Russia
Warns US Military
"Aggression" In Syria Would
Lead To
"Terrible, Tectonic"
Consequences
1
October, 2016
As
the drums of war beat louder, following last
week's ultimatum by John Kerry
that the US is contemplating a direct military intervention in Syria,
including
potentially sending US troops on the ground in the war-torn
country for the first time, on Saturday Russia warned the US against
carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, saying it would
have repercussions across the Middle East. The warning comes as
government forces captured a hill on the edge of the northern city of
Aleppo under the cover of airstrikes.
It
has been one year since Russia became officially involved in the
Syria conflict. The maps below show zones controlled by different
forces before Russian intervention in September 2015 and the
situation now.
The
most obvious change is the collapse in territory controlled by ISIS,
as well as the expansion of territories held by the Syrian regime,
which is the biggest concern to the US, whose main directive in the
Syrian conflict has been less to crush the Islamic State as to
minimize the influence and territory of Assad's regime, replacing it
with US-controlled "rebel" forces.
And
with Russia - long an ally to Assad as the conflict is fundamentally
about Gazprom's loss of influence over Europe should a Qatari natgas
pipelines cross under Syria - having become the biggest hurdle to US
strategy in Syria, there has been a notable shift in the US strategy,
with western media slamming Russia's "barbarous airstrikes",
focusing on recent bombing strikes of the rebel-held city of Aleppo,
a repeat of US strategy from the summer of 2013 when a doctored
"chemical attack" YouTube video was used to justify US
presence in the local conflict.
In
response, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova as saying that "U.S. aggression" against
the Syrian army "will lead to terrible, tectonic consequences
not only on the territory of this country but also in the region on
the whole."
She
said regime change in Syria would create a vacuum that would be
"quickly filled" by "terrorists of all sьripes."
As
AP notes, U.S.-Russian tensions over Syria have escalated since the
breakdown of a cease-fire last month, with each side blaming the
other for its failure. Syrian government forces backed by Russian
warplanes have launched a major onslaught on rebel-held parts of the
northern city of Aleppo. Syrian troops pushed ahead in their
offensive in Aleppo on Saturday capturing the strategic Um al-Shuqeef
hill near the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat that government
forces captured from rebels earlier this week, according to state TV.
The hill is on the northern edge of the Aleppo, Syria's largest city
and former commercial center.
The
al Qaeda-linked Ahrar al-Sham militant group said rebels regained
control Saturday of several positions they lost in Aleppo in the
Bustan al-Basha neighborhood. State media said 13 people were wounded
when rebels shelled the central government-held neighborhood of
Midan
Adding
to the propaganda, airstrikes on Aleppo struck a hospital in the
eastern rebel-held neighborhood of Sakhour putting it out of service,
according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,
the same entity that created the infamous doctored 2013 YouTube
video.
Opposition
activist Ahmad Alkhatib described the hospital, known as M10, as one
of the largest in Aleppo. He posted photographs on his Twitter
account showing the damage including beds covered with dust, a hole
in its roof and debris covering the street outside. A doctor at the
hospital told the Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, that
thousands of people were treated in the compound in the past adding
that two people were killed in Saturday's airstrikes and several were
wounded.
"A
real catastrophe will hit medical institutions in Aleppo if the
direct shelling continues to target hospitals and clinics," said
the doctor whose name was not given. He said the whole hospital is
out of service.
In
a familiar repeat of the 2013 media narrative, opposition activists
have blamed the President Bashar Assad's forces and Russia for
airstrikes that hit Civil Defense units and clinics in the city where
eastern rebel-held neighborhoods are besieged by government forces
and pro-government militiamen.
On
Friday, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors
Without Borders demanded that the Syrian government and its allies
"halt the indiscriminate bombing that has killed and wounded
hundreds of civilians_many of them children," over the past week
in Aleppo. "Bombs are raining from Syria-led coalition planes
and the whole of east Aleppo has become a giant kill box," said
Xisco Villalonga, director of operations for the group. "The
Syrian government must stop the indiscriminate bombing, and Russia as
an indispensable political and military ally of Syria has the
responsibility to exert the pressure to stop this."
It
said from Sept. 21 to 26, hospitals still functioning in Aleppo
reported receiving more than 822 wounded, including at least 221
children, and more than 278 dead bodies_including 96
children_according to the Directorate of Health in east Aleppo.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom criticized attacks on
civilian targets writing on her Twitter account: "Unacceptable
to bomb civilians, children and hospitals in #Aleppo. No humanity.
Assad & Russia moving further away from peace."
Surprisingly,
few if any in the western media have complained about the thousands
of civilians killed by the US-backed Saudi bombing campaign in
neighboring Yemen.
*
* *
Meanwhile,
according to leaked closed-door comments by US Secretary of State
John Kerry it was revealed how angry John Kerry is about being unable
to topple President Bashar Assad by military means.
The
New York Times previously acquired a taped conversation between the
US
Secretary
of State and two dozen Syrian civilians from education,
rescue,
and medical groups working in rebel-held areas, during a meeting
on
the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. “I've argued
for use of force. I stood up. I’m the guy who stood up and
announced we’re going to attack Assad because of the weapons, and
then you know things evolved into a different process,” the
Secretary of State said in the tape.
He
told the civilians that “you have nobody more frustrated than we
are (the US)” that the Syrian issue is now being solved
diplomatically. Kerry also warned the Syrians, who sounded clearly
unhappy with Washington’s contribution, that attempts to intervene
militarily or provide more support to the rebels by the US may have a
reverse effect.
“The
problem is that, you know, you get, quote, ‘enforcers’ in there
and then everybody ups the ante, right? Russia puts in more, Iran
puts in more; Hezbollah is there more and Nusra is more; and Saudi
Arabia and Turkey put all their surrogate money in, and you all are
destroyed,” the diplomat explained.
*
* *
We
expect the Syrian proxy war to continue to escalate until either
Assad is removed, which however seems unlikely with Russian, and now
Chinese backing, behind the Syrian president, or until the proxy war
escalates into a full blown world war once US troops are sent to
Syria, a move which would be met by a proportional response by Russia
and, perhaps, China.
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