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sarahbalick

Aleppo fighting intensifies; thousands reported fleeing - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

fighting aleppo syria UN

shared by sarahbalick on 08 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • 40,000 fleeing Aleppo as battle for Syrian city intensifies, U.N. group says
  • The battle for Aleppo -- once Syria's commercial heart -- is intensifying, and video has surfaced appearing to show thousands of civilians streaming out of the devastated city
  • Reports said forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, crucially aided by Russian air power, have cut the city off from supplies and are advancing.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Increasingly intensive Russian airstrikes are pushing thousands of Syrians north, away from the northern outskirts of the once bustling city, according to the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, the main opposition group.
  • A sense of panic among those fleeingRead More
  • <img alt="Aleppo, once a bustling city, has been reduced to rubble in Syria's civil war." class="media__image" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/151020182337-syria-aleppo-zaidoun-al-zoabi-large-169.jpg">Aleppo, once a bustling city, has been reduced to rubble in Syria's civil war.But the latest video appears to show a sense of panic among the thousands streaming out of the northern outskirts of the city, fleeing for their lives -- bound, most probably, for the Turkish border, 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the north.
  • "Now 10,000 new refugees are waiting in front of the door of Kilis because of air bombardments and attacks against Aleppo,"
  • "Sixty to seventy thousand people in the camps in north Aleppo are moving toward Turkey. My mind is not now in London, but in our border -- how to relocate these new people coming from Syria? Three hundred thousand Aleppo people, living in Aleppo, are ready to move toward Turkey."
  • Innocent civilians 'running for their lives'
  • "We are cut off from Aleppo City," said David Evans, Mercy Corps' regional program director for the Middle East. "It feels like a siege of Aleppo is about to begin."
  • "Right now, we are seeing tens of thousands of people make their way to the border with Turkey."
  • "Innocent civilians are running for their lives," Evans said.
davisem

Russia Says Aleppo Combat Has Ceased; Residents Disagree - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ebels-russia-lavrov-assad.html

shared by davisem on 09 Dec 16 - No Cached
  • Russian officials said Thursday that the Syrian Army had stopped combat operations in the divided city of Aleppo in order to evacuate civilians, but residents of the rebel-held enclave reported that after a day of intense bombardment, fighting was continuing
  • 150 airstrikes had killed at least 50 people and in which residents said they were unable to flee because of the intense combat
  • At the United Nations, the agency’s envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters he could not verify whether the fighting had stopped or whether civilians were being allowed to evacuate
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Pleas for help from eastern Aleppo escalated on Thursday, with doctors warning that they could no longer provide more than first aid
  • Mr. Assad told Al Watan, a pro-government newspaper, that victory in Aleppo “doesn’t mean the end of the war in Syria. It is a significant landmark toward the end of the battle, but the war in Syria will not end until terrorism is eliminated,” he said, referring to insurgents
  • Bombs containing chlorine, banned as a weapon by international law, fell on the front line near the Kalasseh neighborhood, sickening about 30 people, the White Helmets said.
  • and that now the United States and Russia, as well as the Syrian combatants, could not agree on a plan to deliver aid and evacuate civilians who want to leave
  • Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued an angry and sarcastic response to a statement from six Western countries a day earlier that had warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo. The ministry said that Russia was providing aid to residents it said had
  • Led by Canada, the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to vote on a draft resolution that calls for a “cessation of hostilities” for an undefined period of time and that allows humanitarian aid to be delivered. It would have no force of law.
  • davisem on 09 Dec 16
     
    Syrian Army stopped combat in the city Aleppo because they wanted to evacuate the citizens, but after they were bombarded, there was still fighting. It is so bad that for doctors, it hard to provide financial aid.
nataliedepaulo1

Syrian war: Assad says Aleppo bombing was justified - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-38552913

war

shared by nataliedepaulo1 on 09 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the bombing of eastern Aleppo, which his forces recaptured from rebels last month, was justified.
  • In comments to French media that were published by Syrian state news agency Sana, President Assad described the devastation of eastern Aleppo and killing of civilians as "painful for us as Syrians to see", adding: "Every war is bad."
  • According to the UN, 36,000 people were evacuated from east Aleppo to opposition areas in Idlib and western Aleppo countryside, while 38,750 crossed into west Aleppo.
  • abbykleman on 09 Jan 17
     
    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the bombing of eastern Aleppo, which his forces recaptured from rebels last month, was justified. "This is the price sometimes, but at the end, the people are liberated from the terrorists," he told French media.
anonymous

