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BTW- military operations have ceased in Aleppo.

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Who did all that bombing btw? Do you know? Was it the US? UK? EU? China? Australia! No.... hmmm...

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Reports [FROM WHOM?] that Aleppo women are choosing suicide over rape by the invading Assad militias

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Do you believe everything you read in the press?

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Originally posted by kpo:
Assad blamed for new sarin attack killing 93+ people, the same nerve agent that his forces used to kill more than 1300 people in the famous incident of 2013.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouta_chemical_attack#Initial_claims
Deaths Various estimates:
at least 281 (French intelligence)[2]
at least 350 (UK intelligence)[3]
355 (MSF)[4]
494 (Damascus Media Office)[5]
502 (SOHR)[6]
635 (SRGC)[7]
923 (VDC)[8]
1,300 (SNC)[9]
1,338 (LCC)[10]
1,429 (United States)[11][12]
1,729 (FSA)

The UN report on the investigation into the Ghouta chemical attacks was published on 16 September 2013. ... The report, which was "careful not to blame either side," said that during the mission's work in areas under rebel control, "individuals arrived carrying other suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is being moved and possibly manipulated."

According to a study published in January 2014 by Theodore Postol and Richard Lloyd, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the rockets used in the attack had a range of about two kilometers, indicating the munitions could not have been fired from the 'heart' or from the Eastern edge of the Syrian Government Controlled Area shown in the Intelligence Map published by the White House

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So who bombed the shit out of Aleppo Berlin? Belgrade? And then said they liberated it? Come on, you can do it. Be honest - I know it's going to be hard for you.

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the same nerve agent that his [Assad's] forces used to kill more than 1300 people in the famous incident of 2013.

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Ake Sellstrom, head of the UN chemical-weapons inspection team, said the rebels significantly exaggerated the number of dead and injured treated in Al Ghouta hospitals. “We saw the capability of those hospitals, and it is impossible that they could have turned over the amount of people that they claim they did.” The discrepancy was explained when The Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. intelligence had scanned the rebel videos with face recognition software to count the number of dead.

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Second, serious questions arose about the White House claim that the Sarin rockets were fired from the heart of Assad-controlled Damascus. The New York Times and Human Rights Watch analyses assumed that the rockets were fired from over nine kilometers away.

***

But a report published by missile experts showed otherwise. Richard Lloyd is a former UN weapons inspector and currently works at Tesla Labs in Arlington, Virginia. Theodore A. Postol is a professor of science, technology, and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

They analyzed the data presented by the UN inspectors concerning the Sarin-laden rockets. They concluded that the rockets would have a maximum range of two kilometers. When asked about this issue at a press conference, Sellstrom concurred that the two kilometer range would be a “fair guess.” He later indicated the rockets could have been fired as close as one kilometer.

Lloyd and Postol superimposed the two kilometer rocket range onto the White House maps. Their report said, “These munitions could not possibly have been fired at east Ghouta from the ‘heart,’ or from the eastern edge, of the Syrian government-controlled area shown in the intelligence map published by the White House on Aug. 30, 2013.”

The report noted that these “improvised artillery rockets” could have been constructed by the army or the rebels. “The indigenous chemical munition could be manufactured by anyone who has access to a machine shop with modest capabilities, that is, the claim is incorrect that only the Syrian government could manufacture the munition.” The New York Times wrote about the report and noted the much shorter range but never retracted its erroneous reports that the rockets must have been fired from the Mount Qasioun military complex.

Poking holes in the U.S. government’s case doesn’t automatically mean the rebels were responsible, however. Were the rebels militarily capable and politically willing to carry out a massive war crime against their own supporters?

The Syrian Version

As a liquid, Sarin is quite volatile and can’t be stored for very long because it can corrode storage containers and warheads. So Sarin precursor chemicals are stored separately and then mixed prior to use. They can be mixed in a lab by trained technicians. Mixing in the battlefield can be very dangerous to both the technician and anyone nearby. The Syrian army has admitted having Sarin precursors in large quantities. Some extremist rebel groups may have had some as well.

I spent some time in Damascus interviewing government officials and experts about the chemical-weapons issue. The Syrians presented a version of events sharply at odds with the U.S. government narrative.

On March 19, 2013, rebels used Sarin against a pro-government neighborhood in the village of Khan Al Asal near Aleppo, according to Dr. Bassam Barakat, a medical doctor and pro-government political consultant. He told me that blood samples and other physical evidence were sent to Russia for analysis. Officials there wrote a 100-page report indicating rebel use of Sarin and delivered it to the United Nations, but neither party ever made it public. According to Barakat, the Russians confirmed that the Sarin had originally come from the chemical stockpiles of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who had been supplied by the old Soviet Union. Extremists in Libya shipped the Sarin chemical precursors to Turkey, where they were then smuggled across the border into Syria, according to Barakat. Assad officials were so confident that they could prove the rebels had used the poison chemicals, they allowed UN inspectors into Syria to investigate, but only after months of delay.

