I'm no lawyer but destroying a civilian enclave and its inhabitants because you perceive there maybe enemy combatants hiding among them is murder or genocide . It serves no purpose because you may kill the population outright bu [sic] the the [sic] soldiers will be long gone.
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WASHINGTON – The White House issued a sharp condemnation of Russia on Sunday, accusing Kremlin-led forces of killing innocent civilians in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s ongoing civil war.

“After repeatedly delaying the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2401, which demanded a 30-day cessation of hostilities across Syria, Russia has gone on to ignore its terms and to kill innocent civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations,” the statement from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday.

“This is the same combination of lies and indiscriminate force that Russia and the Syrian regime used to isolate and destroy Aleppo in 2016, where thousands of civilians were killed, ” it said.

Russia stalled a United Nations vote on a ceasefire Feb. 23 that would have given a reprieve to citizens of eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege in the ongoing civil war since 2013.

Read more crap:

https://nypost.com/2018/03/04/white-house-slams-russia-for-killing-innoc...

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As Western governments focus their attention on the plight of Eastern Ghouta, the city of Damascus continues to endure constant shelling from the Syrian capital's suburb controlled by militants, and which the Western media "does not talk about," an NGO volunteer reveals.

A French woman working for an NGO called SOS Chrétiens d’Orient, and who opted to remain in Syria as her organization decided in February to close shop there due to safety concerns, told Sputnik on condition of anonymity that the militants holding Eastern Ghouta have been shelling Damascus for a long time, and that the shelling has intensified during the last ten days.

"In the West they talk a lot about the events in Ghouta which is indeed being heavily bombed – the sounds of airstrikes can regularly be heard at my apartment. But Damascus is being shelled as well, and it is being shelled by the jihadists entrenched in Ghouta.  They use rockets and mortars to shell the city and especially  Bab Touma, a Christian borough where many refugee families live," she said.

"The Old Town  usually bustled with activity – people strolling around, visiting each other and going to the market. Now it has become desolate; cafes stand empty and few dare to venture out into the streets. Here and there you can see the marks left by exploding mortar shells. The residents are afraid to leave their homes," she added.

The woman shared the stories of two Syrian men who fell victim to the shelling which the West apparently prefers to ignore.

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201803051062239568-damascus-shelling-me...

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The West remembers “humanity” only when the Syrian Army is advancing, Assad said, referring to the ongoing outcry about the eastern Ghouta operation. The Syrian leader has dismissed Western allegations of chemical weapons use by the government. Such accusations are only used as a tool of blackmail and a pretext to attack Syrian Army, he stressed.

Assad, in his turn, accused the US-led coalition of effectively operating as an air force for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra front terrorist groups. 

In February, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution proposing a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire in Syria, which does not apply to members of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), Al-Nusra Front or any other terrorist organizations. In eastern Ghouta, a daily humanitarian pause was introduced on February 27 in order to help civilians leave.

The militants continue to prevent civilians from escaping eastern Ghouta, shelling the humanitarian corridor. Only two children have managed to escape the besieged area so far, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

https://www.rt.com/news/420441-assad-ghouta-terrorists-civilians/

Knowing how the US administration lies, I know which news I trust most.

The Russian foreign minister on Monday said that Western states are demonstrating a lack of negotiability by their stance on the Syrian crisis, as their actions on the ground are in violation of UNSC Resolution 2401.

"The major clause of this resolution requires that all, — I emphasize, all — the parties to the Syrian conflict agree on a ceasefire in order to provide at least a 30-day pause for delivery of humanitarian aid," Lavrov said at a press conference in Namibiaadding that Damascus is being pressured to stop its military operation despite it targeting Nusra Front militants who are not covered by the truce regime.

He went on to say Russia has mounting evidence that "Western partners, especially the United States, would like to take the heat off al-Nusra Front, which has now changed its name, — but this does not mean it has changed its nature, —  and save it in case they decide to return to plan "B," which is to change the regime in Damascus."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201803051062254188-russia-nusra-front...

haley crap...

