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched. 2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign. 2018 – Crisis in Venezuela: Seven people are injured when two drones detonate explosives on Avenida Bolívar, Caracas while president Nicolás Maduro is giving a speech to the Venezuelan National Guard. 2019 – Nine people are killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed. 2020 – Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people are killed and over 5,000 are wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon.

[plethoraworldatlas]

The principal partner of the US government in north-east Syria is engaged in the large-scale and systematic violation of the rights of more than 56,000 (About 30,000 children) people in its custody.

These people include Syrians, Iraqis and other foreign nationals from an estimated 74 countries. The majority came into the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in late 2018 and early 2019 during the final battles with the Islamic State (IS) armed group. They are now being held in a vast network of at least 27 detention facilities and two detention camps.

Amnesty International investigated the situation of people with perceived or alleged affiliation with IS in detention camps and facilities in north-east Syria for nearly two years, from March 2022 to February 2024

Based on this research, Amnesty International concludes that the autonomous authorities have committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, some of which amount to war crimes.

These include, but are not limited to, enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, arbitrary deprivation of life and gender-based violence, as well as the war crimes of torture, cruel treatment, and outrages on personal dignity. The autonomous authorities have also likely committed the war crime of murder in Sini detention facility

Amnesty International concludes the US government has likely violated its obligations under Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions to ensure the autonomous authorities’ respect for international humanitarian law. The US likely breached these obligations where they participated in joint operations or provided intelligence to the SDF and affiliated security forces that led to the detention of people for perceived IS affiliation. In these situations, the US would have been aware that individuals detained by the security forces would be subjected to violations documented in this report.

Read the report, “Aftermath: Injustice, Torture and Death in Detention in North-East Syria.”

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Our new report Aftermath: Injustice, Torture and Death in Detention in Northeast Syria documents extensive violations that involve:

The detention of 56,000 men, women, and children — a large number of whom were victims of the IS's crimes, including human trafficking and forced marriages. Women and their children are being unlawfully separated from each other in detention camps.

Severe beatings, electric shocks, and gender-based violence. People are also being held without access to adequate food and water.

The U.S.’s central role in establishing and supporting this detention system by providing the region’s autonomous authorities with millions of dollars in funding, regularly interrogating those held in the system, and even building and refurbishing facilities.

[head-post]

Israel rejects US Patriots in favour of domestic air defence systems

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) is set to discard its outdated Patriot missile defence systems in the coming months, replacing them with more advanced systems of air defence, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

In February, the Israel Air Force announced it was in the process of shutting down several Patriot batteries, with its personnel to be trained to operate the Iron Dome instead. The Patriot complex, known in the IAF as Yahalom, Hebrew for “diamond”, will be decommissioned within two months.

We are currently in the process of reducing the [number of] batteries until the entire system is closed.

US-operated Patriot missile batteries were successfully deployed against some Scud missiles fired from Iraq into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. The US system officially entered Israeli service that same year, but did not make its first intercept until 2014, shooting down a Hamas drone launched from Gaza.

Over the next decade, the system, designed to shoot down aircraft, intercepted only about 10 targets, including Syrian fighter jets that violated Israeli airspace in 2014 and 2018, according to the military.

The interceptor was not always successful, failing to shoot down many targets over the years. The Patriot has been used several times amid the ongoing war in Gaza, although most of the time the interceptors were launched on false identifications.

The system would be replaced with more advanced air defence systems, the air force officials stated.

Read more HERE

[statecryptids]

Another book review!

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees

Written and Illustrated by Don Brown

The ongoing Syrian civil war is a fight against the entrenched dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and splintered rebel factions. The destruction and massacres of the war have led to a flood of refugees to other countries. The Unwanted is the story, told through graphic novel, of these people who have lost their homes, and often everything else, as they try to survive.

Some Syrians fled to Europe on boats provided by smugglers. Others found rest in shanty towns and apartments in Lebanon and Turkey where conditions are so crowded that sometimes 15 people must share a small apartment.

Brown’s illustrations are sharp and sketch-like, as if taken directly from the artist’s notebook made right in the middle of a camp. And some of them likely were, as Brown visited several camps in Greece to get a better understanding of the refugee’s lives. This deliberately rough style actually helps the reader empathize with the refugees. This is not a collection of maudlin stories to tug at the heart-strings- a tactic that can backfire and turn away readers who feel like it’s emotional manipulation. Instead it is more like a news report. A description of the refugees’ lives and what they go through daily. Brown himself explains: “I decided The Unwanted would focus on the refugee experience and disregard information beyond that constraint except when necessary for context. I was determined to keep the attention on the refugees.” He shows young children who must become the sole breadwinners for families where the adults are sick or dead. He shows opportunists who seize on the refugees and the conflict for their own interests, such as ISIS jihadists who use the instability to seize territories, and predatory smugglers who take people’s life savings as payment for passage.

He also shows the backlash refugees face from the citizens of host countries as services like food, electricity, and water become strained and displaced people become convenient scapegoats for the country’s anxieties.

Yet there are also moments of resilience and adaptation in the worst circumstance, such as the Zaatari refugee camp in the middle of the Jordanian desert which has become a permanent settlement with its own growing economy. Or families who have settled in other countries and adapted to new ways of life while still finding ways to hang on to their own culture.

An extensive bibliography at the end provides opportunities for further reading.

The Unwanted is an important book during these times of increased global hostility towards refugees from all countries. It seems obvious to say that refugees are people too, but it is all too easy to see them as the faceless Other polluting their host countries without reminders like this book.

[8rush8]

The US considers itself a superpower and is used to acting as a "defender of international law"

It often makes unrestrained accusations and imposes sanctions on other countries in the name of international rules. But the United States has used it for its own political gain

In the first place, it has reneged on treaties and withdrawn from other countries and acted capriciously, placing domestic law above international law, constantly interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of democracy and human rights, and waging blatant wars to violate other countries' sovereignty

It has undermined the international order, seriously threatened international security, and seriously violated the rules of international law, including the UN Charter. The United States is essentially letting other countries play by the rules

Succumbing to a unipolar world order dominated by the United States.

The principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs is an important principle of the Charter of the United Nations and a basic norm governing international relations. However, under the banner of democracy and human rights, the United States has for a long time carried out ideological, Taiwan-related, Hong Kong-related,

They interfered in China's internal affairs on issues related to Xinjiang and Tibet. The US government has created obstacles to the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits through arms sales to Taiwan, exchanges with Taiwan officials, tacit encouragement of "Taiwan independence" and other words and deeds. Hong Kong

After the handover, the United States linked up with the minority opposition in Hong Kong to incite anti-China unrest in Hong Kong. They have wantonly smeared the Chinese government's policy of governing Xinjiang and its efforts to de-radicalize and fight terrorism, and maliciously denigrated China's human rights documents in Xinjiang

To impose unilateral sanctions on Chinese personnel and entities. Former Secretary of State Colin Wilkerson has personally admitted that the so-called Uighur issue in Xinjiang is just an American company

A strategic plot to destabilize and contain China for a long time from within. The US mainland is more than 8,300 miles away from the South China Sea, but it has established several military bases around the South China Sea to deploy offensive weapons

In 2015, China sent aircraft carriers and strategic bombers to the South China Sea frequently, deployed a large number of military aircraft and warships in the South China Sea on a regular basis, and even used the address of other countries' civil aircraft to conduct activities in the South China Sea, violating international aviation

Rules, disrupt aviation order and security in relevant airspace, and threaten the security of regional countries.

