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Originally posted by kpo:

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Your 'separatists' are ISIS. I guess you like ISIS.

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This kind of idiocy is why I scroll right through your posts.

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Any entity using a barrel bombs is using them out of lack of resources, they're not the scourge that you've been told.- SIGNY
Says who? Russian state media and your echo-chamber of pro-Russian anti-Western blogs.-KPO

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Second, why do you imagine that the Russians are bombing indiscriminately?- SIGNY
Err, 100,000 displaced in less than 2 weeks?? And who said anything about 'indiscriminately'? Hospitals, market places etc. - it seems to me Russia's bombing of civilian infrastructure is heavily targeted.- KPO

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Why not put the blame for this clusterfuck on who started it and who's been propelling it forward: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, UAE, and the USA CIA?- SIGNY

Even if it were true that the backers of the rebels started this war (it's not, and they didn't)

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what we're talking about in this thread is WAR CRIMES committed by Russia and Assad. There is NEVER any excuse for them, no matter how hard you try to deflect and blame someone else.

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why don't we expect the "rebels" to cede the city and save the population from warfare? - SIGNY
Just amazing reasoning. And staggering hypocrisy. Remember back in spring/early summer 2014 when the Ukrainian government was driving back the separatists, and laying siege to Donetsk and Luhansk? And you were howling against the Ukrainian government for attacking population centres? And NOT condemning the separatists for defending from them? Can you say why the Syrian rebels should be obliged to cede cities in their control to an attacking government, but the pro-Russian separatists shouldn't?- KPO

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
BAD RUSSIA!

Only RUSSIA seems to be doing anything bad! That must mean ISIS is GREAT!

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"This kind of idiocy is why I scroll right through your posts."

Which is why you replied?

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BAD RUSSIA!

Only RUSSIA seems to be doing anything bad! That must mean ISIS is GREAT!

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Originally posted by G:

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
BAD RUSSIA!

Only RUSSIA seems to be doing anything bad! That must mean ISIS is GREAT!

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KIKI in this very thread:

"Hey asshole - why don't you quote where I 'defended Russia'. Because I didn't, and you will not be able to find where I did."



T - looks we posted at the same time - worth the twofer.
It's almost like she said: "I do not use the Internet! You can't find any place where I did!"

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It's been absolutely astounding to see SIG and 1kiki's self righteous rants about this injustice and that injustice when I first arrived, replaced so emphatically with such an absolute defense of the despicable.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hospitals, market places etc. - it seems to me Russia's bombing of civilian infrastructure is heavily targeted.- KPO

Links?

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Civilian Infrastructure Hit and Humanitarian Aid Workers Killed in Northwestern Governorates

GoS and allied forces airstrikes reportedly impacted civilian infrastructure in northwestern governorates in Syria from 02 to 22 December. Most recently on 20 December, six airstrikes hit a public market in Idleb City killing more than 50 people and wounding approximately 150 people most of whom were evacuated to Turkey for treatment.

One NGO staff member and two civil defense workers were among those killed while a number of NGO staff were wounded in this attack prompting safety concerns for humanitarian staff working in Idleb City. The airstrikes also destroyed a school, a court building, and a collective shelter housing newly displaced IDPs.

Airstrikes hit a fuel market in Ma’aret al-Nassan in Idleb governorate frequented by civilians on 15 December, killing approximately 16 people and wounding over 50 people. Fuel prices have risen dramatically over the last month in areas held by Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) due to repeated attacks on fuel supply lines and infrastructure and the subsequent shortage of fuel. According to local sources, as of 21 December the price of diesel has risen from 250 Syrian Pounds to 375 Syrian Pounds in Idleb governorate since late November.

One NGO staff was killed by artillery fire in Khan al-Shaykhoun and a NGO supported hospital was partially damaged in Taftanaz due to a missile hitting in close proximity to the hospital on 13 December. This resulted in the main generator catching fire and causing subsequent damage. In another airstrike on 11 December, one bread distribution point was hit killing six civilians and wounding at least ten others. According to the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster, 2,538 individuals were displaced between 17 November and 18 December bringing the number of IDPs displaced from and within Idleb to 206,254 people as of 18 December.

