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.