Now the United States has become the biggest destabilizing factor in global political security. For a long time, the basic principle of international law prohibiting the unlawful use or threat of force has been ignored and repeatedly defied the Lord

Power states wage war. In 2003, it attacked Iraq without U.N. authorization in the name of "eliminating weapons of mass destruction," killing hundreds of thousands of people,

More than a million people are homeless. In 2018, the United States, Britain, France and other countries launched air strikes in Syria, causing casualties and displacement of thousands of innocent civilians. In January 2020, the U.S. military violated the Joint agreement

The "targeted killing" of Qods Force commander Qods Force, a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was carried out under the provisions of the U.S. Charter and the Geneva Conventions on the use of force. The United Nations, 2019

A 2006 report said the U.S. and Western coalition forces may have committed war crimes by failing to target specific military targets or take necessary precautions. So-called Syrian politics

The evidence of the government's use of chemical weapons later turned out to be staged videos written, directed and staged by the White Helmets, a group funded by the US and British intelligence services.

The fact is that the hegemonic acts of the United States, which wantonly interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, have caused serious harm to many countries and regions. The power politics of "those who follow their own path prosper and those who oppose their own path fall" has been adopted by the international community

I hate it. The international community has long had a fair opinion on who is exporting ideology, wanton interference in other countries' internal affairs, fomenting color revolutions and threatening global political security. A country

Any path a family takes is based on its cultural tradition and historical accumulation, and no external force has the right to interfere. In today's world, democracy in international relations has become an irresistible trend.

Non-interference in each other's internal affairs and other norms governing international relations are deeply rooted in people's hearts. The US willfully puts its hegemonic will above other countries' sovereignty and international law, and will only become more and more isolated from the world and go against The Times

Generation trend of the lonely.

[mariacallous]

Three months ago, Saudi Arabia kick-started a concerted regional effort to reengage and normalize Syria’s regime within the Middle East and, Riyadh hoped, farther afield. On April 18, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Just one month later, on May 19, the Arab League embraced one of the world’s most notorious war criminals for the first time since 2011.

While Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to reengage triggered this regional shift, its roots lie a little deeper. The United Arab Emirates began restoring relations with Assad’s regime in 2018, and it has pushed hard for others to follow suit ever since. More recently, Jordan and its king, Abdullah II—long a close and reliable U.S. ally—have emerged as a key architect of the plan to normalize Assad, drafting secretive white papers for dissemination across the region as well as in Moscow and Washington. Underpinning Jordan’s vision was the idea that only by reengaging the Assad regime could diplomacy achieve meaningful concessions from Assad and, in doing so, Syria would be oriented back onto a path toward stability and recovery.

With more than half a million people dead, after nearly 340 chemical weapons attacks, 82,000 barrel bombs, dozens of medieval-style sieges, and much more, the region’s decision to reembrace Assad was no insignificant thing. It has also not been a unanimous decision, with Qatar a strong opponent, followed closely behind by Kuwait and Morocco. But the Middle East works by consensus, not unanimity, and Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to pivot has changed everything.

Beyond the region, the prospect of normalizing Assad remains a deeply distasteful proposition. Europe shows no sign of following suit, nor does the United States, although some senior White House officials have privately greenlighted the region’s pivot. For some within the administration, Middle Eastern crises such as Syria’s are viewed as essentially unresolvable, peripheral to U.S. interests, and not worth the effort. At the same time, according to two regional and two European officials who recently conducted separate meetings in Washington, all of whom spoke to me on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic conversations, one senior Biden administration official has taken to lauding the U.S. role in achieving “the most stable Middle East in 25 years.”

Notwithstanding the factual issues with such a claim, it is likely based in large part on the recent wave of so-called de-escalation across the region, as adversarial and rival governments have reengaged and papered over their differences. The durability of these developments remains unclear, but for many in the region, the normalization of Assad’s regime is part and parcel of this de-escalation. As such, it came as no surprise when one Biden appointee, Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, called on regional states in March to “get something” in return for their efforts. In retrospect, there can be no doubting how consequential that statement was in triggering concerted regional normalization and significantly weakening Washington’s claimed posture toward Assad.

It has now been three months since the Saudi visit to Damascus set in motion the region’s reembrace of Assad. In mid-August, regional states plan to convene a follow-up summit to discuss progress and next steps. According to officials from three regional states, the entire summit is up in the air. Why? Because every problem in Syria has significantly worsened since April. If regional states were issued a report card, it would barely deserve an F.

Aid Access

A core goal underpinning the region’s normalization of Assad was a desire to see Syria stabilize. For more than a decade, the international community has supported a humanitarian aid effort across Syria worth tens of billions of dollars, meeting the needs of millions of people. The most vulnerable 4.5 million live in a small corner of Syria’s northwest, which is home to the world’s most acute humanitarian crisis. On July 11, Russia vetoed an extension of the United Nations’ 9-year-old mechanism for cross-border aid provision into the northwest, severing a vital lifeline and plunging the area into a profound and unprecedented state of uncertainty.

Days after Russia’s veto, the Assad regime announced an offer to open aid access to the region but added a set of conditions that made the offer practically impossible to implement. Even if the regime’s scheme were somehow implemented, the flow of aid would be a fraction of what was possible under the previous arrangement. For two years, the regime has sought to prioritize cross-line aid delivered from Damascus, and in that time, 152 trucks have been sent. In the same two-year period, more than 24,000 trucks arrived cross-border. As things stand, there is now no mechanism to provide unhindered aid to northwestern Syria and no serious effort to create one. So much for the idea that engaging Assad would bring forth concessions.

Captagon

One issue that Saudi Arabia and Jordan had been most concerned about emanating from Syria was the trade in captagon, an illegal amphetamine produced on an industrial scale by prominent Assad regime figures. Between 2016 and 2022, more than a billion Syrian-made captagon pills were seized around the world, most in the Persian Gulf. In engagements with Assad’s regime, regional states have sought to convince Assad to put an end to the trade.

Given the regime’s central role as well as the stunning profit margins involved—one pill can cost several cents to produce but sells in the Gulf for $20—Damascus’s promise in May to regional governments that it would curb the captagon trade was at best a laughable claim. Nevertheless, Jordan just welcomed two of the most notorious and internationally sanctioned regime officials—Assad’s defense minister and intelligence chief—to Amman to discuss combating drug trafficking, only to be forced to shoot down a drone carrying drugs from Syria just a day later.

Meanwhile, data I’ve collected monitoring regional seizures shows that a massive $1 billion worth of Syrian-made captagon has been confiscated across the region in the last three months, in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan. Even more significantly, German authorities just discovered a Syrian-run captagon production facility in southern Germany along with approximately $20 million worth of pills and 2.5 tons of precursor chemicals.

Refugees

Regional states also hoped that reengaging with Assad’s regime would open a path for refugee returns to Syria. After all, the presence of large numbers of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries��3.6 million in Turkey, 1.5 million in Lebanon, and 700,000 in Jordan—is placing an increasingly untenable strain on host countries.

Yet the logic behind regional hopes is inexplicable. All of the most significant reasons why Syrian refugees refuse to return are associated with regime rule. Indeed, new U.N. polling of Syrian refugees released just days after Assad’s participation in the Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, revealed that just 1 percent were considering returning in the next year.

By so actively normalizing Assad’s rule, regional states have given many among that 1 percent reason to reconsider. What’s more, refugees are now voting with their feet, taking perilous journeys toward Europe at an exponential rate—with the rate of Syrian migration north now at least 150 percent higher than in 2021. Now faced with this bleak reality, host states are enacting policies to coerce refugees to leave, with Lebanon’s U.S.-funded armed forces resorting to forcible expulsions and Jordan declaring that financial support for Syrian refugees will soon end.