Syria rebels 'in push to break Aleppo siege' - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-37798924

syria bbc news crisis history

shared by anonymous on 28 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Rebels in Syria have announced a big offensive aimed at breaking the government siege of east Aleppo.
  • In response, Russia's defence ministry said it had asked permission from President Vladimir Putin to resume air strikes against the rebels after a 10-day pause, Russian media report.
  • Russia suspended its air campaign on 18 October to allow evacuations of sick and wounded people but few have heeded the call to leave.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The attacks are so far coming from rebels outside Aleppo but it is understood that rebels inside the city will join the offensive.
  • The Syrian government said it had repelled offensives on several fronts around Aleppo by both rebel groups and militants from so-called Islamic State (IS).
  • abbykleman on 28 Oct 16
     
    Syrian rebels have announced a big offensive aimed at breaking the government siege of rebel-held east Aleppo. A UK-based monitoring group said rebels had fired "hundreds" of missiles into western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians. They are also reported to have targeted al-Nayrab military airport to the east.
katyshannon

Gary Johnson explains Aleppo flub: 'I blanked' - POLITICO - 0 views

www.politico.com/...johnson-explains-aleppo-227878

gary johnson politics US history aleppo

shared by katyshannon on 09 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said he "blanked" when he couldn't identify the Syrian city of Aleppo in an interview on MSNBC.
  • Johnson was asked by MSNBC's Mike Barnicle "What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo?" he responded "And what is Aleppo?" The comment raised eyebrows among the MSNBC panelists, as it suggested a lack of familiarity with a pressing international conflict: Syria's ongoing civil war.
  • "As Governor, there were many things I didn't know off the top of my head. But I succeeded by surrounding myself with the right people, getting to the bottom of important issues, and making principled decisions. It worked," Johnson continued in his statement. "That is what a President must do.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "That would begin, clearly, with daily security briefings that, to me, will be fundamental to the job of being President."
cjlee29

Russia Says Talks Are Underway to Extend Syrian Lull in Fighting to Aleppo - The New Yo... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ters-mideast-crisis-syria.html

shared by cjlee29 on 02 May 16 - No Cached
  • ussia said on Sunday talks were taking place to include Aleppo in a temporary lull in fighting declared by the Syrian army in some western parts of the country, a sign of intensified efforts to halt a surge of violence in Syria's former commercial capital.
  • Rebels shelled government-held areas on Sunday, killing several people, and government warplanes carried out more than a dozen air strikes later in the day
  • yria's army announced late on Friday a "regime of calm", or lull in fighting, which applied to Damascus and some of its outskirts, and parts of northwestern coastal province Latakia. But it excluded Aleppo.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • A senior defence ministry official in Moscow, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on Sunday negotiations were taking place to "establish a regime of calm also in Aleppo province", Interfax news agency reported.
  • Syria's army confirmed the extension of the lull around Damascus but did not mention Aleppo.
  • "We will not accept under any circumstances... regional ceasefires,
  • These are critical hours," Kerry said,
  • Both sides have rained bombardments on residential areas for nearly 10 days, killing more than 250 people including at least 40 children
  • shelled at least one area on Sunday, killing at least three people
  • Fifteen air strikes by the government side hit rebel-held areas in the city
  • Full control of Aleppo would be a huge prize for Assad
  • Government forces and their allies also fought Islamic State near Palmyra in central Syria
  • recaptured from the jihadists in March
oliviaodon

Grieving for Aleppo, One Year After Its Fall - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...549437

aleppo crisis destruction

shared by oliviaodon on 15 Jan 18 - No Cached
  • Last autumn, we watched as Bashar al-Assad pummeled the life out of east Aleppo. His barrel bombs collapsed stone apartment buildings into concrete slabs, crushing their inhabitants between the layers. Those who survived were left with hunger, disease, and despair. Death surrounded them. With devastating detail, the siege taught us the full meaning of “kneel or starve,” the Syrian president’s strategy for defeating “the terrorists”—basically, anyone who opposed him. In mid-December, the Assad regime’s menacing green busses forcefully evacuated tens of thousands of civilians to Idlib, where local humanitarians scrambled to erect enough plastic tents for the families as snow began to fall.
  • By choosing to grieve in Arabic, we carved a semi-private space to mourn our homeland.
  • Back at home in my childhood bedroom, I finally cleared my desk of hundreds of plastic cassette boxes and swept them into trash bags. It was time to move on from the past. I thought of the tapes as an end of my youth and of outdated technology. I didn’t know it was just the beginning of the end of everything.
mrflanagan17

