" The death toll from a bomb explosion targeting evacuees leaving besieged Syrian towns has gone up to 112, a monitoring group said Sunday.
The blast hit a convoy of buses Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reported the higher death toll.
The blast struck buses of people leaving their towns as part of a rebel-regime swap. In addition to the deaths, it also injured 55 others in Rashidin, a suburb of Aleppo, according to Syria Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets." CNN
———–
You won't see a lot about this in the MSM in the US. The White Helmets were there to help after the blast? Perhaps a head count of White Helmets before and after the explosion might be revealing of the identity of the culprits.
There is a consistent effort in the US MSM to write and speak only of the ISIS enemy in Syria and Iraq. I heard Bernie Sanders talk today on the execrable Tapper's newsie TV show of the ISIS enemy. Trump does the same thing. This is really evidence of success in the "slicky boy" technique of ignoring parts of reality that do not fit the image one wishes to project into the public mind. In fact the AQ derived terrorist groups that now control Idlib Province are every bit as vicious and treacherous as the ISIS ones out to te east around Raqqa, Deir Az-Zor and Mosul. The unfortunate truth that we and our coaltion allies like; the UK, France, Denmark, Saudi Arabia (what an embarrassment to be their allies!), Qatar, etc. have sponsored these creatures against the cause of multi-confessional government does not make groups like Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham any less the enemies of humanity. But we are managing to delude ourselves into believing that a post-Assad government that includes these medievalist fanatics can be anything other than a theocracy based on Wahhabist principles of intolerance.
The Muslims who are members or readers of this committee know that a mutually agreed truce is a sacred thing in Islam. Whoever the culpable swine were who did this are very special hominid garbage and should be dealt with as such. pl
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/15/middleeast/syria-evacuations-bombing/
Col. Lang:
They were almost all Shia Arabs.
All:
An opinion from Ha’aretz by Dr. Abed L. Azab; a chemist and a teacher who lives in Ara, Israel:
http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.783338
The principle component of the Idlib “rebels” are no doubt the heavily armed Jihadists of the Victory Front (Nusra), who, as little as 3 years ago were the de facto western branch of ISIL before their leadership dispute and formal split. The sprinkling of moderates (in reality – criminal rackets) who are used as a veneer for public consumption are a small fraction of the fighting capability – they serve only to provide the heavy-stand off weapons support that the TOW-2A missiles graciously handed down to them by the State Dept. in addition to their propaganda role in “softening” the extremist core of the Idlib hive of extremism.
I suppose the scraps of flesh and shreds of children hanging from the splintered remains of those buses did not quite deliver the same emotional effect on the POTUS as did staged White Helmet media of kids elegantly laid out in a pick-up truck with their faces plainly visible?
he is reported to have thrown crisps to lure the kids who hadnt seen any for two years of the siefe. as they gathered around his van he detonated.
لعنت اللہ الا لکازبین
Babak
Yes, the Iranians are reputed to have kept the two towns minimally supplied by helicopter. pl
al masdar website says 200 people mostly girls kidnapped in the melee after the attack at rashedeen.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/200-syrian-civilians-kidnapped-al-qaeda-faction-amid-evacuation-deal/
The Pope condemned this attack during his homily today:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39613514
I don’t think that either Trump or Sanders are among the slick boys. Rather, they have both been slick-boyed. Trump is weak on knowledge and thinking in general. I wonder if Sanders is just very un-knowledgeable on many foreign regions and affairs due to his domestic focus, or whether he knows better in this case and is just going along to get along. Certainly he sees the savage repression which the Democratic Inner Party Leaders are directing against Gabbard for trying to force some reality-based reality into the conversation.
Trump is smart enough to read the wind and get himself elected. Quite smart enough to to know exactly what has taken place in Syria. Sanders also. No excuses for either.
Both are willing to go along with a preset narrative and agenda for whatever reason, and whatever the cost in lives in a faraway country.