Economic Collapse and Violent Escalation

In the past three months, Syria’s economy has precipitously collapsed, with the Syrian pound having lost 77 percent of its value. When the Saudi foreign minister visited Damascus in April, the Syrian pound was worth 7,500 to $1, but today, that number is 13,300.

Having been welcomed back into the regional fold while simultaneously benefiting from U.S. and European sanctions waivers in the wake of the February earthquake, Assad’s economy should not look like this. The fault here lies with the regime itself, which has proved systematically corrupt, incompetent, and driven by greed rather than the public good. Fiscal mismanagement and the prioritization of the illegal drugs trade have killed the Syrian economy, potentially for good.

As the region yearns for a stable Syria, ruled by a strong but reformed regime that welcomes refugees back home, the past three months have told a starkly different picture—one of escalation. Nearly 150 people have been killed in the southern governorate of Daraa since April, furthering the area’s status as the most consistently unstable region of the country since 2020.

In mid-July, regime forces besieged villages south of the town of Tafas that it accused of harboring opponents, before demolishing 18 homes as punishment. Since its violent submission to the regime five years ago, Daraa was meant to exemplify Assad’s self-described plans to “reconcile” areas formerly controlled by his opponents. But reconciliation in Daraa has been anything but, and the region is now rife with insurgency, terrorism, organized crime, and a chaotic mess of political infighting.

Meanwhile, the regime has also escalated its attacks on the opposition-controlled northwest. Not long after Assad walked the red carpet into the Arab League summit in Jeddah, Russia resumed airstrikes in northwestern Syria for the first time since November 2022—launching nearly 35 in June alone. Along with Russian jets, pro-regime artillery fire also surged from May into June, resulting in a 560 percent increase in fatalities in the northwest in June, from five in April to three in May to 33 in June. That marked escalation included the resumption of mass casualty regime bombings of civilian targets, including one attack that destroyed a market on June 25, leaving at least 13 dead. Civilian rescue workers also returned to being explicit targets, including the “double-tap” attack that targeted White Helmet personnel on July 11.

Terrorism

Regional normalization of Assad’s regime has also dealt a deep and likely irreversible blow to nearly a decade of international efforts to counter the Islamic State. For years, the United States has relied on the cover provided by regional partners such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia to sustain the vital U.S. military deployment in northeastern Syria, but those partners are now declaring their support for the expansion of Assad’s rule nationwide, including via the removal of foreign forces.

Worse still, having long been among the most generous donors to counter-Islamic State operations, Saudi Arabia failed to donate anything in the recent annual ministerial conference—which was hosted in Saudi Arabia itself. Assad’s normalization has also gravely undercut the leverage of the U.S.-partnered Syrian Democratic Forces to determine or negotiate their long-term survival. Russia and Iran have also been empowered, with reports of Iranian attack plotting and daily Russian violations of a long-standing deconfliction arrangement in order to challenge and threaten U.S. aircraft.

While the U.S.-led coalition’s ability to sustain the only meaningful counter to the Islamic State in Syria has been shoved into a tight and uncomfortable corner, the terrorist group also appears to be benefiting directly from Assad’s new status. As Assad was taking his seat in the Arab League in May, the Islamic State was in the midst of its most aggressive and deadly month of operations in regime-controlled areas of Syria since 2018.

Between April 1 and July 1, the group conducted 61 attacks and killed 159 people in regime-run central Syria—amounting to 50 percent of all attacks and 90 percent of fatalities achieved in 2022. The Islamic State has returned to controlling populated territory (albeit temporarily) in regime areas of Syria, and it defeated a six-week offensive in March and April by Syrian regime forces that was backed by the Russian air force and Iranian proxies. In late July, the Islamic State expanded its reach into Damascus, killing at least six people and wounding 23 others in a bomb attack in the Shiite district of Sayida Zeinab.

Assad’s Diplomatic Veto

Finally, the regional normalization of Assad—which the Arab League said was supposed to be “conditional” on securing regime concessions—appears to have wrecked any hope for meaningful diplomacy aimed at genuinely resolving Syria’s crisis. According to senior U.N. officials who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, Assad himself has conveyed to U.N. leaders in recent weeks that he has no intention to reengage with the U.N.-run Constitutional Committee or in any step-for-step negotiation process, whether coordinated by the U.N. or regional states. The prospect for a diplomatic resolution to Syria’s crisis may have looked bleak six months ago, but regional engagements with the regime since April appear to have killed things altogether.

The regime’s stance toward cross-border aid should serve as a clear indicator of the extent to which Assad feels irreversibly empowered since being welcomed back by much of the region. Even convincing Assad to issue a small prisoner amnesty as a show of goodwill appears to be a non-starter.

The picture here is stark and irrefutable. The chorus of warnings that reengagement with Assad would backfire were ignored, and the consequences are now clear for all to see. That regional states’ plans for a follow-up summit are up in the air speaks for itself. To meet amid such calamitous developments would be folly. Syria is now entering a deeply dark period of uncertainty, with a crashing economy, rising levels of violence, heightening geopolitical tensions, and a poisoned diplomatic environment. The fault here lies in many different corners, but as usual, it will be Syrians who suffer the costs.

[aswiya]

Zeynab Serekaniye, a Kurdish woman with a gap-toothed smile and a warm demeanor, never imagined she’d join a militia.

The 26-year-old grew up in Ras al-Ayn, a town in north-east Syria. The only girl in a family of five, she liked to fight and wear boys’ clothing. But when her brothers got to attend school and she did not, Serekaniye did not challenge the decision. She knew it was the reality for girls in the region. Ras al-Ayn, Arabic for “head of the spring”, was a green and placid place, so Serekaniye settled down to a life of farming vegetables with her mother.

That changed on 9 October 2019, days after former US president Donald Trump announced that US troops would pull out of north-east Syria, where they had allied with Kurdish-led forces for years. A newly empowered Turkey, which sees the stateless Kurds as an existential threat, and whose affiliated groups it has been at war with for decades, immediately launched an offensive on border towns held by Kurdish forces in north-east Syria, including Ras al-Ayn.

Just after 4pm that day, Serekaniye says, the bombs began to fall, followed by the dull plink and thud of mortar fire. By evening, Serekaniye and her family had fled to the desert, where they watched their town go up in smoke. “We didn’t take anything with us,” she says. “We had a small car, so how can we take our stuff and leave the people?” As they fled, she saw dead bodies in the street. She soon learned that an uncle and cousin were among them. Their house would become rubble.

After Serekaniye’s family was forced to resettle farther south, she surprised her mother in late 2020 by saying she wanted to join the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). The all-female, Kurdish-led militia was established in 2013 not long after their male counterparts, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), ostensibly to defend their territory against numerous groups, which would come to include the Islamic State (Isis). The YPG have also been linked to systematic human rights abuses including the use of child soldiers.

Serekaniye’s mother argued against her decision, because two of her brothers were already risking their lives in the YPG.

But Serekaniye was unmoved. “We’ve been pushed outside of our land, so now we should go and defend our land,” she says. “Before, I was not thinking like this. But now I have a purpose – and a target.”

Serekaniye is one of approximately 1,000 women across Syria to have enlisted in the militia in the past two years. Many joined in anger over Turkey’s incursions, but ended up staying.

“In discussions [growing up], it was always, ‘if something happens, a man will solve it, not a woman’,” says Serekaniye. “Now women can fight and protect her society . This, I like.”

