SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Widely Violated' Syrian Ceasefire Collapses
Announcement from Syrian military comes on heels of US strikes hitting Syrian soldiers instead of ISIS
Sep 19, 2016
On the heels of U.S.-led airstrikes that killed scores of Syrian soldiers, the Syrian military has said that a week-old ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is over.
In a statement issued Monday, the Syrian military put the blame for the collapse on "armed terrorist groups," a phrase, Reuters reports, that the Syrian government uses "to refer to all insurgents fighting against it."
The agreement, Bloomberg reports,
had sought to bring seven days of calm and fresh relief to civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo. After that, their goal was for Moscow and Washington to begin an unprecedented joint effort to coordinate air strikes on Islamic extremist groups in Syria while grounding Assad's air force in those areas.
Separate reporting by Reuters also notes that the ceasefire was "[a]lready widely violated since it took effect."
Responding to the announcement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said to "wait" before making an assessment, as "trucks [with humanitarian aid] are moving today to maybe eight locations or more."
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien on Monday expressed disappointment that aid had not reached eastern Aleppo, as a convoy remains in Turkey.
"The people of Syria have suffered long enough. Millions of Syrian civilians continue to face horrific deprivation and violence, especially those trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas," he said.
The Syrian military also denounced the Saturday strikes by the U.S., which had U.K. backing, as a "serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military," and "firm proof of the U.S. support of Daesh [IS or Islamic State] and other terrorist groups."
Moscow, which backs President Bashar al-Assad, criticized the attacks as well. The country's permanent UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, said, "I have never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness."
According to Middle East analyst Derek Davison, "there have been signs from the beginning that this ceasefire was likely to fall apart." He continues:
The deal was negotiated between Russia and the U.S. with no input, and very little initial buy-in, from either the Assad government or rebel forces opposed to it. Since being implemented last week, the ceasefire has reduced overall violence, but there have been numerous reported violations--which have been another source of U.S.-Russian tension--and on Sunday Assad's air force dropped barrel bombs onto four residential neighborhoods in rebel-held eastern Aleppo.
Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reports, NATO ally "Turkey is broadening its role in its neighbor's conflict":
The Turkish military, which entered Syria last month to push Islamic State and Kurdish separatists from the border area, will expand its offensive to clear a 5,000-square-kilometer (1,931-square-mile) sanctuary, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. The operation is liable to escalate its conflict with both of those armed groups and is set to be Turkey's largest incursion since it poured troops into northern Iraq in the 1990s to attack strongholds of its own autonomy-seeking militants.
Earth Institute director Jeffrey D. Sachs has argued that the American public has been kept in the dark about the U.S. role in Syria, and, according to a recent statement by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif)--who gave the sole "no" vote 15 years ago in the U.S. House for the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF),
you know, we have a new war, really, on a new war footing, in Syria, and, minimally, the Congress should be straight with the American people and debate the costs and consequences of it. This 2001 resolution is the legal basis that the administration says gives them the blank check, or gives them the legal basis--I say it's a blank check--to use force and continue with military action.
The UN estimates that over a quarter of a million Syrians have been killed over the five-year war.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
On the heels of U.S.-led airstrikes that killed scores of Syrian soldiers, the Syrian military has said that a week-old ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is over.
In a statement issued Monday, the Syrian military put the blame for the collapse on "armed terrorist groups," a phrase, Reuters reports, that the Syrian government uses "to refer to all insurgents fighting against it."
The agreement, Bloomberg reports,
had sought to bring seven days of calm and fresh relief to civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo. After that, their goal was for Moscow and Washington to begin an unprecedented joint effort to coordinate air strikes on Islamic extremist groups in Syria while grounding Assad's air force in those areas.
Separate reporting by Reuters also notes that the ceasefire was "[a]lready widely violated since it took effect."
Responding to the announcement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said to "wait" before making an assessment, as "trucks [with humanitarian aid] are moving today to maybe eight locations or more."
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien on Monday expressed disappointment that aid had not reached eastern Aleppo, as a convoy remains in Turkey.
"The people of Syria have suffered long enough. Millions of Syrian civilians continue to face horrific deprivation and violence, especially those trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas," he said.
The Syrian military also denounced the Saturday strikes by the U.S., which had U.K. backing, as a "serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military," and "firm proof of the U.S. support of Daesh [IS or Islamic State] and other terrorist groups."
Moscow, which backs President Bashar al-Assad, criticized the attacks as well. The country's permanent UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, said, "I have never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness."