See also: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201803051062249519-unhrc-resolution-human-rights-syria/

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, went to Moscow on 27 February 2018. The French press has presented this visit as an effort by Paris to come to help out the Syrians that populate Eastern Ghouta. As it so happens, this meeting had been planned for quite some time in the context of building cultural relations between the two countries.

Mr Le Drian’s trip enabled him to observe that the three main armed groups (Aylaq al-Rahmane, Jaich al-Islam and Ahrar al-Cham present) in the Ghouta, had written to the President of the UN Security Council to assure him that they would participate in the cessation of hostilities. To be more precise, Le Drain [sic] spoke of “their acceptance of the humanitarian truce”, which legally is not quite the same thing. “It would also be important that the Basshar Al-Assad regime declares this,” he added.

Mr Le Drian seems to be unaware that Damascus is not the regime of one particular individual but is registered with the United Nations under the name of the “Syrian Arab Republic”. He does not seem to have been informed by the French representative that the Syrian representative, Ambassador Bachar Ja’afari, has presented on behalf of his government, Damascus’s agreement to Resolution 2401.

As for AFP [Agence France-Press] and the French media generally, they have not understood the declarations that the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, made in the presence of Jean-Yves Le Drian. “Those that influence the terrorists that bomb Damascus must assume their responsibility and understand the importance of undertaking to apply Security Council resolutions”, he declared. This was an undisguised reference to France, as several French officials are training Al-Qaeda jihadists in Eastern Ghouta. From the beginning of the cessation of hostilities, decided by the Security Council, the three groups, after they put their approval in writing to the President of the Council, are bombing without interruption the route which could permit civilians to flee the area.

Translation 
Anoosha Boralessa

Read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article199926.html

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“As for crimes, go back to Raqqa and at least bury the dead bodies, which are still lying amid the ruins after the air strikes on residential neighborhoods – and investigate these attacks,” the Russian leader said as he sat down for an “at times combative” interview with NBC’s Megyn Kelly. Putin also raised the point that the battle for Iraq’s Mosul involving the US-led forces left the city “razed to the ground.”

The interview heated up when the two were speaking about Syria, when the anchor asked about alleged chemical attacks, for which the West blames the Syrian government. Those claims were rebuffed as “fake news”by the Russian leader. Putin stressed that Damascus destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons long ago, and the militants aimed “to simulate chemical attacks”which were then blamed on the Syrian army.

“All the attempts that have been made repeatedly in the recent past, and all the accusations were used to consolidate the efforts against Assad,” Putin told the journalist. As Kelly continued to ask about alleged chemical attacks that led to civilian deaths, Putin noted that there had been no thorough investigation into what had happened in Syria.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/420923-raqqa-crimes-investigation-putin/

See also:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-23/russia-accuses-us-led-coalition-of...

Read from top.

A US Army document concedes the real interests driving US military strategy toward Russia: dominating oil pipeline routes, accessing the vast natural resources of Central Asia, and enforcing the expansion of American capitalism worldwide.

The Russians are coming. They hacked our elections. They are lurking behind numerous alternative political movements and news outlets. Such is the overwhelming chorus from traditional reporting on Russia, which sees the United States as being under threat from fanatical Russian expansionism — expansionism which has gone so far as to interfere dramatically in the 2016 Presidential elections.

Russia is certainly an authoritarian regime with its own regional imperial ambitions. President Vladimir Putin and his cronies are responsible for massive deaths and human rights violations against populations at home and abroad (the latter in war theaters like Syria and elsewhere). Putin has strengthened a system of oligarchical state-dominated predatory capitalism which has widened extreme inequality and concentrated elite wealth. And we will no doubt learn more about what shenanigans Russia did, or did not, get up to in relation to US elections.

For the most part, these are not especially dangerous things to report on from the comfort of the West. Somewhat lacking from conventional reporting, on the other hand, is serious reflection on whether US policies toward Russia have contributed directly to the deterioration of US-Russia relations.