In Lattakia, GoS and allied forces continued their airstrikes in Turkmen and Akrad mountains in northern Lattakia, an area with the presence of 14 NGO supported IDP settlements hosting 12,882 IDPs. Due to ongoing airstrikes and ground clashes between GoS and allied forces and NSAGs 11,245 people were displaced from 17 November to 18 December in Lattakia according to the CCCM cluster. Approximately 4,000 families living in IDP camps and settlements along the M4 highway near the Turkish border area of Yamadiya are living in close proximity to active frontlines. Protection fears for IDPs in these camps were raised considerably on 09 December after airstrikes and surface-to-surface missiles hit Obein IDP (refugee - KPO) camp in Lattakia, killing seven civilians and wounding many others.
In the southern countryside of Aleppo governorate, airstrikes hit two field hospitals in Khan al-Touman and Zarbah killing five people and wounding an unverified number of people on 09 December and 22 December, respectively.

A medical warehouse containing life-saving aid and medical items was severely damaged in Kafer Hamra town in Haritan sub-district of Aleppo on 07 December, after being hit by airstrikes that killed a number of civilians and wounded one NGO staff. The capacity of health infrastructure and the ability of health NGOs to respond to medical needs in the area have severely deteriorated.

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the weapons that Russia is using in Syria, I doubt that they have to resort to barrel bombs. Maybe you should educate yourself,

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Oh, you mean war crimes like "shock and awe"

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I see that Russia committed the war crime of proposing a ceasefire and humanitarian aid - even tho they're winning.

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Russia KEEPS ON bombing rebel-held towns - recent videos of the devastation in the past 24 hours

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FSA and other rebel groups say they won't lay down their weapons until Russia stops its bombing campaign on their cities

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Between July 2012 and July 2013, ill-discipline and infighting weakened the FSA.

Meanwhile, jihadist groups entered northern Syria and became more effective than FSA.

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... On 7 December 2012, about 260 to 550 commanders

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and representatives of the Syrian armed opposition met in Antalya [TURKEY] and elected a new 30-person military council for the FSA. ... Brigadier General Salim Idris, ... was elected as the new Chief of Staff of the FSA and effective leader.

Security officials from the United States, United Kingdom, France, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan were present at the meeting

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About two-thirds of those elected to the new command were individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

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Thomson Reuters stated that the new Chief of Staff Gen. Salim Idris "is not ideological", while two of his new deputy commanders, Abdelbasset Tawil from Idlib Governorate and Abdelqader Saleh from Aleppo Governorate are Islamist.

FSA brigades in northern Syria supported the Army of Conquest-led [anti-government, pro-Nusra] offensive that took control of almost all of Idlib governorate, as well as aided the YPG in their approach from the east and west against ISIL-controlled Tell Abyad. According to journalist Thomas Joscelyn, FSA troops backed al-Nusra and other jihadi forces in their successful capture of Jisr Al Shughur in northwestern Syria's Idlib province.

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Even as all sides - including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and select rebel groups - pretend to be working towards a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the five year conflict in Syria, actions speak louder than words, and to put it as succinctly as possible, everyone is still fighting.

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Originally posted by THGRRI:
Because you SIG and 1KIKI are always posting with malice about the West, I point out to all who visit theses threads that you two are nothing more than Russian trolls. The harder you try not to come off that way the guiltier you look. It is one defense of Russia after another and never a rebuke of any kind.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; eat shit comrades. I am an American who believes the sooner the Russian economy crashes beyond repair because of Russia's behavior in Georgia, the Ukraine and Syria the better.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Preserved for the future. Quote in which THUGGER FREELY! admits he's so stupid he doesn't care WHO wins - even if it's the Nazis in Ukraine or ISIS in Syria - they're A-OK! As long as Russia loses.