According to Middle East analyst Derek Davison, "there have been signs from the beginning that this ceasefire was likely to fall apart." He continues:
The deal was negotiated between Russia and the U.S. with no input, and very little initial buy-in, from either the Assad government or rebel forces opposed to it. Since being implemented last week, the ceasefire has reduced overall violence, but there have been numerous reported violations--which have been another source of U.S.-Russian tension--and on Sunday Assad's air force dropped barrel bombs onto four residential neighborhoods in rebel-held eastern Aleppo.
Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reports, NATO ally "Turkey is broadening its role in its neighbor's conflict":
The Turkish military, which entered Syria last month to push Islamic State and Kurdish separatists from the border area, will expand its offensive to clear a 5,000-square-kilometer (1,931-square-mile) sanctuary, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. The operation is liable to escalate its conflict with both of those armed groups and is set to be Turkey's largest incursion since it poured troops into northern Iraq in the 1990s to attack strongholds of its own autonomy-seeking militants.
Earth Institute director Jeffrey D. Sachs has argued that the American public has been kept in the dark about the U.S. role in Syria, and, according to a recent statement by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif)--who gave the sole "no" vote 15 years ago in the U.S. House for the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF),
you know, we have a new war, really, on a new war footing, in Syria, and, minimally, the Congress should be straight with the American people and debate the costs and consequences of it. This 2001 resolution is the legal basis that the administration says gives them the blank check, or gives them the legal basis--I say it's a blank check--to use force and continue with military action.
The UN estimates that over a quarter of a million Syrians have been killed over the five-year war.
On the heels of U.S.-led airstrikes that killed scores of Syrian soldiers, the Syrian military has said that a week-old ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is over.
In a statement issued Monday, the Syrian military put the blame for the collapse on "armed terrorist groups," a phrase, Reuters reports, that the Syrian government uses "to refer to all insurgents fighting against it."
The agreement, Bloomberg reports,
had sought to bring seven days of calm and fresh relief to civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo. After that, their goal was for Moscow and Washington to begin an unprecedented joint effort to coordinate air strikes on Islamic extremist groups in Syria while grounding Assad's air force in those areas.
Separate reporting by Reuters also notes that the ceasefire was "[a]lready widely violated since it took effect."
Responding to the announcement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said to "wait" before making an assessment, as "trucks [with humanitarian aid] are moving today to maybe eight locations or more."
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien on Monday expressed disappointment that aid had not reached eastern Aleppo, as a convoy remains in Turkey.
"The people of Syria have suffered long enough. Millions of Syrian civilians continue to face horrific deprivation and violence, especially those trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas," he said.
The Syrian military also denounced the Saturday strikes by the U.S., which had U.K. backing, as a "serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military," and "firm proof of the U.S. support of Daesh [IS or Islamic State] and other terrorist groups."
Moscow, which backs President Bashar al-Assad, criticized the attacks as well. The country's permanent UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, said, "I have never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness."
According to Middle East analyst Derek Davison, "there have been signs from the beginning that this ceasefire was likely to fall apart." He continues:
The deal was negotiated between Russia and the U.S. with no input, and very little initial buy-in, from either the Assad government or rebel forces opposed to it. Since being implemented last week, the ceasefire has reduced overall violence, but there have been numerous reported violations--which have been another source of U.S.-Russian tension--and on Sunday Assad's air force dropped barrel bombs onto four residential neighborhoods in rebel-held eastern Aleppo.
Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reports, NATO ally "Turkey is broadening its role in its neighbor's conflict":
The Turkish military, which entered Syria last month to push Islamic State and Kurdish separatists from the border area, will expand its offensive to clear a 5,000-square-kilometer (1,931-square-mile) sanctuary, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. The operation is liable to escalate its conflict with both of those armed groups and is set to be Turkey's largest incursion since it poured troops into northern Iraq in the 1990s to attack strongholds of its own autonomy-seeking militants.
Earth Institute director Jeffrey D. Sachs has argued that the American public has been kept in the dark about the U.S. role in Syria, and, according to a recent statement by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif)--who gave the sole "no" vote 15 years ago in the U.S. House for the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF),
you know, we have a new war, really, on a new war footing, in Syria, and, minimally, the Congress should be straight with the American people and debate the costs and consequences of it. This 2001 resolution is the legal basis that the administration says gives them the blank check, or gives them the legal basis--I say it's a blank check--to use force and continue with military action.
The UN estimates that over a quarter of a million Syrians have been killed over the five-year war.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.