The final UN chemical-weapons report confirmed a number of points in the Syrian government version. Rebels were shelling Khan Al Asal prior to the chemical attack. At about 7:00 a.m., a munition hit the area some 300 meters from a government checkpoint. The UN report indicated, “The air stood still and witnesses described a yellowish-green mist in the air and a pungent and strong sulfur-like smell. . . . The witnesses reported seeing people scratching their faces and bodies. They also observed people lying in the streets, some unconscious, some having convulsions and foaming from the mouth.”

The UN inspectors concluded that Khan Al Asal had been attacked with Sarin. The UN inspection team was unable to visit the town due to security concerns but was able to interview eyewitnesses and take medical samples of residents who had come to Damascus. A Syrian government report indicated that twenty people died from the Sarin attack and 124 were injured.

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The large-scale nature of the attacks, involving at least a dozen surface-to-surface rockets affecting two different neighborhoods in Damascus countryside situated 16 kilometers apart, and surrounded by major Syrian government military positions.

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It is good that we took those trajectories, but the distance these rockets travelled is not very far, so it is misleading to use trajectories to try and find the focal point of the trajectory as they are only travelling a kilometre or something like that. Those facts surfaced in our investigation.

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Have you noticed you have become your own Auraptor?

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Have you noticed you have become your own Auraptor?

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
gung-ho cheerleading for war and devastation and civilian slaughter quotes please

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GROZNY, Dresden, Guernica: some cities have made history by being destroyed. Aleppo, once Syria’s largest metropolis, will soon join their ranks. Its 1,000-year-old Muslim heritage has turned to dust; Russian aircraft have targeted its hospitals and schools; its citizens have been shelled, bombed, starved and gassed (see article). Nobody knows how many of the tens of thousands who remain in the last Sunni Arab enclave will die crammed inside the ruins where they are sheltering. But even if they receive the safe passage they have been promised, their four-year ordeal in Aleppo has blown apart the principle that innocent people should be spared the worst ravages of war. Instead, a nasty, brutish reality has taken hold—and it threatens a more dangerous and unstable world.

To gauge the depth of Aleppo’s tragedy, remember that the first protests against Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in 2011 saw Sunnis marching cheerfully alongside Shias, Christians and Kurds. From the start, with extensive help from Iran, Mr Assad set out to destroy the scope for peaceful resistance by using violence to radicalise his people. Early on, his claim that all rebels were “terrorists” was outrageous. Today some are. There were turning-points when the West might have stepped in—by establishing a no-fly zone, say; or a haven where civilians could shelter; or even a full-scale programme of arming the rebels. But, paralysed by the legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan, the West held back. As the fighting became entrenched, the need to intervene grew, month by bloody month. But the risk and complexity of intervening grew faster. As Mr Assad was about to topple, Russia joined the fray, acting without conscience and to devastating effect. Aleppo’s fall is proof that Mr Assad has prevailed and of Iran’s influence. But the real victory belongs to Russia, which once again counts in the Middle East.

...

Plenty of people share the blame. After Mr Assad drenched his people in nerve gas, crossing an American red line, Britain’s parliament voted against taking even limited military action. As millions of people fled to Syria’s neighbours, including Lebanon and Jordan, most European countries looked the other way—or put up barriers to keep refugees out.

Particular blame falls on Barack Obama. America’s president has treated Syria as a trap to be avoided. His smug prediction that Russia would be bogged down in a “quagmire” there has proved a historic misjudgment.

...

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Originally posted by kpo:
All of that Siggy calls "liberation".

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Originally posted by SignyM:
After constantly slagging Russia about the liberation of Aleppo, even NPR (globalist-Democratic source that it is) had to admit that the liberated civilians were housed and fed, and being treated well, and that there was no massacres or arrests or forced conscriptions as the so-called "rebels" claimed.

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Aleppo Victory… US and its Crime Partners Suffer ‘Meltdown of Sanity’

The US and its terrorist-sponsoring partners are seeing their criminal regime-change project in ruins, as the Syrian army and its allies win a spectacular victory to retake the strategically important city of Aleppo.

Western governments and their flunkies at the UN are cynically, perversely decrying a «meltdown of humanity».

Closer to the truth is their own «meltdown of sanity». This is because the official Western narrative about the Syrian war is finally being exposed on a glaring scale.

The exposure for the whole world to see is one of a systematic, fake propaganda cover that concealed a criminal enterprise – an enterprise involving terrorist proxies, or fake moderate rebels, whom the Western governments have sponsored for the past six years in a conspiracy to overthrow the government of Syria. The gravity of this systematic crime committed by Washington and its various partners is now unfolding.

Unable to cope with their own cognitive dissonance over the criminality, the Western governments and their complicit corporate news media are resorting to outright denial and to compounding lies with even more lies.