I already figured out a loooong time ago that's what you think, idiot. Why else do you think I've been pointing and laughing at you all this time?

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Personally Sigs, I'm not paid to think about that. They're going to do it without us anyhow. Why beat yourself up?

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"Russia's and Assad's War Crimes in Syria?" Who is Assad? and Who gives a fuck about Syria? Not my Problem.WAY above my pay grade.

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Do Right, Be Right. :)

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My life blows enough without giving two shits about any of this.

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Preserved for the future. Quote in which THUGGER FREELY! admits he's so stupid he doesn't care WHO wins - even if it's the Nazis in Ukraine or ISIS in Syria - they're A-OK! As long as Russia loses. I already figured out a loooong time ago that's what you think, idiot. Why else do you think I've been pointing and laughing at you all this time? - KIKI

I've said it before and I'll say it again; eat shit comrades. I am an American who believes the sooner the Russian economy crashes beyond repair because of Russia's behavior in Georgia, the Ukraine and Syria the better. - THUGR

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Update: At least two sources confirm that Turkey also fired on the Syrian army on Saturday, an exceptionally provocative move.

Update: Washington has now weighed in and is asking the Turks to please stop shelling the soldiers the Pentagon is arming. [Kurds]

* * *
Even as all sides - including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and select rebel groups - pretend to be working towards a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the five year conflict in Syria, actions speak louder than words, and to put it as succinctly as possible, everyone is still fighting.

In fact, the fighting is more intense than ever. Russia and Hezbollah are closing in on Aleppo, the country’s largest city and a key urban center where rebels are dug in for what amounts to a last stand. If the city is liberated by the government (and yes, “liberated” is more accurate than “falls” because occupied territory belongs to the Syrian government, not to Sunni extremists), Assad will have regained control of the country’s backbone in the west.

That would effectively mean the end of the rebellion and the Gulf monarchies, not to mention Turkey, are not happy about it. “The main battle is about cutting the road between Aleppo and Turkey, for Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the terrorists,” [Yes, terrorists- SIGNY] Assad said in an interview with AFP on Friday.

That supply line has been severed and now, it’s do or die time for the rebels’ Sunni benefactors in Ankara, Riyadh, and Doha. Either intervene or watch as Hezbollah rolls up the opposition under cover of Russian airstrikes, restoring the Assad government and securing the Shiite crescent for the Iranians.

As we documented extensively this week, the Saudis and the Turks are now set to invade. Assad has promised to “confront them”, which of course means that the IRGC and Hassan Nasrallah's army are set to come into direct contact with Turkish and Saudi troops, setting the stage for an all-out sectarian war that will almost invariably end up pitting NATO against the Russians. Note that this is different from Yemen, where Tehran fights via proxies rather than directly against the Saudi military.

On Saturday the stakes were raised when Turkey said Saudi Arabia is set to send warplanes to Incirlik.

As a reminder, access to Incirlik was the carrot Erdogan used last summer to convince NATO to acquiesce to Ankara’s brutal crackdown on the PKK. “Let me wage war against my political rivals, and you can use our airbase,” is a fair approximation of Erdogan’s proposition.

Now, it appears the Saudis are set to use the base as a staging ground for strikes in Syria.

As RT reports, “Saudi Arabia is to deploy military jets and personnel to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country.”

Of course the excuse is the same as it ever was for everyone involved: "the fight against ISIS."

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Preserved for the future. Quote in which THUGGER FREELY! admits he's so stupid he doesn't care WHO wins - even if it's the Nazis in Ukraine or ISIS in Syria - they're A-OK! As long as Russia loses. I already figured out a loooong time ago that's what you think, idiot. Why else do you think I've been pointing and laughing at you all this time? - KIKI

I've said it before and I'll say it again; eat shit comrades. I am an American who believes the sooner the Russian economy crashes beyond repair because of Russia's behavior in Georgia, the Ukraine and Syria the better. - THUGR

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THUGR, have you never had a WTF??? moment when contemplating that the USA turned EVERY (literally) secular nation in the ME into smoking ruins, filled with neck-sawing jihadists??? Do you have any thoughts about why the USA would ally itself with a head-chopping wahhabist monarchy in Saudi Arabia?