All,
Tom Friedman now openly supports all of this chaos which was policy.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384780-friedman-nyt-isis-support-us/
So far Thanks god for not blaming it on Assad and Putin.
I take that back the British Government’s propaganda outlet, Shit news BBC actualy blames the government for the attack.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39613313
What does Sanders have to lose by speaking out like Ron Paul? But he doesn’t.
Why did Sanders:
It’s clear to _me_ that Sanders was a sheep-dog just as Black Agenda Report claimed in Spring of 2014.
LG
Oh, yes, that fits well, though I doubt the numbers.
The proponents of the White Helmets claim they rescued injured people after the bomb attack. But what does that mean? Did the White Helmets bring injured poeple into hsopitals in Aleppo? Surely not.
In fact there are claims from “rebel” friendly media that rebel ambulances brought injured children into a “hospital” in Al Qaeda ruled Saraqib, just a few miles south the road of the bomb attack.
https://twitter.com/Sy_Reporter/status/853377563766476801
To me it doesn’t look so much like White Helmets rescuing injured children, but more like Al Qaeda and White Helmets using the chaos after the bomb attack to kidnap children. And from what I think that may have been one of the goals of the bomb attack all along: provide an opportunity for Al Qaeda to kidnap people, especially Shia children from Fuah and Kafriya.
I also saw on Facebook a photo of notorious Jund Al Aqsa terrorist and White Helmet Muawiya Hassan Agha at the scene of the blast. After he was exposed as a Jund Al Aqsa terrorist a couple of months ago he was officially excluded from the White Helmets, but he’s still around with them. He (who usually loved to spread his selfies everywhere) was shy on Facebook to publish a selfie from the location of the blast, but it looks like he was there anyway, so I wonder if he and his fellows may have something to do with the bomb attack and the following rescue (or kidnap) of Shia children by White helmets. I think Jund Al Aqsa should also be a prime suspect of this terror attack, because they have a running feud with some parts of Ahrar Al Sham, and Ahrar Al Sham said besides many Shia evacuees some 30 of their fighters guarding them died in the blast.
A witness on Syrian TV said terrorists may have used potato crisps and a crisp vehicle to especially attract children before the blast:
https://twitter.com/Souria4Syrians/status/853367844347809794
I have no way to say if that is true, but it would fit the lack of any ethics of the terrorists.
Pat
I think the prime suspect of this attack should be Jund Al Aqsa.
I know this terror outfit was officially disbanded a couple of weeks ago, but from what I understand the same guys who made up the core of Jund Al Aqsa are still active in the region under various names.
AFAIK whether Jund Al Aqsa are closer to Al Qaeda and Al Nusra Front or to ISIS is quite disputed. But I don’t think the implications would be less severe if one counts them as ISIS. It would mean ISIS has a quite powerful presence in the Idlib pocket what is billed in many mass media as ruled by “moderate rebels.”
And besides that, what I think is a real scandal, is that the US officially designated Jund Al Aqsa as a terrorist group not earlier than 20 September 2016, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jund_al-Aqsa#Designation_as_a_terrorist_organization
I find it not credible that it was not clear before September 2016 that Jund Al Aqsa is a notorious terrorist outfit, and I don’t think it matters in any way whether they are closer to Al Qaeda or closer to ISIS.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/05/another-al-qaeda-veteran-reportedly-killed-while-leading-jund-al-aqsa-in-syria.php
Bandolero
My main point was that the MSM and Western government are simply ignoring the AQ connected jihadis in Idlib. pl
“post-Assad government that includes these medievalist fanatics can be anything other than a theocracy based on Wahhabist principles of intolerance.”
Sadly, sounds like nearly all of the Syrian neighborhood!
Is it also a poking goad at Iran…that sounds like the borg style and explains sudden absence of white helments and msm (and beeb narrative).