Instead of dealing with the reality that Syrian state forces have recaptured Aleppo from brutal, illegally armed groups, which the West and its regional clients have bankrolled and armed, the West distorts the dramatic victory as the «fall of Aleppo». One report on American channel CNN even referred to the victorious Syrian army and its allies as «persecutors».

With typical unhinged emotion, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power cited unverified reports of civilians being executed in Aleppo, and slammed Syria and its allies Russia and Iran for having «no shame». It is Power and her Western partners-in-crime, including top UN officials, who should be hanging their heads in shame.

Among the hysterical soundbites about alleged atrocities and slaughter being lobbed around this week was this from UN «humanitarian» official Jens Laerke who said Aleppo was seeing a «meltdown of humanity». Catchy words, but divorced from reality.

Western news media outlets were screaming headlines alleging summary executions of women and children by the Syrian army and its Russian, Iranian and Lebanese allies as they moved in to finally retake the whole of the northern city.

Outgoing UN chief Ban Ki-Moon talked in disparaging tones about an «uncompromising military victory», while his underlings Rupert Colville and Jan Egeland decried «hellish» conditions and «war crimes» committed by Syria and Russia.

The problem is that all these sensational, reckless assertions are based on unverified claims by anonymous «activists» or persons involved with militants – militants who are integrated with terror groups like Jaysh al Fatah, Jabhat al Nusra, Ahrar al Sham and Nour al din al Zenki. All of them affiliated with the internationally proscribed Al Qaeda terrorist network – which the Western governments claim to be at war with.

It truly is a grotesque revelation when Western governments and UN officials publicly spout propaganda on behalf of terrorist groups.

Samantha Power and her British counterpart at the UN Matthew Rycroft cited UN «reports» of 82 civilians being executed, including 11 women and 13 children, by the pro-government Syrian forces during the final hours of recapturing Aleppo. But the same UN «reports» were themselves based on unverified sources supposedly embedded among the terrorists. This is not reportage. It is simply recycling rumors aimed at saving the necks of terrorist groups.

The simple fact of the information coming from unverified sources did not stop the UN, Power, Rycroft and the raft of Western media outlets, including the Washington Post, CNN, Guardian, Independent, France 24 etc, presenting the claims as if they were fact.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Western governments and their dutiful, unquestioning news media of spreading «fake news» about the dramatic events in Syria this week. Lavrov pointed out that none of the alleged atrocities were acknowledged by independent humanitarian groups.

Syria’s ambassador to the UN Bashar al Jaafari also refuted the claims of atrocities that Western counterparts appeared to be so perplexed by.

Western governments and media outlets persisted in their gory fantasies despite abundant video footage that even they themselves were broadcasting which showed thousands of civilians calmly walking away from militant-held pockets of Aleppo towards the Syrian state forces. Is that the behavior of people who are being massacred, summarily executed, slaughtered?

One of the most absurd distortions was this from France 24. The state-owned broadcaster of one of the countries that has supplied weapons and propaganda cover to terrorists in Syria over the past six years described this week how «people in government-held areas of Aleppo were celebrating». Given that the Syrian government holds virtually all of Aleppo that means that the vast majority of Syrians were celebrating. Yet France 24 roils its words to contrive a false division between pro and anti-government populations.

The more logical and truthful depiction is that Syrian civilians are at last able to flee from terror gangs that have held them under siege. But in reporting that the whole false Western narrative about what has been going on in Aleppo and Syria for the past six years would implode like a house of cards.

Why aren’t the Western news media interviewing the tens of thousands of civilians who have now managed to flee from the defeated terrorist groups? Why don’t the Western media ask questions about the nature of their captivity? Such as, why could they not escape from militant-held eastern Aleppo until now? What do these civilians think of the Syrian army and its allies who have crushed the militants?

The curious, gaping absence of any testimonies carried by the Western media from the thousands of liberated civilians in Aleppo is mirrored by the same curious, gaping absence of testimonies from thousands of civilians liberated elsewhere in Syria by the army over the past year.

That’s because those civilians are telling media outlets which are willing to report, such as the Syrian state broadcaster SANA, as well as RT, Press TV and Al Manar, that their nightmare siege imposed by the Western-backed terrorists is over. If Western media outlets were to actually bother to conduct real journalism they would go into liberated areas of Aleppo and other towns and villages across Syria and report that life is returning to happy normalcy for these families and communities.

The truth is Aleppo was invaded by Western-backed mercenaries in July 2012, who turned the eastern side of the city into a den ruled under a reign of terror. A twisted, demented caliphate run by head-chopping Wahhabi jihadists was imposed. Like Syria as a whole, these mercenaries were sanitized in the West as «moderate, pro-democracy rebels» – albeit somehow supposedly «intermingled» with jihadi extremists.

If that were the case, then where are these supposed «moderates» now that the last den of the «rebels» in Aleppo has been routed?

