This evacuation was attacked by AQ terrorists, not ISIS

" 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/

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Col. Lang:

They were almost all Shia Arabs.

[Babak Makkinejad]

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

[Peter in Toronto]

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?

[LG]

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

[turcopolier]

Babak

Yes, the Iranians are reputed to have kept the two towns minimally supplied by helicopter. pl

[LG]

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/

[Babak Makkinejad]

The Pope condemned this attack during his homily today:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39613514

[different clue]

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.

[Peter AU]

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.

[Cee]

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/

[kooshy]

So far Thanks god for not blaming it on Assad and Putin.

[kooshy]

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

[Jackrabbit]

What does Sanders have to lose by speaking out like Ron Paul? But he doesn't.

Why did Sanders:

> defend Hillary ("enough with the emails!")?

> pull punches by addressing issues related to the Obama Administration and Hillary's character in a private, low key manner like: Hillary's winning of 6 coin tosses in Iowa; Hillary-DNC collusion; Hillary's well-recognized changing of her vote for the Credit Card industry; Obama's support for Hillary (to safeguard his legacy)

> Fail to make a serious effort to attract voting groups claimed by Hillary like women and African-Americans

> Refuse to release his 2014 tax returns (he entered the race in 2014), despite saying that they were "boring" - he made reporters wait for until the 2015 returns were ready (Hillary had already released 10-years (!) of returns.

It's clear to _me_ that Sanders was a sheep-dog just as Black Agenda Report claimed in Spring of 2014.

[Bandolero]

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.

[Bandolero]

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

[turcopolier]

Bandolero

My main point was that the MSM and Western government are simply ignoring the AQ connected jihadis in Idlib. pl

[trinlae]

"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).

[Bandit]

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.

[Priam's Crazy Daughter]

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.

[Jackrabbit]

> 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.

[turcopolier]

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

[Cameron Kelley]

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.

[charly]

If what the BBC claims is true than how probable is that Alqaeda did a false flag chemical attack?

[turcopolier]

charly

Use your head. The people attacked were all government supporters. Only a fool would think the government would attack them. pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

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.