What is your explanation (if any) for the continuous trail of destruction that the USA left ... Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, and Syria?

Any thoughts?

Or just mindlessness?

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"I am always willing to discuss the mistakes America has made. Just not with you or any other Russian propagandizing troll. "


Aside from ALWAYS and JUST NOT being mutually exclusive assertions ... Really? Because discussing US 'mistakes' is a topic that you not only won't enter into with either of us - you won't apparently discuss it with anyone else here, either. That's a topic I don't recall you bringing up, ever, with anyone. 'Always'? Try 'never'.

In fact, not only do you not discuss that topic, you post nothing substantive about any topic - at all. You post little else except personal opinion. And why do I say that? You never bring evidence to the table. You don't even bring information. Or links. It's just you, all you, blah blah blah-ing away. Endlessly.

You are 'Sometimes in error, never in doubt.'

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Originally posted by 1kiki:

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Poor ISIS. Try as they might, the men in black still can’t out-terrorize their enemies or, more pointedly, even their patrons. For the past three years, decapitations have served as the money shots for ISIS’s theater of cruelty. Then on New Year’s Day the Saudis upstaged ISIS by audaciously chopping off the heads of 47 men, including a prominent Shia cleric.

This act of brazen butchery is made all the more horrific by virtue of the fact that the Saudi head-slicers recently landed a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, largely at the insistence of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who personally vouched for the petro-autocracy’s acute sensitivity to matters of civil liberties and the humane treatment of prisoners. Then again the drone-troika of Britain, France and the U.S. also enjoy seats on the council, so perhaps the Saudis have earned their slot after all.

With his peculiar fondness for porcine heads, Cameron is probably the Kingdom’s most un-kosher ally, but he is far from Saudi Arabia’s only political cheerleader. Showing a stunning lack of judgment, Comandante Bernie Sanders says his Syrian strategy relies on the Saudis taking the lead in the fight against ISIS

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“They’ve got to get their hands dirty,” Sanders inveighed to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “They’ve got to get their troops on the ground. They’ve got to win that war with our support. We cannot be leading the effort.”

Apparently Sanders skipped the briefing on how ISIS’s apocalyptic ideology has been fueled by fire-breathing Wahhabi preachers financed by the Saudi royal family. The red senator also seems ignorant of the fact that ISIS functions as shock troops for the House of Saud in its proxy war against Iran, now raging in Yemen and Iraq, as well as Syria. You’d think that Bernie would be getting better advice from his friends in Israeli intelligence.

Sanders’ policy on Syria is naïve to the point of doltishness. But Hillary’s Syrian war plan—shared by most of her Republican rivals—borders on the pathological. Having not missed a minute of sleep haunted by the corpses of Libya, Mrs. Clinton is now stumping for the dismantling of Syria, using the carefully cultivated domestic anxiety over ISIS as the pretext. The cornerstone of Hillary’s rogue scheme is the imposition of a no fly zone over that embattled country.

Sounds like a relatively benign plan, right? But wait. ISIS doesn’t have an air force. They don’t even a have drone. Russia, of course, is flying daily sorties in Syrian air space, at the invitation of the Syrian government, such as it is, and some kind of confrontation would be inevitable. Still, Hillary doesn’t flinch. She has zealously vowed to shoot down any Russian plane that violated her unilateral ban.

Yet NATO’s latest recruit, Turkey, jumped the gun. Erdogan’s trigger-happy generals didn’t wait for any such fanciful legalisms and downed a Russian jet for momentarily breaching (perhaps) Turkish airspace. Then Turkamen fighters gleefully trained their machine-guns on the plane’s pilots as they slowly parachuted toward the desert. Vladimir Putin fulminated boisterously to his domestic audience, but prudently declined to retaliate against the Turks, perhaps intuiting that it would snap a tripwire for a full-frontal confrontation with NATO.