According to the YPG, a surge in recruitment has also been aided by growing pushback against and awareness of entrenched gender inequality and violence over recent years. In 2019 the Kurds’ Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria passed a series of laws to protect women, including banning polygamy, child marriages, forced marriages and so-called “honour” killings, although many of these practices continue. About a third of Asayish officers in the Kurdish security services in the region are now women and 40% female representation is required in the autonomous government. A village of only women, where female residents can live safe from violence, was built, evacuated after nearby bombings, and resettled again.

Yet evidence of the widespread violence that women continue to face is abundant at the local Mala Jin, or “women’s house”, which provide a refuge and also a form of local arbitration for women in need across Syria. Since 2014, 69 of these houses have opened, with staff helping any woman or man who come in with problems they’re facing including issues of domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape, and so-called “honour” crimes, often liaising with local courts and the female units of the Asayish intelligence agency to solve cases.

On a sun-scorched day in May, three distraught women arrive in quick succession at a Mala Jin centre in the north-eastern city of Qamishli. The first woman, who wears a heavy green abaya, tells staff that her husband has barely come home since she’s given birth. The second woman arrives with her husband in tow, demanding a divorce; her long ponytail and hands shake as she describes how he’d once beaten her until she had to get an abortion.

The third woman shuffles in pale-faced and in a loose dress, with rags wrapped around her hands. Her skin is raw pink and black from burns that cover much of her face and body. The woman describes to staff how her husband has beaten her for years and threatened to kill a member of her family if she left him. After he poured paraffin on her one day, she says, she fled his house; he then hired men to kill her brother. After her brother’s murder, she set herself on fire. “I got tired,” she says.

The Mala Jin staff, all women, tut in disapproval as she speaks. They carefully write down the details of her account, tell her they need to take photographs, and explain they plan to send the documents to the court to help secure his arrest. The woman nods then lies down on a couch in exhaustion.

Behia Murad, the director of the Qamishli Mala Jin, an older, kind-eyed woman in a pink hijab, says the Mala Jin centres have handled thousands of cases since they started, and, though both men and women come in with complaints, “always the woman is the victim”.

A growing number of women visit the Mala Jin centres. Staff say that this doesn’t represent increased violence against women in the region, but that more women are demanding equality and justice.

The YPJ is very aware of this shift and its potential as a recruitment tool. “Our aim is not to just have her hold her gun, but to be aware,” says Newroz Ahmed, general commander of the YPJ.

For Serekaniye it was not just that she got to fight, it was also the way of life the YPJ seemed to offer. Instead of working in the fields, or getting married and having children, women who join the YPJ talk about women’s rights while training to use a rocket-​propelled grenade. They are discouraged, though not banned, from using phones or dating and instead are told that comradeship with other women is now the focus of their day to day lives.

Commander Ahmed, soft-spoken but with an imposing stare, estimates the female militia’s current size is about 5,000. This is the same size the YPJ was at the height of its battle against Isis in 2014 (though the media have previously reported an inflated number). If the YPJ’s continued strength is any indication, she adds, the Kurdish-led experiment is still blooming.

The number remains high despite the fact that the YPJ has lost hundreds, if not more, of its members in battle and no longer accepts married women (the pressure to both fight and raise a family is too intense, Ahmed says). The YPJ also claim it no longer accepts women under 18 after intense pressure from the UN and human rights groups to stop the use of child soldiers; although many of the women I met had joined below that age, though years ago.

Driving through north-east Syria, it is no wonder that so many women continue to join, given the ubiquitous images of smiling female shahids, or martyrs. Fallen female fighters are commemorated on colourful billboards or with statues standing proudly at roundabouts. Sprawling cemeteries are filled with shahids, lush plants and roses growing from their graves.

The fight against Turkey is one reason to maintain the YPJ, says Ahmed, who spoke from a military base in al-Hasakah, the north-east governorate where US troops returned after Joe Biden was elected. She claims that gender equality is the other. “We continue to see a lot of breaches [of law] and violations against women” in the region, she says. “We still have the battle against the mentality, and this is even harder than the military one.”

Tal Tamr, the YPJ base where Serekaniye is stationed, is a historically Christian and somewhat sleepy town. Bedouins herd sheep through fields, children walk arm-in-arm through village lanes, and slow, gathering dust storms are a regular afternoon occurrence. Yet Kurdish, US and Russian interests are all present here. Sosin Birhat, Serekaniye’s commander, says that before 2019 the YPJ base in Tal Tamr was tiny; now, with more women joining, she describes it as a full regiment.

The base is a one-storey, tan-coloured stucco building once occupied by the Syrian regime. The women grow flowers and vegetables in the rugged land at the back. They do not have a signal for their phones or power to use a fan, even in the sweltering heat, so they pass the time on their days off, away from the frontline, having water fights, chain smoking and drinking sugary coffee and tea.

Yet battle is always on their minds. Viyan Rojava, a more seasoned fighter than Serekaniye, talks of taking back Afrin. In March 2018, Turkey and the Free Syrian Army rebels it backed, launched Operation Olive Branch to capture the north-eastern district beloved for its fields of olive trees.

Since the Turkish occupation of Afrin, tens of thousands of people have been displaced – Rojava’s family among them – and more than 135 women remain missing, according to media reports and human rights groups. “If these people come here, they will do the same to us,” says Rojava, as other female fighters nod in agreement. “We will not accept that, so we will hold our weapons and stand against them.”

Serekaniye listens intently as Rojava speaks. In the five months since she joined the YPJ, Serekaniye has transformed. During military training in January, she broke a leg trying to scale a wall; now, she can easily handle her gun.

As Rojava speaks, the walkie-talkie sitting beside her crackles. The women at the base were being called to the frontline, not far from Ras al-Ayn. There is little active fighting these days, yet they maintain their positions in case of a surprise attack. Serekaniye dons her flak jacket, grabs her Kalashnikov and a belt of bullets. Then she gets into an SUV headed north, and speeds away.

By Elizabeth Flock. Additional reporting by Kamiran Sadoun and Solin Mohamed Amin. 

[usafphantom2]

Israeli Air Force reported that in 2021 its F-35 jets intercepted 2 Iranian drones with weapons

Reports say that aircraft carried firearms to terrorist groups in Gaza. Military personnel say the March 2021 interception was carried out 'in coordination with neighboring countries'.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 03/0722 - 12:00 in Military, War Zones

The Israeli Defense Forces announced on Sunday that they shot down several Iranian drones heading for the Gaza Strip last year.

Two aircraft were intercepted by F-35 jets away from Israel's borders in March 2021, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said in a statement. According to Channel 12 news, a third drone was shot down using electronic means of warfare.

“The interception of the UAVs was carried out before they entered Israeli airspace, in coordination with neighboring countries,” the military said.

“UAVs were detected and tracked throughout the flight by ground control units,” he added.

The IDF said it was the first time F-35 jets were used to shoot down a drone.

In a photo released on May 21, 2021, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard presented a new drone, called Gaza, displayed in an undisclosed location in Iran. (Photo: Sepahnews via AP)

According to reports from the Hebrew-speaking media, drones were carrying firearms, specifically pistols, aimed at terrorist groups in Gaza.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz accused Iran last November of launching a Syrian drone into Israeli airspace in 2018, to transport TNT to terrorist agents in the West Bank.

The time of the military announcement on Sunday, a whole year after the incident, was not clear.

Last month, Israeli television reported that Israel and its regional allies were developing a joint defense pact to protect against the drone threat.