While the bulk of the Western pundit class are busy bravely obsessing over the innumerable evils of Putin, it turns out that the upper echelons of the US military are asking some uncomfortable questions about how we got to where we are.

A study by the US Army’s Command and General Staff College Press of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth reveals that US strategy toward Russia has been heavily motivated by the goal of dominating Central Asian oil and gas resources, and associated pipeline routes.

The remarkable document, prepared by the US Army’s Culture, Regional Expertise and Language Management Office (CRELMO), concedes that expansionist NATO policies played a key role in provoking Russian militarism. It also contemplates how current US and Russian antagonisms could spark a global nuclear conflict between the two superpowers.

Read more:

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/army-study-us-strategy-to-dethrone-putin-for-oil-pipelines-might-provoke-ww3-9b1d9dbe6be9

A US Army document concedes the real interests driving US military strategy toward Russia: dominating oil pipeline routes, accessing the vast natural resources of Central Asia, and enforcing the expansion of American capitalism worldwide.

The Russians are coming. They hacked our elections. They are lurking behind numerous alternative political movements and news outlets. Such is the overwhelming chorus from traditional reporting on Russia, which sees the United States as being under threat from fanatical Russian expansionism — expansionism which has gone so far as to interfere dramatically in the 2016 Presidential elections.

Russia is certainly an authoritarian regime with its own regional imperial ambitions. President Vladimir Putin and his cronies are responsible for massive deaths and human rights violations against populations at home and abroad (the latter in war theaters like Syria and elsewhere). Putin has strengthened a system of oligarchical state-dominated predatory capitalism which has widened extreme inequality and concentrated elite wealth. And we will no doubt learn more about what shenanigans Russia did, or did not, get up to in relation to US elections.

For the most part, these are not especially dangerous things to report on from the comfort of the West. Somewhat lacking from conventional reporting, on the other hand, is serious reflection on whether US policies toward Russia have contributed directly to the deterioration of US-Russia relations.

While the bulk of the Western pundit class are busy bravely obsessing over the innumerable evils of Putin, it turns out that the upper echelons of the US military are asking some uncomfortable questions about how we got to where we are.

A study by the US Army’s Command and General Staff College Press of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth reveals that US strategy toward Russia has been heavily motivated by the goal of dominating Central Asian oil and gas resources, and associated pipeline routes.

The remarkable document, prepared by the US Army’s Culture, Regional Expertise and Language Management Office (CRELMO), concedes that expansionist NATO policies played a key role in provoking Russian militarism. It also contemplates how current US and Russian antagonisms could spark a global nuclear conflict between the two superpowers.

Read more:

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/army-study-us-strategy-to-

BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:55 P.M.) – For years, the battle in the Jobar suburb of the East Ghouta has been one of the bloodiest battles in Syria.

The Syrian Arab Army’s Republican Guard and their allies from the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) and National Defense Forces (NDF) had repeatedly tried to retake Jobar, but all attempts would ultimately fail, as the Islamist militants were deeply embedded in this East Ghouta suburb.

The battle for Jobar would be costly, as a large number of military personnel and equipment were lost during the countless offensives to seize this suburb from the militant forces.

However, as of today, it appears that long battle for Jobar and its neighboring suburbs is finally over after an agreement was put in place with the primary militant groups there.

According to a military report from Damascus, the Syrian Army and Faylaq Al-Rahman have agreed to peace terms in four East Ghouta suburbs, with the latter agreeing to leave to Idlib.

Based on the agreement, Faylaq Al-Rahman will surrender all of their weapons, except for their small arms; they will release all Syrian Army prisoners from their jails; they will inform the government of all explosives they placed around the suburbs of Zamalka, Jobar, ‘Ayn Tarma, and Arbin; and agree to exit these suburbs on Saturday.

The militants are now scheduled to leave these four East Ghouta suburbs by noon tomorrow.

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/23/syria-six-year-long-war-in-4-east-gh...