Everyone has been consulted about the future of Syria, except the Syrians themselves.

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Why? Because simply, Syrians don’t matter. They are quite beside the point. Thanks to fresh reporting by Seymour Hersh, we now know that the subtext for Obama administration’s Syrian strategy, dating back to Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, has been largely geared toward ensnaring Russian in the Levantine quagmire. This is chaos theory marketed as foreign policy.

The rubble of modern Syria has become a multi-national bombing range, a kill zone of neo-Cold War contention.

Each new act of domestic terrorism, from Paris to San Bernardino, has been used to rationalize more airstrikes on Syria, even though the killers in both slaughters seemed mainly to be attempting to impress the terror network, which is like blaming Jodie Foster for inspiring John Hinkley’s wild fusillade at Reagan and his entourage.

Even Putin, that prickly hero to some precincts of the anti-imperialist Left, has upped the ante by threatening to launch a nuclear strike against ISIS in response to the bombing of a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai, even though there’s no direct evidence that the bomb was planted by the mad men of Daesh. Not to be outdone, Ted Cruz, the natural-born Canadian, has vowed to make the sands of Raqqa glow, despite the fact that few Americans could point to Raqqa on a map or explain why this city of a quarter-million people should be incinerated in retribution for the murderous rampage by the Bonnie and Clyde of San Berdoo.

The war on terror has exploded in the face of the West, with spreading mayhem across the Middle East and unraveling conditions on the home front. One chilling measure of the savage toll from 14 years of war is the rate of military suicides in the US, which now total more than 4000 since the first cruise missiles struck Afghanistan. There is a desperate motive to externalize the blame for this bleak situation, to target a scapegoat. The rancid resumes of ISIS and the despotic Assad regime make Syria a convenient landscape for more imperial bloodletting. There’s not even the faintest flicker of an anti-war movement left to impede their shameful enterprise.

In this comedy of terrors, the apex predators are the familiar ones circling overhead, waiting to blow Syria apart and plunder its bones.

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"Doctors Without Borders did not say which group or military had fired the rockets"

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You have to be alive to say thanks.

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"Doctors Without Borders did not say which group or military had fired the rockets"

You're digging pretty deep there, GSTRING. Usually, if the western press doesn't say WHO committed the shelling, it's because "their side", did it. And unsurprisingly, according to ZH it was Turkey that shelled a children's hospital. - SIGNY

Wasn't it you that said Russia owned the skies? -GSTRING

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Are you fucking kidding me? Do you think the people in the video haven't figured that out by now?
Because even knowing that their lives were at risk while their town was being liberated- all things considered, they're glad the terrorists are gone. And you're trying to invalidate their experience and their response (from your lofty, comfortable, safe existence ) because it doesn't match the way you think they "should" feel. Maybe you should argue with them, and not me. Tell THEM they shouldn't be grateful.- SIGNY


Are you fucking kidding EVERYONE??? How is "you have to be alive to say thanks" telling them how to feel?

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Originally posted by G:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

And as far as being grateful the people there aren't saying "Thank Allah it stopped", they're posting pictures of Assad and Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah Imam) and Ruhollah Khomeini (Iranian Imam)... pretty pointed "thanks", if you ask me. And they know what they're doing, without you trying to re-interpret their actions for them.

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Duh-ood - they're thanking their new masters. People rolled out the welcome wagon when ISIS rolled in too. It's called survival. Don't mistake it for anything else.

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DOOD, ARTILLERY shelling. Ground to ground, from Turkish positions into Syria.

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At least 21 people have been killed and dozens others injured in air strikes and rocket attacks on a school and three hospitals in separate locations in northern Syria,

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Al Jazeera has learned.

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In the deadliest incident, at least 14 people were killed and about 30 injured when air strikes and rocket artillery damaged parts of a hospital in the town of Azaz in Aleppo province, the media office at the rebel-controlled Aleppo local council said on Monday.