The stark absence of «moderate», «pro-democracy», «Western-value-supporting rebels» emerging from the ruins of Aleppo is as stark as the absence of petrified civilians denouncing Syrian army «atrocities» or Russian «war crimes».

In one resounding moment this week, the Western narrative about Aleppo, and the Syrian war more generally, has collapsed in a pile of dust. No amount of denials and further distortions can hide the exposure of Western lies and propaganda fabrications.

So ironically, Western media outlets have recently whipped up the phenomenon of «fake news» in the context of trying to discredit Russia over alleged electoral interference in the US and Europe.

What Syria has demonstrated is that the real culprits of peddling false news, and more gravely false narratives, are the Western governments and their conceited, self-important news media.

Unable to deal with the unbearable truth of criminal complicity, the official West is displaying a meltdown of sanity.

Aleppo and Syria will one day emerge again from the present ruins. No such recovery from ruins will be made by the ignominious Western governments and their lying, criminally complicit media.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Silly me. I thought GUNG-HO CHEERLEADING FOR WAR AND DEVASTATION AND CIVILIAN SLAUGHTER might have been something like: I hope Russia bombs everyone back into the stone age!

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Then you're a fool. Warmongers and their cheerleaders always dress up their wars of aggression and indiscriminate slaughter with righteous language like "liberation".

There are plenty of horror stories coming out of Mosul about life under ISIS. Those people (with the exception of ISIS itself and its supporters) really DO feel liberated, despite the death and ruin around them. And I guarantee you won't object when the US uses the term 'liberated' to describe those people.

Aleppo is the same way.

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In Moscow, media quoted praise from Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov for a ‘successful and humane’ Syrian operation to liberate the east of the city.

He was also quoted as saying on Tuesday that militants have produced staged videos showing ‘Russian bombardments’ in Syria.

To illustrate claims that the rebels ruled with a reign of terror, a mother, fleeing with her son, showed injuries on his back to Syrian TV.

“Look at his body! Why are we coming? Why are we coming here? Because we wanted to get rid of them…They would not let us go,” she said.

Russian media also presented images of Aleppo residents “celebrating the impending liberation of their city”.

More than 100,000 civilians were held “hostage” as human shields in Aleppo by “terrorists”, the Russian defence ministry spokesman is quoted as saying by the Tass news agency.

They left for Syrian government-controlled areas, he says, as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

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Russia is the only force that’s fighting the “radicals” in Syria, unlike its Western counterparts, which are paralyzed by inaction and indifference to the suffering of Syrian civilians. Not only that, but the West is even sabotaging Russia’s diplomatic efforts at the U.N., and actively aiding terrorists in Syria and Iraq. Also, everyone except Russia is to blame for the loss of Palmyra.

That’s the gist of this Sunday’s flagship news shows on Russian television.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Where the hell do you get your news, 1kiki?

Western media.

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I'll be really curious how the claimed '250,000' thousand residents trapped in E Aleppo will be made to disappear from our mediated reality. Once areas of the city were liberated, citizen were reported fleeing by 1k and 2k - certainly no mass exodus of hundreds of thousands. And there are merely 10,000 or so left to be freed.

Whatever happened to all those hundreds of thousands? How did they disappear?

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Whatever happened to all those hundreds of thousands? How did they disappear? And why aren't YOU asking about them? You were so full of righteous concern just a few days ago.

Did you forget about that overwhelming human tragedy already? Did your concern last as long as the propaganda you love to listen to was blaring it in your ears - to be forgotten at the next outrage de jour?

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There are plenty of horror stories coming out of Mosul about life under ISIS. Those people (with the exception of ISIS itself and its supporters) really DO feel liberated, despite the death and ruin around them. And I guarantee you won't object when the US uses the term 'liberated' to describe those people.

Aleppo is the same way.- 1KIKI

Where the hell do you get your news, 1kiki?- SECOND

The governments of Syria and Russia are presenting a very different picture of the crisis in Aleppo from that portrayed by the UN, as the battle for the city draws to a close- SECONDRATE

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At Least 14 US Coalition Military Officers Captured by Syrian Special Forces in East Aleppo Bunker

DAMASCUS – According to two reports coming out of Aleppo today, at least 14 US Coalition military officers were captured this morning in an East Aleppo bunker by Syrian Special Forces.

This story was quietly leaked by Voltaire.net, who announced, “The Security Council is sitting in private on Friday, December 16, 2016, at 17:00 GMT, while NATO officers were arrested this morning by the Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in East Aleppo.”