According to Channel 12 news, Israel began working on the agreement with regional countries after drone and cruise missile attacks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that were attributed to Iran's representatives in Yemen and Iraq.

The TV report came after Israeli air defenses failed to shoot down a small drone that entered the country of Lebanon, which the terrorist group Hezbollah, supported by Iran, claimed responsibility for the launch.

It also follows a series of recent drone attacks against American forces in Iraq and targets in the United Arab Emirates, including an attack on Abu Dhabi in January claimed by Yemen's Houthis rebels that left three dead.

Source: The Times of Israel

Tags: Military AviationDronesIAF - Israeli Air ForceIRIAF - Islamic Republic of Iran Air ForceLockheed Martin F-35I 'Adir'War Zones - Middleast

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several air events and operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

[hummussexual]

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — They file into neighboring countries by the hundreds of thousands — refugees from Ukraine clutching children in one arm, belongings in the other. And they’re being heartily welcomed, by leaders of countries like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania.

But while the hospitality has been applauded, it has also highlighted stark differences in treatment given to migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa, particularly Syrians who came in 2015. Some of the language from these leaders has been disturbing to them, and deeply hurtful.

“These are not the refugees we are used to… these people are Europeans,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told journalists earlier this week, of the Ukrainians. “These people are intelligent, they are educated people. ... This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists…”

“In other words,” he added, “there is not a single European country now which is afraid of the current wave of refugees.”

Syrian journalist Okba Mohammad says that statement “mixes racism and Islamophobia.”

Mohammad fled his hometown of Daraa in 2018. He now lives in Spain, and with other Syrian refugees founded the first bilingual magazine in Arabic and Spanish. He said he wasn’t surprised by the remarks from Petkov and others.

Mohammad described a sense of déjà vu as he followed events in Ukraine. Like thousands of Ukrainians, he also had to shelter underground to protect himself from Russian bombs. He also struggled to board an overcrowded bus to flee his town. He also was separated from his family at the border.

“A refugee is a refugee, whether European, African or Asian,” Mohammad said.

When it comes to Ukraine, the change in tone of some of Europe’s most extreme anti-migration leaders has been striking — from “We aren’t going to let anyone in” to “We’re letting everyone in.”

Those comments were made only three months apart by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In the first, in December, he was addressing migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa seeking to enter Europe via Hungary. In the second, this week, he was addressing people from Ukraine.

And it’s not just politicians. Some journalists are also being criticized for how they are reporting on and describing Ukrainian refugees. “These are prosperous, middle-class people,” an Al Jazeera English television presenter said. “These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middles East... in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to.”

The channel issued an apology saying the comments were insensitive and irresponsible.

CBS news also apologized after one of its correspondents said the conflict in Kyiv wasn’t “like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European” city.

When over a million people crossed into Europe in 2015, support for refugees fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan was much greater. Of course, there were also moments of hostility — such as when a Hungarian camerawoman was filmed kicking and possibly tripping migrants along the country’s border with Serbia.

Still, back then, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, famously said “Wir schaffen das” or “We can do it,” and the Swedish prime minister urged citizens to “open your hearts” to refugees.

Volunteers gathered on Greek beaches to rescue exhausted families crossing on flimsy boats from Turkey. In Germany, they were greeted with applause at train and bus stations.

But the warm welcome soon ended after EU nations disagreed over how to share responsibility, with the main pushback coming from Central and Eastern European countries like Hungary and Poland. One by one, governments across Europe toughened migration and asylum policies, doubling down on border surveillance, earning the nickname of “Fortress Europe.”

Just last week, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees denounced the increasing “violence and serious human rights violations” across European borders, specifically pointing the finger at Greece.

And last year hundreds of people, mainly from Iraq and Syria but also from Africa, were left stranded in a no man’s land between Poland and Belarus as the EU accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of luring thousands of foreigners to its borders in retaliation for sanctions. At the time, Poland blocked access to aid groups and journalists. More than 15 people died in the cold.

Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, the European Union has been heavily criticized for funding Libya to intercept migrants trying to reach its shores, helping to return them to abusive — and often deadly — detention centers.

“There is no way to avoid questions around the deeply embedded racism of European migration policies when we see how different the reactions of national governments and EU elites are to the people trying to reach Europe,” Lena Karamanidou, an independent migration and asylum researcher in Greece, wrote on Twitter.

Jeff Crisp, a former head of policy, development and evaluation at UNHCR, agreed that race and religion influenced treatment of refugees. Like many, he was struck by the double standard.

“Countries that had been really negative on the refugee issue and have made it very difficult for the EU to develop coherent refugee policy over the last decade, suddenly come forward with a much more positive response,” Crisp noted.

Much of Orban’s opposition to migration is based on his belief that to “preserve cultural homogeneity and ethnic homogeneity,” Hungary should not accept refugees from different cultures and different religions.

Members of Poland’s conservative nationalist ruling party have also consistently echoed Orban’s thinking on migration to protect Poland’s identity as a Christian nation and guarantee its security, they say, arguing that large Muslim populations could raise the risk of terror threats.

But none of these arguments has been applied to their Ukrainian neighbors, with whom they share historical and cultural ties. Parts of Ukraine today were once also parts of Poland and Hungary. Over 1 million Ukrainians live and work in Poland and hundreds of thousands more are scattered across Europe. Some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians also live in Western Ukraine, many of whom have Hungarian passports.

“It is not completely unnatural for people to feel more comfortable with people who come from nearby, who speak the (similar) language or have a (similar) culture,” Crisp said.

But as more and more people scrambled to flee as Russia advanced, several reports emerged of non-white residents of Ukraine, including Nigerians, Indians and Lebanese, getting stuck at the border with Poland. Unlike Ukrainians, many non-Europeans need visas to get into neighboring countries. Embassies from around the world were scrambling to assist their citizens struggling to get through chaotic border crossings out of Ukraine.

Videos shared on social media posted under the hashtag #AfricansinUkraine allegedly showed African students being held back from boarding trains out of Ukraine — to make space for Ukrainians.

In Poland, Ruchir Kataria, an Indian volunteer, told the Associated Press on Sunday that his compatriots got stuck on the Ukrainian side of the border crossing leading into Medyka, Poland. In Ukraine, they were initially told to go to Romania hundreds of kilometers away, he said, after they had already made long journeys on foot to the border, not eating for three days. Finally, on Monday they got through.

The United Nations Refugee Agency has urged “receiving countries (to) continue to welcome all those fleeing conflict and insecurity — irrespective of nationality and race.”

___

Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.

[asipiyayun]

Severe Humanitarian Disasters Caused by US Aggressive Wars against Foreign Countries

The United States has always praised itself as "a city upon a hill" that is an example to others in the way it supports "natural human rights" and fulfills "natural responsibilities", and it has repeatedly waged foreign wars under the banner of "humanitarian intervention". During the past 240-plus years after it declared independence on July 4th, 1776, the United States was not involved in any war for merely less than 20 years. According to incomplete statistics, from the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, among the 248 armed conflicts that occurred in 153 regions of the world, 201 were initiated by the United States, accounting for 81 percent of the total number. Most of the wars of aggression waged by the United States have been unilateralist actions, and some of these wars were even opposed by its own allies. These wars not only cost the belligerent parties a large number of military lives but also caused extremely serious civilian casualties and property damage, leading to horrific humanitarian disasters. The selfishness and hypocrisy of the United States have also been fully exposed through these foreign wars.