Syrian Army Presses Aleppo Advance as Attacks Kill Civilians - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ap-ml-syria.html

new york times crisis refugees

shared by mrflanagan17 on 30 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • 21 civilians were killed in a wave of artillery fire in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning
  • An airstrike blamed by activists on the government killed 25 civilians Tuesday.
  • The government blamed rebels for the attack.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • they were civilians — mostly women and children — fleeing shelling and air strikes on other parts of the city.
  • refugees were filling up apartment buildings long abandoned because of the war
  • Observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said he predicts death tolls will spiral in east Aleppo as the internal displacement creates more residential density
  • It blamed the government for the strikes.
  • more than 50,000 out of an estimated quarter-million inhabitants have been displaced by attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo
  • 0,000 people have fled.
katyshannon

U.S.-Russia Deal on a Partial Truce in Syria Raises More Doubt Than Optimism - The New ... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...fire-in-syria-obama-putin.html

u s deal truce syria doubt optimism new york times politics crisis history culture obama putin assad

shared by katyshannon on 23 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • The United States and Russia announced an agreement on Monday for a partial truce in Syria, though the caveats and cautious words on all sides underscored the obstacles in the way of the latest diplomatic effort to end the five-year-old civil war.
  • Under the terms of the agreement, the Syrian government and Syria’s armed opposition are being asked to agree to a “cessation of hostilities,” effective this Saturday. But the truce does not apply to two of the most lethal extremist groups, the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, raising questions about whether it will be any more lasting than previous cease-fires.
  • The agreement calls for the Syrian government and the opposition to indicate by noon on Friday whether they will comply with the cessation of hostilities, a term carefully chosen because it does not require the kind of agreement in a formal cease-fire.
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  • The United States is responsible for bringing the various opposition groups in line while the Russians are supposed to pressure the government. Washington and Moscow also agreed to set up a hotline to monitor compliance by both sides.
  • President Obama sealed the final terms of the arrangement in a phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has become perhaps the most influential player in the Syrian war since Russia thrust itself into the conflict in September on behalf of its client, Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.
  • The diplomatic efforts did yield a small victory: Aid was delivered for the first time in months to several towns after the combatants gave permission under intense pressure.
  • On the ground in Syria, the prospects for an end to the bloodshed seemed even more elusive. In the last week alone, more than 100 people in Homs and Damascus were killed by suicide bombings by the Islamic State.
  • Airstrikes by the Syrian government and its Russian allies in Aleppo and elsewhere have killed scores of people, including in at least five hospitals, one aided by the international charity Doctors Without Borders.
  • Farther east, scores of civilians were said by locals to have been killed in airstrikes by the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
  • The priorities, Mr. Obama told Mr. Putin, were to “alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people,” accelerate a political settlement and keep the focus on the coalition’s battle against the Islamic State.
  • hundreds of thousands of Syrians remain trapped in areas that are classified as besieged or hard to reach, without regular access to food and medicine. Humanitarian groups caution that the more access to aid is used as part of political deals, the less the combatants will provide it unconditionally, as required under international law.
  • The agreement came after one false start: Secretary of State John Kerry announced in Munich on Feb. 12 that the truce would take effect in a week, but the target date passed as the two sides wrestled over how to carry it out. On Sunday, in Amman, Jordan, Mr. Kerry spoke three times by phone with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, to iron out the details.
  • On Monday, while flying back to Washington, Mr. Kerry briefed ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey about the agreement, according to a senior State Department official. He is expected to discuss the truce when he testifies at a budget hearing Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
  • Mr. Kerry has tended to be more optimistic than the White House about the prospects for a diplomatic solution in Syria. But his statement on Monday was also notably reserved. He did not mention the Feb. 27 date and said that while the agreement represented a “moment of promise,” the “fulfillment of that promise depends on actions.”
  • Analysts expressed skepticism about the deal, noting that in the five days before the truce takes effect, the Syrian forces and their Russian allies could inflict a lot more damage to Aleppo through bombing raids. Some speculated that Russia might expand its military campaign to Idlib, southwest of Aleppo, where Nusra fighters are also operating.
  • “This depends entirely on the good faith of Russia, Iran and the Assad regime, none of whom have shown much good faith in the last five years,” said Frederic C. Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who worked on Syria policy during the first term of the Obama administration.
  • In Riyadh on Monday, a Saudi-backed consortium of Syrian opposition groups and political dissidents said they would agree to the terms of the truce. But Riad Hijab, who coordinates the group’s efforts, did not expect the Syrian government, Iran or Russia to abide by it since, he said, Mr. Assad’s survival depended on “the continuation of its campaign of oppression, killing and forced displacement.”
  • For the Obama administration, a partial truce in Syria may simply be a way to keep a lid on the violence there while it turns its attention to planning and carrying out military operations against Islamic State fighters in Libya.
  • Some analysts said the agreement was less an effort to end the fighting in Syria than to ease the bloodshed enough to allow more humanitarian aid to reach stricken cities like Aleppo.
mcginnisca