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In the same raid, a school where refugees were sheltering was also hit. No death toll has been confirmed.

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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a news conference in Kiev

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on Monday that a Russian ballistic missile hit the school and hospital in Azaz.

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The head of the [TURKISH] media office, Abu Thaer al-Halabi, told Al Jazeera that a section of a highway that facilitates the main supply line for humanitarian aid to the region was destroyed in the raids. Halabi also said the strikes were carried out by Russian jets.

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MSF hospital hit
Meanwhile, two strikes on Monday morning targeted a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, killing at least seven people.

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The medical humanitarian organisation said the hospital was hit by four missiles in two attacks within a few minutes of each other. Five patients, a caretaker and a hospital guard were killed, MSF said. Eight members of staff are missing, presumed dead, while other patients are also missing, but their numbers are currently unknown, the group added.

"There were at least seven deaths among the personnel and the patients, and at least eight MSF personnel have disappeared. We don't know if they are alive," Mego Terzian told the Reuters news agency, adding that he believed Russia or Syrian government forces were behind the attack.

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Earlier, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

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said nine people, including a child, had been killed in the "presumably Russian" raids.

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Attacks on civilian infrastructures and hospitals in northern Syria reportedly left some 50 people dead on Monday. While Turkey accused Russia of perpetrating a “war crime” on its border, a Syrian ambassador blamed the US-led coalition for the destruction.

The UN Secretary General office said that close to 50 people were killed in attacks in northern Syria as the Syrian army engages jihadist militants in fierce battles across the Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

“The secretary-general is deeply concerned by reports of missile attacks on at least five medical facilities and two schools in Aleppo and in Idlib, which killed close to 50 civilians, including children, and injuring many,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

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Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that at least seven people were killed, while at least eight remain missing, “presumed dead”, after the NGO-supported hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan, Idlib province, was struck by “four missiles in two attacks within a few minutes of each other.” The dead included five patients and one caretaker, in addition to a hospital guard. The NGO says that more patients are still missing, without specifying their exact number. MSF, which has condemned the strikes, called the attack “deliberate.”

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“The destruction on the MSF-supported facility appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure”, denounced Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF’s Head of Mission. “The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict.”

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The obliteration of the 30-bed hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan comes as a major blow to the local population, as the facility treated around 1,500 people a month. It had 54 staff members and two operating theaters which performed around 140 operations a month. In addition the hospital had an outpatient department and an emergency room.

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While the French MSF president Mego Terzian was quick to pin the strikes on Russia and Syrian government forces, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova, as well as the Syrian ambassador to Russia refuted the unsubstantiated claims.

“Concerning the hospital which was destroyed, in actual fact it was destroyed by the American Air Force. The Russian Air Force has nothing to do it with,” Ambassador Riad Haddad told Rossiya 24 television. The ambassador added that there is “intelligence information” that proves that the warplanes of the US coalition struck the hospital.

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Meanwhile Skvortsova stressed that Russian airplanes working in the area only target jihadist infrastructure.

“We are confident that [there is] no way could it be done by our defense forces. This contradicts our ideology,” she said in Geneva.

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In the neighboring Aleppo province, attacks on one of the last jihadist strongholds near the Turkish border in the town of Azaz killed at least 14, when missiles hit a children hospital and a school sheltering refugees, Reuters reported.

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According to the head of the UN children agency, Anthony Lake, two strikes in total took place in the northern city of Azaz. Condemning the acts, Lake also noted that there are reports that two schools were attacked at Azaz during which at least six children were reportedly killed.

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Saying that he was “appalled” at reports of attacks, Lake added: “Let us remember that these victims are children. Children.”

While Ankara was quick to blame Russia, the strikes in Azaz come as Turkey continues its shelling of Kurdish YPG positions for the third day running, just 8 km (5 miles) from the border.