Fares Shehabi MP, a prominent Syrian Parliamentarian and head of Aleppo’s Chamber of Commerce published the names of the Coalition officers on his Facebook page on the 15th December (emphasis added):

Mutaz Kanoglu – Turkey
David Scott Winer – USA
David Shlomo Aram – Israel
Muhamad Tamimi – Qatar
Muhamad Ahmad Assabian – Saudi
Abd-el-Menham Fahd al Harij – Saudi
Islam Salam Ezzahran Al Hajlan – Saudi
Ahmed Ben Naoufel Al Darij – Saudi
Muhamad Hassan Al Sabihi – Saudi
Hamad Fahad Al Dousri – Saudi
Amjad Qassem Al Tiraoui – Jordan
Qassem Saad Al Shamry – Saudi
Ayman Qassem Al Thahalbi – Saudi
Mohamed Ech-Chafihi El Idrissi – Moroccan

Listen to Fares Shehabi’s interview on the Sunday Wire radio show: ‘Liberation Aleppo‘

In addition to Voltaire.net, the other original report was provided by Damascus-based Syrian journalist Said Hilal Alcharifi. According to Alcharifi, captured “NATO” officers were from a number of member states including the US, France, Germany and Turkey, as well as Israel. Here is his statement (translated from French):

“Thanks to information received, Syrian authorities discovered the headquarters of high ranking western/NATO officers in the basement of an area in East Aleppo and have captured them alive. Some names have already been given to Syrian journalists, myself included. The nationalities are US, French, British, German, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi, Moroccan, Qatari etc. In light of their nationalities and their rank, I assure you that the Syrian government have a very important catch, which should enable them to direct negotiations with the countries that have tried to destroy them.”

Although these initial reports describe the individuals in question as “NATO” officers, it’s unlikely they would have been carrying NATO colors on a covert operation – and might be more accurately labeled as US Coalition officers. Note that early reports suggest that these are not standard ‘street rebel’ or jihadi terrorists but actual Coalition military personnel and field commanders.

21WIRE have also received unconfirmed reports yesterday that militants had fired a missile into Ramousa area and then tried, unsuccessfully, to get cars out of East Aleppo. It’s possible this incident could be related to today reports of captured western operatives.

This report from the Syrian Arab News Agency (emphasis added):

“The agreement on evacuating militants and weapons from the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo city has been suspended after terrorist groups breached it, special sources told SANA correspondent in Aleppo.

The sources said that the suspension of the agreement will remain in place until obtaining guarantees that oblige the terrorist groups to abide by all the agreement’s provisions, stressing on the Syrian side’s full adherence to the agreement and its keenness to end the bloodshed and restore security and stability to the entire city of Aleppo.”

Earlier, SANA reporter said that the terrorist groups have breached the agreement as they smuggled heavy weapons, including TOW missiles, heavy machineguns and kidnapped people via the buses and cars transporting terrorists and their families towards the southwestern countryside of Aleppo city.

The reporter added that the terrorist groups fired shells and sniper bullets on the buses and ambulances at al-Ramousseh crossing, noting that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which are supervising the evacuation process had to withdraw all buses and cars from the crossing.

Over the past 24 hours, some 8079 terrorists and members of their families were evacuated on ten batches via busses and ambulances from the neighborhoods of Salah-Eddin, al-Ansari, al-Mashhad and al-Zibdiyeh to the southwest countryside of Aleppo city”

If true, then this latest news would also mean that both the Syrian and Russian governments would have additional leverage going forward in any bilateral negotiations with the US-led Coalition.

If, however, this story is kept under wraps by NATO member governments and summarily blacked out by the US and European media outlets, then it might indicate that a deal has been struck, albeit behind the scenes, for the return of captured NATO operatives in exchange for other concessions.

If today’s report from East Aleppo is accurate, this might also help explain the hysterical behavior by the US State Department and western UN officials who have been demanding “an immediate ceasefire” – despite the fact that 99% of East Aleppo has already been liberated by Syrian government forces.

The western establishment hysterical reactions to Al Nusra’s defeat in Aleppo have included wild claims that the Syrian Army had ‘unleashed death squads,’ on its own residents in East Aleppo and were openly ‘executing women and children in the street,’ and ‘burning children in the street,’ as well what appear to be more fictional reports circulated in US media mainly by Michael Weis of The Daily Beast via CNN, claiming that Syrian Army was committing “mass rape” against residents of East Aleppo. His article entitled, “Women in Aleppo Choose Suicide Over Rape, Rebels Report,“ made a number of outlandish claims including:

“Activists and rebels in the besieged city say mass executions have begun and children are burned alive as Assad’s Iranian- and Russian-backed forces move in.”

Not surprisingly, aside from unnamed “UN sources”, Weiss claims to have got his information from none other than the discredited US and UK-financed pseudo ‘NGO’ known as the White Helmets.

Back in September, numerous reports suggested that a western command center located behind terrorist-held lines had been targeted and destroyed by a Russian missile strike. Prof Michel Chossudovsky wrote:

“The US and its allies had established a Field Operations Room in the Aleppo region integrated by intelligence personnel. Until it was targeted by a Russian missile attack on September 20, this “semi-secret” facility was operated by US, British, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari intelligence personnel.”