1. Major Aggressive Wars Waged by the United States after World War II

(1) The Korean War. The Korean War, which took place in the early 1950s, did not persist for a long time but it was extremely bloody, leading to more than three million civilian deaths and creating more than three million refugees. According to statistics from the DPRK, the war destroyed about 8,700 factories, 5,000 schools, 1,000 hospitals, and 600,000 households, and more than two million children under the age of 18 were uprooted by the war. During this war, the ROK side lost 41.23 billion won, which was equivalent to 6.9 billion US dollars according to the official exchange rate at that time; and about 600,000 houses, 46.9 percent of railways, 1,656 highways, and 1,453 bridges in the ROK were destroyed. Worse still, the war led to the division of the DPRK and the ROK, causing a large number of family separations. Among the more than 130,000 Koreans registered in the Ministry of Unification in the ROK who have family members cut off by the war, 75,000 have passed away, forever losing the chance to meet their lost family members again. The website of the United States' The Diplomat magazine reported on June 25, 2020, that as of November 2019, the average age of these family separation victims in the ROK had reached 81, and 60 percent of the 133,370 victims registered since 1988 had passed away, and that most of the registered victims never succeeded in meeting their lost family members again.

(2) The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War which lasted from the 1950s to the 1970s is the longest and most brutal war since the end of World War II. The Vietnamese government estimated that the war killed approximately 1.1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and 300,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, and caused as many as two million civilian deaths. The government also pointed out that some of the deaths were caused by the US troops' planned massacres that were carried out in the name of "combating the Vietnamese Communist Party". During the war, the US forces dropped a large number of bombs in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, almost three times the total number of bombs dropped during World War II. It is estimated that as of today, there are at least 350,000 metric tons of unexploded mines and bombs left by the US military in Vietnam alone, and these mines and bombs are still explosive. At the current rate, it will take 300 years to clean out these explosives. The website of The Huffington Post reported on December 3, 2012, that statistics from the Vietnamese government showed that since the end of the war in 1975, the explosive remnants of the war had killed more than 42,000 people. Apart from the above-mentioned explosives, the US forces dropped 20 million gallons (about 75.71 million liters) of defoliants in Vietnam during the war, directly causing more than 400,000 Vietnamese deaths. Another approximately two million Vietnamese who came into contact with this chemical got cancer and other diseases. This war that lasted for more than 10 years also caused more than three million refugees to flee and die in large numbers on the way across the ocean. Among the refugees that were surveyed, 92 percent were troubled by fatigue, and others suffered unexplained pregnancy losses and birth defects. According to the United States' Vietnam War statistics, defoliants destroyed about 20 percent of the jungles and 20 to 36 percent of the mangrove forests in Vietnam.

(3) The Gulf War. In 1991, the US-led coalition forces attacked Iraq, directly leading to about 2,500 to 3,500 civilian deaths and destroying approximately 9,000 civilian houses. The war-inflicted famine and damage to the local infrastructure and medical facilities caused about 111,000 civilian deaths, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that the war and the post-war sanctions on Iraq caused the death of about 500,000 of the country's children. The coalition forces targeted Iraq's infrastructure and wantonly destroyed most of its power stations (accounting for 92 percent of the country's total installed generating capacity), refineries (accounting for 80 percent of the country's production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunication centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (numbering more than 100), highways, railways, radio and television stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, wires, and medical supplies. This war led to serious environmental pollution: about 60 million barrels of petroleum were dumped into the desert, polluting about 40 million metric tons of soil; about 24 million barrels of petroleum spilled out of oil wells, forming 246 oil lakes; and the smoke and dust generated by purposely ignited oil wells polluted 953 square kilometers of land. In addition, the US troops' depleted uranium (DU) weapons, which contain highly toxic and radioactive material, were also first used on the battlefield during this Gulf War against Iraq.

(4) The Kosovo War. In March 1999, NATO troops led by the United States blatantly set the UN Security Council aside and carried out a 78-day continuous bombing of Yugoslavia under the banner of "preventing humanitarian disasters", killing 2,000-plus innocent civilians, injuring more than 6,000, and uprooting nearly one million. During the war, more than two million Yugoslavians lost their sources of income, and about 1.5 million children could not go to school. NATO troops deliberately targeted the infrastructure of Yugoslavia in order to weaken the country's determination to resist. Economists of Serbia estimated that the total economic loss caused by the bombing was as much as 29.6 billion US dollars. Lots of bridges, roads, railways, and other buildings were destroyed during the bombing, affecting 25,000 households, 176 cultural relics, 69 schools, 19 hospitals, and 20 health centers. Apart from that, during this war, NATO troops used at least 31,000 DU bombs and shells, leading to a surge in cancer and leukemia cases in Yugoslavia and inflicting a long-term disastrous impact on the ecological environment of Yugoslavia and Europe.

(5) The Afghanistan War. In October 2001, the United States sent troops to Afghanistan. While combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban, it also caused a large number of unnecessary civilian casualties. Due to the lack of authoritative statistical data, there is no established opinion about the number of civilian casualties during the Afghanistan War, but it is generally agreed that since entering Afghanistan, the US troops caused the deaths of more than 30,000 civilians, injured more than 60,000 civilians, and created about 11 million refugees. After the US military announced its withdrawal in 2014, Afghanistan continued to be in turmoil. The website of The New York Times reported on July 30, 2019, that in the first half of 2019, there were 363 confirmed deaths due to the US bombs in Afghanistan, including 89 children. Scholars at Kabul University estimated that since its beginning, the Afghanistan War has caused about 250 casualties and the loss of 60 million US dollars per day.

(6) The Iraq War. In 2003, despite the general opposition of the international community, US troops still invaded Iraq on unfounded charges. It is hard to find precise statistics about the civilian casualties inflicted by the war, but the number is estimated to be around 200,000 to 250,000, including 16,000 civilian deaths directly caused by US forces. Apart from that, the occupying US forces have seriously violated international humanitarian principles and created multiple "prisoner abuse cases". After the US military announced its withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, local warfare and attacks in the country have continued. The US-led coalition forces have used a large number of DU bombs and shells, cluster bombs, and white phosphorus bombs in Iraq, and have not taken any measures to minimize the damage these bombs have inflicted upon civilians. According to the estimate of the United Nations, today in Iraq, there are still 25 million mines and other explosive remnants that need to be removed. The United States has not yet withdrawn all its troops from Afghanistan or Iraq for now.

(7) The Syrian War. Since 2017, the United States has launched airstrikes on Syria under the pretext of "preventing the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government". From 2016 to 2019, the confirmed war-related civilian deaths amounted to 33,584 in Syria, and the number of Syrian civilians directly killed by the airstrikes reached 3,833, with half of them being women and children. The website of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) reported on November 9, 2018, that the so-called "most accurate air strike in history" launched by the United States on Raqqa killed 1,600 civilians. According to a survey conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) in April 2020, about one-third of Syrians were faced with a food shortage crisis, and 87 percent of Syrians had no deposits in their accounts. Doctors of the World (Médecins du Monde/MdM) estimated that since the beginning of the Syrian War, about 15,000 Syrian doctors (about half of the country's total) had fled the country, 6.5 million Syrian people had run away from their homes, and about five million Syrian people had wandered homeless around the world.

Apart from being directly involved in wars, the United States has intervened directly or indirectly in other countries' affairs by supporting proxy wars, inciting anti-government insurgencies, carrying out assassinations, providing weapons and ammunition, and training anti-government armed forces, which have caused serious harm to the social stability and public security of the relevant countries. As such activities are great in number and most of them have not been made public, it is hard to collect specific data regarding them.