Sanders”un-knowledgeable”? How about deliberately ignorant as the majority of liberals seem to be? If we, the readers of this forum can access the wider truth and consequences, then there is no excuse for Sanders not to shove this sh*t in Trump’s face. The continuing farce of the White Helmets should be an obvious red flag as to the perpetrators, if not immediately responsible, then most certainly enablers of these atrocities. That is one of the reasons I read the news and comments in this forum, and like the current article in the Moon of Alabama, “Al-Qaeda Suicide Attack Kills 100+ Children, Women – Whodunit?”, the commentary is indispensable from the content of the article.
Once when I pointed out that jihadists were killing Christians in Syria that Assad had always allowed, I got a retort from a young uneducated person here (as most are, even with degrees) that she felt Christians had no business traveling there or trying to live there. When I mentioned the people I was talking about were Coptic Christians, she gave me nothing but a blank stare. I had to explain.
The complete lack of education in history is making our young–and now many older people (since it’s been a long time since history has been taught)–is turning our country into a country of self-centered idiots.
> I find little evidence to suggest that Sanders has any real objection to the Borg Empire. Sanders progressive ‘base’ would support a much stronger anti-military posture. Greens, for example, called for a 50% reduction in military spending in the 2016 Democratic election.
Furthermore, Sanders is virtually a member of the Democratic Party leadership.
> Sanders caucuses with the Democrats and almost always votes with the Democrats.
> Democrats won’t run a candidate against him in Vermont.
> During the campaign, Sanders talked of Hillary as a friend of 30 years. He is similarly chummy with other leading Democrats.
PCD
The various governments of Syria including the present Baath government have always protected minorities including all the various kinds of native Christians. BTW, there may be Syrian Copts but Greek Orthodox, Syrian Catholic and other sects are predominate in the Christian population which numbers about two million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Syria
pl
Colonel, thanks as always for the information and analysis that are so hard to find elsewhere. My GF thought I was nuts for ranting and raving at Morning Joe, Bill Maher, et al, until she read some recent SST posts at my suggestion. Now she doesn’t believe anything she sees or hears about foreign affairs on national news, and, frankly, I think that’s a good thing. I don’t know what it would take to get investigative journalism and honest reporting back into our media.
If what the BBC claims is true than how probable is that Alqaeda did a false flag chemical attack?
charly
Use your head. The people attacked were all government supporters. Only a fool would think the government would attack them. pl
No worries, glad that you liked it.
Ha’aretz used to be much better, it started going downhill when its English editor (who had immigrated to Israel) got very sick and left to die later.
Robert Fisk, so far the only one who writes on western hypocrisy for this weekend attack.
“It was the Mother of all Hypocrisy. Some dead Syrian babies matter, I guess. Other dead Syrian babies don’t matter. One mass murder in Syria two weeks ago killed children and babies and stirred our leaders to righteous indignation. But the slaughter in Syria this weekend killed even more children and babies – yet brought forth nothing but silence from those who claim to guard our moral values. Now why should this be?”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-suicide-attack-refugee-buses-trump-only-cares-sunni-children-a7687066.html
Well, PCD, partly the internet mirrors the world out there, necessarily.
And thus the young or the old “uneducated persons”, like me, in the comment section here or elsewhere necessarily only mirror the world out there.
Life is complex:
You have supporters among the Arabs. Azmi Bishara, a Christian, and his Arab MK henchpersons in Israel – Haneen Zoabi, Basel Ghattas and Jamal Zahalka – support the terrorists fighting Assad.
In all these cases I would/could find support of evil out there, if I digged deep enough into their biographies? Maybe even deep enough beyond the first Wikipedia impression?
Do the diverse “terrorist organisations” fight ISIS at all? To the extend this nitwit was confused, the evidence seemed to be mixed.
According to Wikipedia there are also Maronite Christians in contemporary Syria, although most of them are in what is now Lebanon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_Maronite_Church
What I’ve wondered is to what extent, if any, are Sanders’ positions on US Middle East policies informed by the fact that he is Jewish. To me his positions seem to be closer to those of the Netanyahu camp as opposed to that of Uri Avnery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_backstory_on_bernie_sanders_and_israel-palestine_20151012
Bernie believes in the two-state solution and he willingly ignores the fact that Israel has made it into a farce. Israel has NO reason to come to the table when they face no pressure to do so. Israel’s position is that JORDAN is the Palestinian State.