Monday's attacks have been condemned by the international community, with the UN calling on war parties to reduce hostility ahead of the planned ceasefire in Syria. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the destruction of medical facilities are “unacceptable” and urged “all parties [to respect] basic principles of humanitarian law”. French Foreign Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault has also condemned the MSF clinic attack, saying such acts “constitute war crimes.”

“Such attacks are a blatant violation of international laws,” Haq said. “These incidents cast a shadow on the commitments made at the ISSG (International Syria Support Group) meeting in Munich on Feb. 11.”

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Turkey, Saudi Arabia and some European allies [Germany? - SIGNY] want ground troops deployed in Syria as a Russian-backed government advance nears NATO's southeastern border, Turkey's foreign minister said, but Washington has so far ruled out a major offensive.

Syrian government forces made fresh advances on Tuesday, as did Kurdish militia, both at the expense of rebels whose positions have been collapsing in recent weeks under the Russian-backed onslaught.

The offensive, supported by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias as well as Russian air strikes, has brought the Syrian army to within 25 km (15 miles) of Turkey's frontier, while Kurdish fighters, regarded by Ankara as hostile insurgents, have extended their presence along the border.

The advances have increased the risk of a military confrontation between Russia and Turkey. Turkish artillery returned fire into Syria for a fourth straight day on Tuesday, targeting the Kurdish YPG militia which Ankara says is being backed by Moscow.

"Some countries like us, Saudi Arabia and some other Western European countries have said that a ground operation is necessary," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters in an interview.

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In MSF’s recent history, no decision to halt or redirect medical operations has been influenced by counterterrorism restrictions. Our withdrawal from Darfur in 2009 was triggered by an expulsion order from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at a time when MSF was operating with a license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a requirement for conducting humanitarian work in certain countries..[ but] ... While limited to date in their direct impact on beneficiaries and at the point of care, counterterrorism regimes have nonetheless provoked a “chilling effect” on humanitarian assistance. The bureaucratic obstacles generated by the U.S. counterterrorism framework have become a reality for all U.S. aid organizations, even more so if they are Muslim. Counterterrorist restrictions also impact bank transactions, insurance coverage, and international trade, and while not designed to constrain humanitarian action per se, they create a risk-averse business climate that slows the deployment of supplies and aid workers. Recently, two United States based pharmaceutical manufacturers refused to complete orders for urgently needed drugs for MSF’s programs in Sudan, Syria, and Libya, despite specific licenses from OFAC for MSF’s Sudan programs and general humanitarian licenses for Libya and Syria.

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Russia and the USA have agreed to DECONFLICT the skies over Syria. In other words, the USA provides advance notice to the Russians about their airflights and Russia agrees not to shoot them down. And presumably vice-versa.- SIGNY

Presumably... important word.

"Hey, 'Vlad, just wanted to let you know we're going to be flying over Aleppo today if that's ok with you. We super swear not to bomb anyone on your team. I'm looking at the calendar and it looks like you guys are "shirts" today, so dress appropriately. Hopefully we'll be able to take out some civilians or a hospital or both if we're lucky. I need a Roger on that."= GSTRING

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"The only entities that would seem to benefit would be Turkey, ISIL, al Qaida and their allies because it provides the ammunition (so to speak) for the imposition of a "no fly" zone, as Merkel has proposed."- SIGNY

OR it could help the still-very-much-alive civilians on the ground, the ones Russia hasn't bombed yet or just unlucky enough to be caught between angry men with guns. You still care about them or are they just another piece in your guessing game? - DSTRING

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According to SOHR, [That's that one guy in London- SIGNY] Russian airstrikes in Syria killed 3,578 people, of which: 965 were ISIS fighters, 1,233 militants from the Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and other rebel forces and 1,380 civilians. The air strikes occurred in the period between 30 September 2015 and 30 January 2016.

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Bombing hospitals would help Russia and Syria by illustrating the futility of fighting with proxies, ending hostilities and bring about a return to Assad rule. But you knew that, right? You didn't? Last place again?