This report was neither admitted, nor was it denied by US Coalition sources at the time. However, one mainstream Israeli source, The Times of Israel, did report the incident.

For anyone who has been paying close attention to the Syrian Conflict, seeing NATO special forces or “contractors” working with ‘rebel’ or terrorist fighters inside of Syria is nothing unusual. Numerous reports have been filed of British soldiers assigned to fighting groups to help with training, strategy and logistics. In June 2016, The Telegraph admitted that British special forces were helping one rebel group, “… with logistics, like building defences to make the bunkers safe,” said one ‘rebel’ fighter. Other reports, including the LA Times which detailed CIA operations used to arm militants, including Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria) who were the terrorist force in charge in East Aleppo. Other revelations of US covert involvement include The New York Times, and also information on US (NATO by another name only) covert operations provided to the Wall Street Journal.

Throughout fighting in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, during the period of May 2014 to the present, numerous incidents have been reported where NATO military soldiers and operatives have been both spotted, and captured by rebel forces, and in most cases these reports have been muted, more than likely because of ‘horse trading’ taking place as an extension of wider diplomacy. http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/12/16/reports-at-least-10-nato-militar
y-officers-captured-by-syrian-special-forces-this-morning-in-east-aleppo-bunker/

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Saturday, December 17, 2016 2:47 AM
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I'll be really curious how the claimed '250,000' thousand residents trapped in E Aleppo will be made to disappear from our mediated reality. Once areas of the city were liberated, citizen were reported fleeing by 1k and 2k - certainly no mass exodus of hundreds of thousands. And there are merely 10,000 or so left to be freed.

Whatever happened to all those hundreds of thousands? How did they disappear? And why aren't YOU asking about them? You were so full of righteous concern just a few days ago.

Did you forget about that overwhelming human tragedy already? Did your concern last as long as the propaganda you love to listen to was blaring it in your ears - to be forgotten at the next outrage de jour?

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Saturday, December 17, 2016 6:21 AM
Originally posted by kpo:
Over the past 48 hours, up to 50,000 people have been evacuated from eastern Aleppo, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov has reported.
“More than 20,000 residents left eastern Aleppo in the first part of Saturday, and 1,217 militants laid down their weapons,” Konashenkov said.
https://www.rt.com/news/369869-syria-evacuation-civilians-aleppo/

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Saturday, December 17, 2016 2:47 AM
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Whatever happened to all those hundreds of thousands ? How did they disappear? And why aren't YOU asking about them? You were so full of righteous concern just a few days ago.

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Saturday, December 17, 2016 6:21 AM
Originally posted by kpo:
The ~250,000 figure was from weeks ago, before the Russian/Assad offensive.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_offensive_%28September%E2%80%93Oc
tober_2016%29
The Aleppo offensive of September–October 2016 was the military operation launched in Aleppo in late September 2016 by the Syrian Army aiming to capture all of the remaining rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo.

More than 250,000 in Eastern Aleppo could die after the next 20 days
November 17
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2016/11/17/more
-than-250000-in-eastern-aleppo-could-die-in-less-than-20-days-if-supplies-dont-arrive/?utm_term=.de1a27664f42

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2412732/aleppo-evacuated-children-rescue
d-bombed/
aleppo evacuation
16th December 2016, 10:07 am
About 8,000 people have left since Thursday (December 15) and there were up to 250,000 civilians - 100,000 of them children - trapped in east Aleppo when it came under siege.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
I have a genuine concern for, and interest in, the civilians of both Mosul and Aleppo suburb. They were both civilian populations taken hostage by ISIS, under the assumption that they would be human shields. They were both ruled by ISIS with an iron fist.

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There is no ISIS in East Aleppo.

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Civilians liberated from Mosul.

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There is no ISIS in East Aleppo.
Quote and link, please.

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Dearest Kiki, YOU claimed that east Aleppans are "pleased" to be "liberated".

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Asking me to prove a negative...

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Really? Because I looked for the word "pleased" and the only place I find it is in your posts. So - what DID I say? Quote required.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Wiki says the offensive began in October.

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KPO: "My guess is you'll pivot from scoffing at the "supposed tens of thousands" of civilians in east Aleppo, to boasting about how well the cuddly Assad is taking care of them all"
KIKI: "MEANWHILE - where is the US in offering aid to the recently liberated civilians of Aleppo suburb? Where is the UN?"

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
First your Russian propaganda tells you that the 250,000 figure of civilians in east Aleppo is inflated by lying Western media, and is more like 30,000.

The quote wasn't that there were 30,000 IN Aleppo, but that, so far, only 30,000 had evacuated FROM Aleppo.

I'm getting tired of having to correct the errors/ strawmen/ lies you constantly post.

