US Supplied Weapon Banned by 2008 Treaty

“Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their U.S. supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances,” Steve Goose, the arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch released a detailed report, saying internationally-banned cluster munitions supplied by the United States have been used by Saudi Arabia in numerous attacks on civilian targets.

“Unfortunately, the international community is indifferent towards these events. Turkey has taken Europe prisoner by using Middle Eastern refugees as an instrument of blackmail. The US keeps silent too, having common interests with Turkey. For instance, the US wants to keep using the Incirlik airbase […] and the Turkish Army is emboldened by such impunity.”

The situation in Syria has reached a watershed moment and a dramatic escalation of the war appears imminent. Let’s look again at how we reached this point.

(19.11.2015) Frankreichs Luftwaffe beteiligt sich seit mehr als einem Jahr an Luftschlägen einer US-geführten Koalition gegen den IS im Irak, seit Oktober fliegen französische Flugzeuge auch Angriffe auf syrischem Gebiet.

(18.11.2015) Bisher hatten die USA eine gewisse Zurückhaltung an den Tag gelegt. Um die Umwelt zu schonen und nicht die Infrastruktur eines künftigen syrischen Staates zu zerstören attackierten sie Ölfelder und wichtige Fördereinrichtungen nur sporadisch. Auch hängen Millionen Menschen im Herrschaftsgebiet des IS gerade auch angesichts des nahenden Winters von Treibstoff aus diesen Quellen ab.

Médecins Sans Frontières reported that an air strike hit their hospital in Idlib, Syria and caused many casualties.

„This appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms.“ said Massimiliano Rebaudengo, MSF head of mission.

(11.2.2016) Das behauptet jedenfalls der Sprecher des russischen Verteidigungsministeriums, Igor Konashenkov, laut der russischen Nachrichtenagentur Tass. Zwei amerikanische A10-Kampfflugzeuge, die in der Türkei gestartet seien, hätten die Einsätze geflogen. Russische Flugzeuge hätten am Mittwoch keine Einrichtungen in Aleppo attackiert.

(11.2.2016) Two US Air Force A-10 warplanes carried out airstrikes on Aleppo Wednesday, destroying nine facilities, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported. The same day, the Pentagon accused Moscow of bombing two hospitals, despite no Russian flights over the city.

“Yesterday, at 13:55 Moscow time (10:55 GMT), two American A-10 assault aircraft entered Syrian airspace from Turkey, flew right to the city of Aleppo and bombed targets there,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Thursday.

(13.2.2016)

The news agency did not provide much information on what the exercise entails but called it „the largest in the region‘s history.“ The agency said it will involve air, sea and land forces. In addition to Saudi Arabia, other participating nations include Jordan, Bahrain, Senegal, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Kuwait, the Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Chad, Tunisia, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Malaysia, Egypt, Mauritania and Mauritius.

„If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organisation and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response,“ Davutoglu told reporters in Kiev, speaking through an official translator.

In den vergangenen sechs Monaten hat sich die Lage im syrischen Bürgerkrieg grundsätzlich verändert. Nach aktuellen Berichten steht die syrische Armee kurz vor der informellen Hauptstadt des „Islamischen Staates“, Rakka. Auch um Aleppo, wo sunnitische Extremisten und Söldner aus aller Herren Länder neben angeblich „gemäßigten Rebellen“ ihr Willkürregime errichtet haben, zieht sich die Schlinge zu.

Das freut nicht alle.

This is the kind of compulsive misrepresentation that makes Clinton unfit to be President. Clinton‘s role in Syria has been to help instigate and prolong the Syrian bloodbath, not to bring it to a close.

Syrian army units and paramilitary forces are reportedly moving into Raqqa province, seizing strategically important areas along the Salamiyah-Raqqa road which leads directly into the Islamic State stronghold.

The so-called “Northern Thunder” exercise will take place in the north of the country and will include air, sea and land forces. SPA said that it will show that Riyadh and its allies “stand united in confronting all challenges and preserving peace and stability in the region.”

Among the participants will be Arab and African countries. The US and other Western powers have not been invited.

(22.1.2016) Last month an Ankara court ruled in favor of Yerkel, who requested that hundreds of YouTube videos and web pages showing the notorious kick be blocked in Turkey.

The blocked URLs include not only domestic news stories, but international stories as well, including articles published on Foxnews.com, Huffington Post, the Daily Mail and InfoMine, a mining industry publication.

Nanu, fragt ihr euch jetzt vielleicht, wenn das für Ermittlungen und eventuell eine Anklage reicht, wieso ermitteln die dann erst jetzt? Tja. Gute Frage. Ist es vielleicht der neue Generalbundesanwalt?

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(14.11.2015) “We know of three agencies who passed on these warnings — we were one of them,” said an Israeli diplomat, who acknowledged the intelligence they passed on did not include specific targets for an attack or a date. Jordanian officials told BuzzFeed News they had also sent France a warning, less than a week ago, while Iraqi and Turkish officials have said that they passed on more specific intelligence to French authorities.

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The question is: Who benefits from the continuation of the crossing’s closure? Who benefits from the suffering of the [Gaza] Strip’s people? Who benefits from the continued absence of security in Sinai and the consequent absence of investments and development in Sinai?”

During the attack, which occurred near the Cave of the Patriarchs, the 17-year-old stabbed a Palestinian bystander, moderately wounding him in the upper body.

Magen David Adom paramedics and an IDF medical team evacuated the Palestinian man to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The IDF said there were no wounded among its soldiers in the attack.

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