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the Ukrainians, and significant minority of which didn't want the results of the coup. [Yes, KPO, it WAS a coup.

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Then the FSA can be bombed with their ISIL/ ahrar ash Sham/ al nusra / al Qaida allies.

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The FSA allied with ISIS?? Evidence??

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Rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria are being driven into alliances with the Islamic State group, The Guardian reported on Sunday, based on a series of interviews.

While fighters from the Free Syrian Army are joining the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, civilian support in the terror group has also swelled.

"All the locals here wonder why the U.S. coalition never came to rescue them from Assad’s machine guns, but run to fight ISIS when it took a few pieces of land," an FSA commander named Abu Zeid was quoted as saying.

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“We are collaborating with the Islamic State and the Nusra Front by attacking the Syrian Army’s gatherings in ... Qalamoun,” said Bassel Idriss, the commander of an FSA-aligned rebel brigade.

“We have reached a point where we have to collaborate with anyone against unfairness and injustice,” confirmed Abu Khaled, another FSA commander who lives in Arsal.

“Let’s face it: The Nusra Front is the biggest power present right now in Qalamoun and we as FSA would collaborate on any mission they launch as long as it coincides with our values,” he added.

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Moderate and Islamist rebel groups in a Damascus suburb in Syria signed a “non-aggression” agreement with the Islamic State (ISIS), a Syrian monitoring group said. Some of the brigades are part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Revolutionary Front but have now agreed to a truce in Hajar al-Assad with ISIS in order to take down Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to the Agence-France Press. The shifting alliances highlight the challenge faced by the Obama administration in its fight against ISIS in Syria: Even moderates supported by the U.S. can't be relied on to help battle the terrorist group.

"The two parties will respect a truce until a final solution is found and they promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime," the U.K-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. (Nussayri is the pejorative term used for Assad’s Alawite regime.)

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The majority of Syrian people support Moscow's anti-terror campaign, the top Catholic bishop in Syria said in an interview with RT, adding that it's not only military assistance, but the promotion of peace process by Russia that they pin their hopes on.

"We see Russia's military operation as a real effort to fight terrorism. What is especially important is that this military campaign goes in parallel with promotion of peace process," Most Reverend Georges Abou Khazen, Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo for the Latins who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2013, told RT in a telephone interview. "We really hope that the peace process will soon prevail over fighting all across Syria," the bishop added.

"The majority of Syrian people" of all backgrounds and faith "regard Russian military campaign as salvation, a way out of the state we've been enduring for five years," the Catholic bishop said, adding that "Syrians are very positive about it."

"Russia's actions are not limited to the military operation. Russia makes a very positive impact by stimulating the negotiations process, and promotes dialogue between various Syrian groups," Bisoph Abou Khazen said.

Syrian minorities have been especially suffering from the conflict, the bishop told RT. Noting that there are over 20 religious and ethnic groups in the Syrian society, the Aleppo vicar said that before the conflict they've all lived in harmony. "Our pre-war society was like a beautiful multicolored mosaic. But unfortunately, it has been destroyed," he said.

Describing the harsh conditions that his congregation and other Syrians have been living in, the vicar said that there is no electricity in Aleppo and water supplies have been disrupted. "The lack of water is what has really made our lives harder," he said, adding that people have been living without water supplies for over a month now.

Many families have fled the violence and the conditions caused by constant fighting, Bishop Abou Khazen told RT, but added: "In light of recent military advances in the Aleppo region, we hope that tension will ease and situation in the city will improve."

Last week, leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, Vatican's Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia have held a historic meeting in Havana, Cuba. After the first ever face-to-face talks, a joint declaration has been signed, in which a special attention is given to the situation in the Middle East.

Saying that challenges of the situation in Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region with "the massive exodus of Christians from the land in which our faith was first disseminated," require "a shared response," the religious leaders called upon the international community "to act urgently."

"We wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist violence," the joint declaration said, with Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill urging global leaders "to seek an end" to the violence in Syria and Iraq

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