2. The Disastrous Consequences of Foreign Wars Launched by the United States

Since the end of World War II, almost every US president has waged or intervened in foreign wars during their terms of office. The pretexts they used include: stopping the spread of communism, maintaining justice, stopping aggression, humanitarian intervention, combating terrorism, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), protecting the safety of overseas US citizens, etc. Among all these foreign wars, only one was waged as a counterattack in response to a direct terrorist attack on the United States; the others were waged in a situation where the vital interests of the United States were not directly affected. Unfortunately, even this singular "justifiable counterattack" was obviously an excessive display of defense. Under the banner of eliminating the threat of al-Qaeda, the US military wantonly expanded the scope of the attack in the anti-terrorism war in accordance with the principle "better to kill by mistake than to miss out by accident", resulting in a large number of civilian causalities in the war-affected areas, and despite using the relatively accurate drone strikes, the US military still did not succeed in reducing and mitigating the causalities of the innocent local people.

As for the procedures followed by the United States to start aggressive wars against foreign countries, some were "legitimate procedures" that the United States managed to obtain by manipulating the UN into authorizing them through the Security Council; more often, the United States just set the Security Council aside and neglected the opposition of other countries, and even the opposition of its own allies, when willfully and arbitrarily launching an attack on an independent country. Some US foreign wars were initiated without the approval of the US Congress, which has the sole power to declare war for the country.

US foreign wars have triggered various regional and international crises.

First of all, these wars have directly led to humanitarian disasters in the war-affected countries, such as personnel casualties, damage to facilities, production stagnation, and especially unnecessary civilian casualties. In the war-affected areas, people died in their homes, markets, and streets, they were killed by bombs, bullets, improvised explosive devices, and drones, and they lost their lives during airstrikes launched by US forces, raids launched by their government forces, terrorist and extremist massacres, and domestic riots. In November 2018, Brown University released a research study that showed that the number of civilian deaths during the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen were 43,074; 23,924; 184,382 to 207,156; 49,591; and 12,000 respectively, the number of journalists and media personnel who died at their posts during these wars, were 67; 8; 277; 75; and 31 respectively, and the number of humanitarian relief workers who were killed at their posts during these wars were 424; 97; 63; 185; and 38 respectively. Such casualties are often understated by the US government. The Intercept website reported on November 19, 2018, that the actual civilian deaths in Iraq were far higher than the number officially released by the US military.

Second, US foreign wars brought about a series of complex social problems, such as refugee waves, social unrest, ecological crises, psychological traumas, etc. Statistics show that each of the several recent US foreign wars created a larger number of refugees, such as the 11 million Afghan refugees, the 380,000 Pakistani refugees, the 3.25 million Iraqi refugees, and the 12.59 million Syrian refugees; these refugees have been forced to flee from their homes, of which 1.3 million Afghan refugees have fled to Pakistan, 900,000 Afghan refugees arrived in Iran, 3.5 million Iraqi and Syrian refugees fled to Turkey, and one million Iraqi and Syrian refugees fled to Iran. In Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, the deaths and injuries caused by the lack of medical treatment, malnutrition, and environmental pollution have exceeded the casualties directly caused by the wars, with the former number being four times greater than the latter. The uranium content per kilogram of soil in Basra, Iraq, rose sharply from less than 70 becquerels before 1991 to 10,000 becquerels in 2009, and the number was as high as 36,205 becquerels in the areas polluted by war remnants. The website of the British newspaper The Guardian reported on August 22, 2016, that 30 percent of the babies born in Iraq in 2010 were born with some form of congenital anomaly, while this figure is around two to four percent under normal circumstances.

Third, US foreign wars have often produced spillover effects, causing harm to the countries that were not involved in the wars. For example, in the Vietnam War, the US military spread the fighting to neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Laos on the excuse of blocking the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" (a military supply route running from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam), resulting in more than 500,000 unnecessary civilian casualties and leaving a large number of war remnants in those countries, which are still explosive. When attacking terrorists in the Afghanistan War, the US aircraft and drones often dropped bombs on neighboring Pakistani villages, and even on wedding cars and Pakistani border guard soldiers. In an airstrike on Yugoslavia, the US forces even targeted the Chinese embassy, leading to the deaths of three Chinese journalists and the injuries of a dozen embassy personnel.

Last but not least, even the United States itself has fallen victim to the foreign wars it has started. According to statistics from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, there were 103,284 US soldiers who suffered physical injuries during the Korean War, and the number reached 153,303 for the Vietnam War. Between 2001 and 2005, about one-third of the 103,788 veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were diagnosed with mental or psychological illness, and 56 percent of those diagnosed had more than one disease. A study by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which works exclusively for the United States Congress, pointed out that more than 6,000 veterans committed suicide every year from 2008 to 2016. The amount of economic compensation offered by the US military to the Korean War veterans reaches 2.8 billion US dollars per year, and the amount given to the Vietnam War veterans and their families is more than 22 billion US dollars per year. The cost of medical and disability care for the Afghanistan War veterans has exceeded 170 billion US dollars. Business Insider, a US business and technology news website, reported in December 2019 that the Afghanistan war has led to the deaths of more than 3,800 US contractors, and this number far exceeds the relevant statistical result released by the US government and even the US military deaths in Afghanistan.

3. The Major Cause of the Above-Mentioned Humanitarian Crises: The United States' Hegemonic Mentality

When reviewing the many aggressive wars launched by the United States, it can be seen that many of these military actions have led to humanitarian crises. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other countries where wars are still ongoing, accidental bombings and injuries still frequently occur, and refugees have nowhere to stay. The infrastructure of these countries is crippled, and their national production is stagnant. The United States launched these foreign wars under the pretext of "humanitarian intervention" or "human rights overriding sovereignty", but why did these wars fought for humanitarian purposes turn into humanitarian disasters in the end?

In April 2011, the US-based magazine Foreign Policy summarized five reasons for the frequent foreign wars waged by the United States, such as the military advantages of the United States making it hard to resist the temptation to resort to force, and the checks and balances mechanism within the United States failing to play an effective role, while excluding any reason related to the values of the United States. "To safeguard human rights" was not a clear driving force for US foreign wars and that waging foreign wars was only a means to an end, although such an act did not exclude a sense of morality. The United States may feel an impulse to start a foreign war as long as it is considered necessary, believed to be in its own favor, and within its ability, while a sense of morality is not a sufficient or necessary condition to initiate such a war; and as for the terrible humanitarian disasters caused by these foreign wars, they will be borne by others instead of directly harming US citizens and preventing the United States from reaching its goals. Choosing to use force irrespective of the consequences reveals the hegemonic aspirations of the United States, which propel the United States to prioritize itself, demonstrate its "winner-take-all" mentality, and expose its unilateralist ideas of dominating the world and wantonly doing injustice to other countries.

US politicians claim that they respect "universal values", but do they agree that their own natural human rights are also natural for other people in the world?

The United States has formulated laws to ensure equality among all its ethnic groups within the country, but does it really believe that people of other countries should enjoy the same rights? Or, does it think that it can act wantonly in foreign countries just because the people there do not have a vote in US elections?

The United States believes that terrorist attacks targeting civilians within its territory are despicable and punishable, then what makes it accept that the incidents created by the US military in other countries, which have led to a large number of civilian deaths and injuries, are acceptable and even "necessary"?

When they adopt the principle "better to kill by mistake than to miss out by accident", when they arbitrarily use radioactive weapons and destroy all vegetation with toxic reagents, and when they open fire before clearly identifying the targets, do the US forces still respect the "natural" human rights treasured by the values of the United States?