News Today - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...10514

US politics Syria Russia diplomacy

shared by mcginnisca on 28 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Syrian rebels group, including Islamists formerly linked to al-Qaeda, launched a military offensive to break the government’s siege of Aleppo, the last major rebel-held city in Syria where 275,000 people have been trapped for months.
  • Russian and Syrian airstrikes have pounded the rebel-held eastern part of the divided city. Civilian targets, humanitarian convoys, and hospitals have been struck. The government controls the western portion of Aleppo
  • rebels fired missiles at al-Nayrab, in the east of the city, killing 15 people and wounding 100 others
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  • Eastern Aleppo is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, but taking it won’t be easy. Assad is backed not only by the Russian military—airstrikes and a soon-to-arrive naval fleet in the Mediterranean—but also fighters from Iran, and Hezbollah, the Shia militia from neighboring Lebanon
redavistinnell

Spain urged not to allow refuelling of Russian warships - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-37773606

spain russian bbc news

shared by redavistinnell on 26 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Spain urged not to allow refuelling of Russian warships
  • The Spanish government is now reviewing the permit for refuelling at its enclave of Ceuta in north Africa.
  • Nato expressed concern that the ships could be used to help bomb civilians in Aleppo, but said the final decision on resupply rested with Spain.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Nato's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that warships could be used to target civilians in Syria.
  • "The concern is that the Kuznetsov carrier group can be used as a platform for increased airstrikes against civilians in Aleppo."
  • "for each nation to decide whether these ships can get supplies and fuelling and be fuelled in different harbours along the route towards the eastern Mediterranean."
  • The British Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said: "We'd be extremely concerned that any Nato member should consider assisting a Russian carrier group that might end up bombing Syrian civilians."
  • Led by Russia's only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the naval group includes a nuclear-powered battle cruiser, two anti-submarine warships and four support vessels, probably escorted by submarines. The battle group carries do
  • Some 2,700 people have been killed or injured since the Russian-backed Syrian offensive started last month, according to activists.
  • About 250,000 civilians who live in Aleppo have been trapped by the fighting.
sarahbalick

Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-37417898

syria conflict

shared by sarahbalick on 20 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Syria conflict: UN suspends all aid after convoy hit
  • The UN has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after a devastating attack on its lorries near Aleppo on Monday.
  • Russia and Syria have both insisted that their forces were not involved.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • But UN chief Ban Ki-moon launched a stinging attack on the Syrian government, saying it had killed the most civilians in the civil war.

  • UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura also said there was still hope but said delegates from the Syria Support Group, which includes Russia, had agreed it was in danger.

  • "Everything shown in the video is the direct result of a fire which mysteriously began at the same time as a large scale rebel attack on Aleppo," he said.
  • A media activist who witnessed the attack told the BBC Arabic service that Russian reconnaissance planes had been spotted, apparently filming the passage of the convoy.
  • Just a day ago, aid workers in Geneva were "almost celebrating" one said, because all the necessary permits had been received, all the warring parties had been notified, and a convoy was finally going to Aleppo province.
  • The 31 lorries were carrying supplies for 78,000 people in Urum al-Kubra. But this morning, the optimistic mood had changed.
  • He called the attack on the aid convoy "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
ecfruchtman

Syrian forces push Aleppo rebels to brink as city nears 'total collapse' - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...6-afd9-f038f753dc29_story.html

shared by ecfruchtman on 12 Dec 16 - No Cached
  • ecfruchtman on 12 Dec 16
     
    Syrian forces in the city of Aleppo pinned rebels into a tiny sliver of territory on Monday as President Bashar al-Assad's troops appeared close to capturing their biggest battlefield prize and delivering a crushing loss to opposition fighters.
fischerry

Bana Alabed: Syrian tweeting girl pens letter to Trump - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-38736432

Aleppo trump global

shared by fischerry on 25 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • Bana Alabed: Syrian tweeting girl pens letter to Trump
  • Bana Alabed, the seven-year-old Aleppo girl known worldwide for her tweets from Aleppo, has written an open letter to Donald Trump.
  • "You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you," she wrote.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • She said Bana wrote it days before President Trump's inauguration, because "she has seen Trump many times on the TV".
cjlee29

