Freies Politikforum für Demokraten und Anarchisten

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

More than 1,000 combatants sent from Iran to fight in support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria have been killed during the conflict, the head of Iran's veterans' affairs office said on Tuesday.

"The number of martyrs from our country defending the shrines has now passed 1,000," Tasnim news agency quoted Mohammad Ali Shahidi Mahalati, the head of Iran's Foundation of Martyrs' and Veterans' Affairs, as saying.

Iran has sent military advisers, as well as volunteer fighters recruited from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to work with Assad's forces. They are known in Iran as "defenders of the shrines" in reference to Shiite holy sites in Syria.

Shahidi did not specify the nationalities of those killed. Shia Iran is a staunch supporter of Assad and provides both financial and military support for his government.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/more-1000-combatants-iran-killed-syria-says-official-728745534

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Fehim Tastekin reports that many Syrians blame Turkey, once a close ally of Damascus, for the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to United Nations and independent estimates.

Tastekin, a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, reports from Damascus that “being a Turk in Syria is a bit difficult nowadays. No one will harass, insult or attack you, for sure, but everyone has a few words to say about Ankara’s transition from friend to foe.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/01/syria-deep-anger-turkey-war-iraq-abadi.html

Russia tells Assad there is no military solution in Syria

Russia has told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that there is no "military solution" to the country's conflict, despite pro-government forces claiming victory over rebels in eastern Aleppo, according to a key Russian adviser to the United Nations' Syria envoy.

In an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye, Professor Vitaly Naumkin, the president of the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies, said that Russia would continue to press Assad to accept a coalition government that would include members of the opposition. He did not specify which "opposition" groups he was referring to.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-no-military-solution-syria-russia-tells-assad-370256417

There is more than one truth to tell in the heartbreaking story of Aleppo

Our political masters are in league with the Syrian rebels, and for the same reason as the rebels kidnap their victims – money
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/aleppo-falls-to-syrian-regime-bashar-al-assad-rebels-uk-government-more-than-one-story-robert-fisk-a7471576.html

Congress authorizes Trump to arm Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/defense-ndaa-congress-manpads-syria.html

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Syria faces public health catastrophes that will linger for decades due to toxic rubble dust, oil fire pollution and the US-led coalition's use of depleted uranium weapons on Islamic State targets, campaigners have warned.

The US last week admitted it had fired armour-piercing DU ammunition in its war against IS, and had hit not only military targets but also un-armoured civilian targets such as oil trucks, and despite promising otherwise.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/depleted-uranium-syria-iraq-1886394918

US Terror-Bombed Syria with Toxic Depleted Uranium(DU) Weapons

America uses banned depleted uranium (DU) weapons in all its wars, ongoing since first developed during the Vietnam era.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol and succeeding Geneva Weapons Conventions prohibited use of chemical and biological agents in any form as weapons of war.

Although no Geneva Convention or other treaty specifically bans radioactive uranium weapons, including DU ones, they’re illegal de facto and de jure under the 1907 Hague Convention, prohibiting use of any “poison or poisoned weapons.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46499.htm