The all purpose terrorism thread featuring plenty of allah akbar

[mapuc]

Here's hypothetical question

Can The politicians etc here in the west, live with Syria as a Sharia state, if the people by free election choose this way of (forgot the word, sorry)

Maybe it will never happen, that the Syrian people get the chance to make such a choice , I guess our way of democracy will be forced upon them.

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Skybird

^, ^^ Same here.

Longer time ago, before the Russians started to heavily relocate forces and intervene, there was a time when I considered Assad to be already defeated. Big mistake of mine.

It was pretty close for a while. When Putin told Obama to stop after the chemical weapon violation, and Obama did stop, it decided the issue in favor of Assad.

[Oberon]

A MSF hospital in Syria has been hit by an air strike. No one knows who did it at the moment, the Turks have (naturally) blamed the Russians, as has a local monitoring group and there was an intense amount of flash traffic on the Russian military strategic networks about two hours ago, although I guess that could be related to the exercises going on at the Baltic borders, although why they'd be using the strategic channels to talk about a paratrooper based exercise is beyond me.

Well, I guess it's US 1, Russia 1 so far for hitting MSF hospitals.

[Dowly]

https://www.riemurasia.net/video/Put...enemaan/179032

[Dan D]

Statement of the International Syria Support Group:

"Meeting in Munich on February 11 & 12, 2016, as the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), the Arab League, China, Egypt, the EU, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, and the United States decided that humanitarian access will commence this week to besieged areas, and an ISSG task force will within one week elaborate modalities for a nationwide cessation of hostilities. (…)
In order to accelerate the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid, sustained delivery of assistance shall begin this week by air to Deir Ez Zour and simultaneously to Fouah, Kafrayah, the besieged areas of Rural Damascus, Madaya, Mouadhimiyeh, and Kafr Batna by land, and continue as long as humanitarian needs persist. Humanitarian access to these most urgent areas will be a first step toward full, sustained, and unimpeded access throughout the country. (…)
The ISSG members agreed that a nationwide cessation of hostilities must be urgently implemented, and should apply to any party currently engaged in military or paramilitary hostilities against any other parties other than Daesh, Jabhat al-Nusra, or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council. The ISSG members commit to exercise influence for an immediate and significant reduction in violence leading to the nationwide cessation of hostilities".

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/In...html?nn=342580

[ikalugin]

Can be good.

If turks with saudis do not ruin this via massive intervention.

[Oberon]

Well, Russia is going to continue the airstrikes anyway, so I doubt this will hold for long.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Can be good.

If turks with saudis do not ruin this via massive intervention.

I think Russia beat them to it already.

[ikalugin]

I think Russia beat them to it already.

I meant in the sense of hitting our positions in a massive attack.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

I meant in the sense of hitting our positions in a massive attack.

They probably will, although I doubt they'll hit your positions, they'll go for Assad, which means that the RuAF and Russian ground forces will have to step in.
You see the problem with ceasefires is that all sides need to stop firing or it doesn't work. Daesh won't stop, we know that much, and if the RuAF was going to concentrate their bombing effort purely on Daesh during this possible cessation of hostilities then there might not be a problem, but we all know that that will not happen, and they will continue to clear a path for Assads forces because that's what they're there to do. As such, Assad will have to use his forces to manoeuvre, attack and exploit the gaps made by Russian bombing, which means that the enemy will be forced to open fire to defend itself and here we go again.
If I were Putin, I'd tell the RuAF to switch targets to Daesh only during this interim period, let Turkey and the Saudis make the first move in regards to attacking Assads forces, then Russia will have the upper moral ground...but to be fair, that's never really been a position that Putin has cared about, which has made him quite appealing to some in the west for some reason. Snag is, it makes it all to easy to paint him as the villain in the piece, I mean western forces are going to try anyway, why make it easy for them? I thought Russia was good at the whole propaganda game?

[Oberon]

Looks like the Saudis are writing off Lebanon as lost to Iran, they cancelled a large arms deal the other day and it looks like their next move might be to deep-six the Lebanese economy.

https://mideastwire.wordpress.com/20...llar-deposits/

[Oberon]

Meanwhile the reformist movement is gathering steam in Iran:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35681250

[eddie]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Meanwhile the reformist movement is gathering steam in Iran:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35681250

The Republican Guard will only let that go so far, the moderates did well in Tehran, but haven't gained a whole lot across the country.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by eddie

The Republican Guard will only let that go so far, the moderates did well in Tehran, but haven't gained a whole lot across the country.

I guess a lot depends on what happens when the Ayatollah falls off his perch, a reformist Ayatollah could challenge the IRG, but he'd need to get the rest of the military behind him before he did, so not very likely.

[eddie]

I agree with you there Oberon, interesting to see what would happen n the near future. Wonder what kind of chance Rafsanjani would have to become the grand poobah? If he has any chance at all that is.