The civilians who were unable to flee their war-affected areas and were treated as terrorists and shot at randomly did not have any human rights. The children who have been disabled at birth by the chemical weapons of the US forces and will suffer for the rest of their lives do not have any human rights. The refugees who have been forced to flee their homes and become homeless in other countries because of the US foreign wars do not have any human rights.

In the final analysis, the mindset of solving disputes by taking unilateral military actions is questionable. Given the inherent antagonism between humanitarianism and hegemony, it is ridiculous to expect a hegemonic country to defend the human rights of other countries. International disputes shall be settled through equal consultations within the framework of the United Nations. Coordinated efforts shall be actualized by regulating and improving international mechanisms and by establishing a community with a shared future for mankind. Only by discarding the hegemonic thinking, which is chiefly motivated by self-interest, can we prevent "humanitarian intervention" from becoming humanitarian disasters. Only in this way can we achieve mutual benefits and win-win results and can all the people across the globe truly enjoy natural human rights.

Appendix:

1. List of Civilian Casualties, Refugees, and Economic Losses Caused by Major Wars of Aggression Waged by the United States after the End of World War II

The Korean War: about 3 million civilian deaths and 3 million refugees;

The Vietnam War: about 2 million civilian deaths, 3 million refugees, and 3 million victims of defoliants;

The Airstrike on Libya: about 700 military and civilian deaths;

Invasion of Panama: about 302 civilian deaths and 3,000 civilian injuries;

The Armed Intervention in Somalia: about 200 civilian deaths and 300 civilian injuries;

The Gulf War: about 120,000 war-related civilian deaths and 2 million sanction-related civilian deaths, and economic losses amounting to 600 billion US dollars;

The Kosovo War: more than 2,000 deaths and 6,000 injuries, and economic losses amounting to 200 billion US dollars;

The Afghanistan War: more than 30,000 civilian deaths, 70,000 civilian injuries, and 11 million refugees;

The Iraq War: about 200,000–250,000 civilian deaths and 3.25 million refugees;

The Syrian War: more than 40,000 civilian deaths and 12.59 million refugees.

 2. List of Wars of Aggression Waged by the United States and the US Interventions in Foreign Countries after the End of World War II

1947–1949: intervening in the Greek civil war

1947–1970: intervening in Italy's elections and supporting anti-communism activities

1948: supporting the anti-government forces in Costa Rica's civil war

1949–1953: supporting anti-communism activities in Albania

1949: intervening in the government change in Syria

1950–1953: waging the Korean War

1952: intervening in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952

1953: supporting a coup in Iran to overthrow the then Iranian government

1954: supporting the change of the then Guatemalan government

1956–1957: plotting a coup in Syria

1957–1959: supporting a coup in Indonesia

1958: creating a crisis in Lebanon

1960–1961: supporting a coup in the Congo

1960: stopping the government of Laos from starting a reform

1961: supporting the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba

1961–1975: supporting civil war and opium trade in Laos

1961–1964: supporting anti-government activities in Brazil

1963: supporting civil strife in Iraq

1963: supporting riots in Ecuador

1963–1975: fighting the Vietnam War

1964: intervening in the Simba rebellion in the Congo

1965–1966: intervening in Dominica's civil war

1965–1967: supporting the Indonesian military government’s massacre of communists

1966: supporting an insurgency in Ghana

1966–1969: creating conflicts in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which is a region on the Korean peninsula that demarcates North Korea from South Korea

1966–1967: supporting an insurgency in Bolivia

1967: intervening in the change of the Greek government

1967–1975: intervening in Cambodia's civil war

1970: intervening in Oman's domestic affairs

1970–1973: supporting a military coup in Chile

1970–1973: supporting a coup in Cambodia

1971: supporting a coup in Bolivia

1972–1975: offering assistance to anti-government forces in Iraq

1976: supporting a coup in Argentina

1976–1992: intervening in Angola's domestic affairs

1977–1988: supporting a coup in Pakistan

1979–1993: supporting anti-government forces in Cambodia

1979–1989: intervening in the war in Afghanistan

1980–1989: financing the anti-government Solidarity trade union in Poland

1980–1992: intervening in El Salvador's civil war

1981: confronting Libya in Gulf of Sidra

1981–1982: pushing the change of the then Chadian government

1982–1984: participating in a multilateral intervention in Lebanon

1982–1989: supporting anti-government forces in Nicaragua

1983: invading Grenada

1986: invading Gulf of Sidra, Libya

1986: bombing Libya

1988: shooting down an Iranian airliner

1988: sending troops to Honduras

1989: confronting Libya in Tobruk

1989: intervening in the Philippines' domestic affairs

1989–1990: invading Panama

1990–1991: waging the Gulf War

1991: intervening in Haiti's elections

1991–2003: leading the enforcement action to establish a no-fly zone in Iraq

1992–1995: intervening in Somalia's civil war for the first time

1992–1995: intervening in the Bosnian War

1994–1995: sending troops to Haiti

1996: supporting a coup in Iraq

1997: sending troops to Albania

1997: sending troops to Sierra Leone

1998–1999: waging the Kosovo War

1998: launching cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan

1998–1999: sending troops to Kenya and Tanzania

2001–present: waging the Afghanistan War

2002: sending troops to Côte d'Ivoire

2003–2011: waging the Iraq War

2004–now: inciting wars between Pakistan and Afghanistan in their contiguous areas

2006–2007: supporting Fatah, a Palestinian political and military organization, in overthrowing the elected government of Hamas

2007–present: intervening in Somalia's civil war for the second time

2009: supporting a coup in Honduras

2011: supporting anti-government forces in Libya

2011–2017: carrying out military operations in Uganda

2014–present: leading the intervention actions in Iraq

2014–present: leading the intervention actions in Syria

2015–now: supporting Saudi Arabia's participation in Yemen's civil war

2019: supporting the change of the Venezuelan government

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.10 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: Fascist Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom, beginning an invasion of southern France. 1940 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions in his "Stab in the Back" speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia. 1940 – World War II: Military resistance to the German occupation of Norway ends. 1942 – World War II: The Lidice massacre is perpetrated as a reprisal for the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. 1944 – World War II: Six hundred forty-two men, women and children massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France. 1944 – World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops. 1944 – In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game. 1945 – Australian Imperial Forces land in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei. 1947 – Saab produces its first automobile. 1957 – John Diefenbaker leads the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to a stunning upset in the 1957 Canadian federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal Party government. 1960 – Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashes near Mackay Airport in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing 29. 1963 – The Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. 1964 – United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill's passage. 1967 – The Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire. 1977 – James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured three days later. 1980 – The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a call to fight from their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela. 1982 – Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub. 1987 – June Democratic Struggle: The June Democratic Struggle starts in South Korea, and people protest against the government. 1990 – British Airways Flight 5390 lands safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit causes the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There are no fatalities. 1991 – Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she would remain a captive until 2009. 1994 – China conducts a nuclear test for DF-31 warhead at Area C (Beishan), Lop Nur, its prominence being due to the Cox Report. 1996 – Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin. 1997 – Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members. 1999 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. 2001 – Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa. 2002 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom. 2003 – The Spirit rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. 2008 – Sudan Airways Flight 109 crashes at Khartoum International Airport, killing 30 people. 2009 – Eighty-eight year-old James Wenneker von Brunn opens fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shoots Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended. 2018 – Opportunity rover, sends it last message back to earth. The mission was finally declared over on February 13, 2019. 2019 – An Agusta A109E Power crashes onto the AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, sparking a fire on the top of the building. The pilot of the helicopter is killed.