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I have heard quotes that the real civilian population on East Aleppo was something like 30,000, not the inflated figure of 250,000 that the UN and western press have kept citing... I guess I'll keep count of how many are estimated to have fled to other parts of Aleppo, and see if it totals up to about 30,000 as I've been led to expect.

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Originally posted by kpo Saturday, December 17, 2016 6:14 PM:

Here's Siggy Thursday, December 8, 2016 7:33 AM (this has also been posted to the predictions thread, for posterity:

SIGNYM: "I've been keeping track of the number of civilians evacuating east Aleppo, and it's nowhere near 250,000. It totals no more than about 30,000 so far, with just a few neighborhoods remaining. All of that yammer about "250,000" civilians was what I thought: sheer (UN-backed) bullshit."

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Syrian "Rebels" Attack, Burn Aleppo Evacuation Buses

While the UN condemns Syrian and Russian "atrocities" in the battle over East Aleppo, which as noted previously was a key victory for the Assad regime in the past week, one which will end the stalemate and sway the balance of power in the ongoing war between regime forces and US-coalition armed rebels, little attention had been paid to the subversive tactics employed by such "moderate rebels" as the al Qaeda linked al-Nusra front.

That may change after five buses en route to evacuate the sick and injured from two government-held villages in Syria's Idlib province were attacked and burned by rebels.

PHOTOS: Reports coming in that an "unknown rebel group" has attacked buses going to evacuate civilians from Kafraya and Fuah - @Ald_Aba pic.twitter.com/7xMPhumeu5

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) December 18, 2016

MORE: According to reports, civilians had not yet gotten on the buses. They were on their way to pick them up when the attack happened.

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) December 18, 2016

Five buses were attacked and burned by “armed terrorists” while en route to militant-held villages after an evacuation deal was struck between the Syrian government and rebels, Syrian state television has reported. According to Reuters, the deal was reached earlier on Sunday, citing al-Ikhbariya TV news. It will see the remaining militants and their families evacuated from east Aleppo in return for the evacuation of people in militant-held villages in Idlib province, al-Foua and Kafraya.

Syrian state television has reported that five buses were attacked and burned by “armed terrorists” while en route to al-Foua and Kefraya. However, most of them, as well as Red Crescent vehicles, reached the entrance to the villages, the report said.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported earlier that evacuation buses had entered the last militant-held district of eastern Aleppo, Ramousah, under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Cross. State television showed live footage of buses and a van bearing a Syrian Arab Red Crescent flag parked next to a highway intersection in Ramousah. Several large white cars marked with Red Crescent and Red Cross symbols also appeared in the footage.

As BBC adds, the convoy was traveling to Foah and Kefraya, besieged by rebel fighters. Pro-government forces have been demanding that people be allowed to leave the mainly Shia villages in order for the evacuation of east Aleppo to restart, with thousands of people waiting to leave in desperate conditions, reports say.

VIDEO: Footage shows JFS (al-Nusra) members attacking evacuation buses - @24Aleppo

pic.twitter.com/8IiRcbZJmk

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) December 18, 2016

The initial plan to evacuate eastern Aleppo collapsed on Friday, leaving civilians stranded at various points along the route out without access to food or shelter.

PHOTOS: Other buses have however arrived in Kafraya and Fuah - @sayed_ridha

pic.twitter.com/MzxstFX7DR

— Conflict News (@Conflicts) December 18, 2016

Despite delays caused by disagreements over the new evacuation plan, convoys were said to be traveling to both eastern Aleppo and the government-held villages in Idlib province on Sunday. However, UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six buses were attacked and torched on the way to Foah and Kefraya.

Jaish Fateh militants have set fire to several buses that were going towards Fuah-Kafraya in Idlib countryside pic.twitter.com/wud4CNQp1u

— Hassan Ridha (@sayed_ridha) December 18, 2016

It had reported earlier that the "moderate rebel" group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, was preventing buses entering the villages.

As a reminder, earlier in the year, Jabhat Al-Nusra, rebranded itself Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, a cosmetic change which was apparently sufficient to convince the US government to brand them "moderates" and send them arms and equipment, equipment which today may have been used against innocent Syrian citizens.

Syrian state media said "armed terrorists" attacked five buses, burned and destroyed them.

More pics of the buses which were burned by militants near Sarmin south of Binnish, Idlib pic.twitter.com/by7g7wf5tP

— Hassan Ridha (@sayed_ridha) December 18, 2016

Rebel groups have not yet commented on the attack. Subsequent to the attack, it was reported that more buses have been sent to Fuah-Kafraya to replace those that were burnt, although it was unclear if the "rebels" would allow them passage.

Meanwhile, later on Sunday, the United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a French-drafted resolution aimed at ensuring that UN officials can monitor the evacuations from Aleppo and the safety of the remaining civilians. Reuters reported that those evacuated on Thursday and Friday morning had been taken to rebel-held districts in the countryside west of Aleppo. As RT notes, a draft of the resolution “emphasizes that the evacuations of civilians must be voluntary and to final destinations of their choice, and protection must be provided to all civilians who choose or who have been forced to be evacuated and those who opt to remain in their homes.”