Bernie doesn’t do anything that might embarrass the Democratic Party leadership or disturb the status quo.
All I see is a lot of excuses.
Cee,
He was on France 24 last night. He started off with some pseudo intellectual comment about Minnesota circa 1950 and went on about the glories of technological change and the decline of job opportunities for white males; nary a mention of circumstances in Europe in 1950, the Marshall plan, NAFTA the EU or any other changes in the past 65 years. I had to turn it off before he made me ill.
Dear Colonel,
Apparently, Noam Chomsky frequents your site, and respectfully notes you as a perfectly credible source, here in the context of the gas incident in Syria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=303&v=cO7wK9OO07w
at 5:03
1. They won’t run a candidate against him because it would likely split the vote and put a Republican in office.
SANDERS IS NOT A DEMOCRAT. Why would the Democrats favor someone of a different Party?
The Sanders Wikipedia page has had dozens of edits in the last few months (whitewashing?). This info was deleted from the page:
The degree of protection for Sanders public image is similar to that of top leaders of Democrat and Republican Parties. Why is that?
2. If Wall St warmonger Hillary is: “a progressive … who gets things done!” What kind of progressive is Sanders?
Sanders isn’t interested in leading a Movement but he is apparently very interested in electing Centrist Democrats – so much so that he endorsed Hillary even after it was clear that she colluded with DNC against him.
Sanders was lauded for his principles but those principles seem to be in short supply when powerful interests are involved.
Jackrabbit,
Israel and her supporters cause us nothing but chaos.
https://poxamerikana.com/2016/08/25/a-clean-break-from-israel-what-america-needs-most/
Trump isn’t the president, Jared is.
Pacific Advocate,
We’ve all engaged in wishful thinking. The Deep State is in control no matter who WE THINK WE ELECTED.
ISL,
He disappoints me lately since he is nothing Assad and doesn’t hold Israel accountable for their role in any of this
ISL
More on Noam
http://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/1593-noam-chomsky-regime-change-syria.html
All,
Not wanting to dominate this space but I’d like opinions on Robert Steel, Trump and the Deep State
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8UfYLA7FCqQ
Fred
I’m watching riots in Paris on RT and listening to YouTube and something The Dark Journalist said reminds me of Friedman and others who desperately spout nonsense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0LIR25tfjQ
Bernie Sanders, the Company Man
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/14/bernie-sanders-the-company-man/
A stunning take-down and eye-opener for anyone with blinders on about Bernie Sanders.
You probably pushed memes like Obamabots “11-dimensional chess” and Hillary’s “contributions never influenced by vote”.
>> it would split the vote
Nonsense. Didn’t you read the excerpt from Wikipedia? When the Vermont Senate seat became available, Sanders was a Congressman. He had a safe seat. But he wasn’t a Democrat.
If the Democratic Party had thrown their weight ($$ + campaigning by national leaders) behind a different candidate, Bernie may not have run at all.
>> protection for Sanders public image
I noted the battle over Bernie’s Wikipedia page. Then there are pro-Bernie comments in blogs (like yours).
>> If Hillary is a progressive …
You ignore the larger point. Your excuses for Bernie are just like the excuses given by other politicians like Hillary.
>> Promoting the Clinton campaign because one fears her less…
And, out come the Democratic Party talking points! FEAR is all Hillary had. I guess that’s what we should expect after HOPE was betrayed (by Obama).
>> Sanders was lauded for his principles …
Sanders tweets about Syria are milquetoast. This is typical of him. Every time Sanders pulls punches, he cedes power to a corrupt establishment.
Once can quibble with a few points but Paul Street’s conclusion is well-supported. Sanders is a company man.