It was not immediately clear how Russia will vote. “If it is a sensible initiative and we see it on paper, why not entertain this initiative?” Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said on Friday.

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Fua and Kefraya have been key bargaining chips throughout the conflict. Both have been besieged, but not with the same effect as east Aleppo.

For the past 18 months, Iran has tried to broker a deal with the powerful Islamist militia Ahrar al-Sham which would allow the remaining villagers to be relocated to Zabadani and Madaya, between Damascus and the Lebanese border.

In return, Sunni residents of those towns would be sent to Fua and Kefraya, as part of a population swap that would change the geopolitics of the region and help build a Shia presence from the suburbs of Damascus into Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, and beyond to southern Lebanon.

The population swaps were not part of the original terms of the Aleppo evacuation deal, which were brokered between Russia and Turkey. However, soon after the deal was announced early last week, Iran made a series of its own demands.

In addition to relocating sectarian groups, Iran demanded the bodies of slain militia fighters that it had sent to Syria, including members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iraqi militias. It also demanded information about any fighters that had been taken prisoner.

The chaos surrounding the evacuation deal underscores the stakes, with east Aleppo in its death throes and the six-year war beginning to lose steam for the first time. It also underlines how a splintered opposition cannot control all the elements in the fight against the Syrian leadership, even as tens of thousands of civilians remain cornered, many of them in the open with little food in the depths of winter.

The Free Syria Army, an umbrella organisation of moderate rebel groups, said: “The people who resisted in Aleppo are paying the price of the irresponsible acts of a few. This was a reckless act endangering the lives of more than 50,000 people.

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Fua and Kefraya have been key bargaining chips throughout the conflict. Both have been besieged, but not with the same effect as east Aleppo.

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On 28 March 2015, after four days of fighting, rebels captured Idlib city and managed to besiege the towns of Kafriya and al-Fu'ah. Thousands of civilians were trapped since. Army of Conquest and its main component al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda branch in Syria) since then imposed a full siege blocking all humanitarian supplies to the towns and several executions were reported to happen in Idlib province for people accused to smuggle goods into Kafriya and al-Fu'ah

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... the Army of Conquest ... launched an assault on al-Fu'ah ... On 31 August, rebels launched a powerful attack on the Shia enclave ... Between 3 September and 5 September, the rebels intensively shelled the enclave and launched a number of attacks on al-Fu'ah and Kafriya ... On 18 September, the rebels launched a new attack on the enclave, firing almost 400 shells and rockets, while nine car bombs (including seven suicide bombers) were detonated at government positions. The clashes led to the death of at least 29 rebels and 21 government soldiers, as well as seven civilians. ... According to government claims, the rebels lost over 100 fighters, including 31 from foreign countries

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The overall number of suicide bombers with VBIEDs that attacked al-Fou’aa and Kafraya in the battle of 18–19 September was estimated to be 26 VBIEDs. The attackers were: 11 Uyghur Chinese, one Lebanese, 2 Saudis and 11 Syrians.
On 20 September, a second cease-fire in ... al-Fou’aa/Kafriya was implemented, where the rebels allowed humanitarian aid to the besieged civilians of al-Fou’aa and Kafriya. A violation of this cease-fire was reported the next day as the rebels resumed shelling the towns.

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For the past 18 months, Iran has tried to broker a deal with the powerful Islamist militia Ahrar al-Sham which would allow the remaining villagers to be relocated to Zabadani and Madaya, between Damascus and the Lebanese border.- KRAPO

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The chaos surrounding the evacuation deal underscores the stakes, with east Aleppo in its death throes and the six-year war beginning to lose steam for the first time. It also underlines how splintered opposition terrorist groups cannot control all the elements in the fight against the Syrian leadership, even as tens of thousands of civilians remain cornered, many of them in the open with little food in the depths of winter.

The Free Syria Army, an umbrella organisation of moderate rebel groups, said: “The people who resisted in Aleppo are paying the price of the irresponsible acts of a few. This was a reckless act endangering the lives of more than 50,000 people.

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This situation is entering a dangerous phase. 30,000+ 3,000-5,000 civilians are in the process of slowly starving/freezing to death, some right out in the open air.

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Iran feels in a position to demand ethnic cleansing of Sunnis

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in accordance with its own geo-strategic ambitions, and the rebels have no choice but to accept, but it's in the hand of the most extreme, Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in other parts of the country to hold up their end of the deal for them. Assad certainly won't flinch at the thought of 30,000 3,000 more of his rebellious subjects dying an agonising death being delayed in their evacuation by a day or two, especially while Al-Qaeda-linked rebels are getting the blame and advertising themselves to the world.

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This could end badly.-KRAPO

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