Divided Aleppo Plunges Back Into War as Hospital Is Destroyed - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...aleppo-syria-strikes.html

shared by cjlee29 on 28 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • Syria’s divided city of Aleppo plunged back into the kind of all-out war not seen in months on Thursday
  • At least 27 people, including three children and six staff members,
  • The escalation also threatened to derail renewed attempts at peace talks in Geneva by the United Nations
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • disrupt or stop humanitarian aid
  • There was no indication that the Syrian government forces of President Bashar al-Assad and their Russian allies were any closer to retaking the entire city.
  • become apparent in recent days that the truce was unraveling in the surrounding area
  • The International Committee of the Red Cross called on all parties to stop indiscriminate attacks
  • Mr. Anees said the rebels appeared to have started using more powerful munitions since the cease-fire crumbled in the city over a week ago.
  • The hospital was the main referral center for pediatrics, with eight doctors, 28 nurses, an emergency room, intensive care unit and operating room, all now destroyed.
  • In another area, a small boy was captured on video crying over the body of his brother, calling him “the love of my father.
prendergastja

Two Italian women seized by al-Qaeda released - Telegraph - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...ized-by-al-Qaeda-released.html

shared by prendergastja on 17 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • uggesting that Italy has continued its long-running policy of paying ransoms for captives.
  • The two young women were taken hostage in July while working on humanitarian projects in the embattled northern city of Aleppo.
  • Dressed in black hijabs, Ms Ramelli, 20, and Ms Marzullo, 21, appealed for help in the video, saying they were “in great danger” and could be killed.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Their families were criticised in Italy for allowing their daughters to travel to Syria,
  • Italy, along with France and Spain, is believed to pay ransoms to secure the release of its citizens if they are kidnapped or held as hostages
  • Britain has long argued that paying such ransoms only encourages militant and terrorist groups to kidnap more victims.
  • prendergastja on 17 Jan 15
     
    Two young Italian women were taken hostage in July while working in Syria on humanitarian projects in the city of Aleppo. The Italian government payed the ransom to secure the release of the two women on January 16, 2015.
Alex Trudel

'Doomsday Vault' opens to retrieve seeds for Syria - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

politics US crisis culture syria economic Obama policy education

shared by Alex Trudel on 27 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Humanity has had to cash in on its insurance policy earlier than expected.
  • Known as the "Doomsday Vault," this seed bank -- operated by the Norwegian government and containing a seed of just about every known crop in the world -- is meant to be humanity's backup in the event of a catastrophe that devastates crops.
  • The bloody conflict in Syria has left scientists at an important gene bank in Aleppo -- where new strains of drought- and heat-resistant wheat have been developed over time -- unable to continue their work in recent years.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The seeds are being planted at new facilities in Lebanon and Morocco, allowing scientists to resume the important research they've been doing for decades, away from the barrel bombs of Aleppo.
  • The gene bank in Aleppo, run by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, is one of the most important in the world and includes more than 135,000 varieties of wheat, fava bean, lentil and chickpea crops, as well as the world's most valuable barley collection.
  • ICARDA representative Thanos Tsivelikas, who is overseeing the withdrawal from the vault, describes the operation as "a rescue mission; these seeds cannot be replaced.
  • Relocated to Lebanon, Solh opens the door to a vault on the Agricultural Research and Educational Center of the American University of Beirut campus in the Bekaa Valley. This is where the seeds ICARDA received back from Svalbard are housed.
  • It is the plant from which the wheat we eat today originated 10 millennia ago.
  • A 10-minute drive away and just across the mountain range from Syria, a new vault is being built by ICARDA.
  • parallel project is being set up in Morocco to ensure that humanity always has access to this irreplaceable cache of genetic material.
  • Researchers are looking at ways to improve food crops with existing and extinct-in-nature genetic lines that are more adapted to the challenges that may lie ahead with global warming.
  • "You know that climate change is a reality and climate change is changing the whole environment in terms of more drought, hotter environments and even new diseases."
alexdeltufo

The war against the Islamic State hits hurdles just as the U.S. military gears up - The... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...6-a9b5-bf703a5a7191_story.html

shared by alexdeltufo on 08 May 16 - No Cached
  • hen President Obama first ordered U.S. warplanes into action against the extremists sweeping through Iraq and Syria in 2014, U.S. officials put a three- to five-year timeline on a battle they predicted would be hard. After a rocky start, officials say they are gratified by the progress made, especially over the past six months.
  • “So far in terms of what we had hoped to do, we are pretty much on track,” said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive subjects. “We’re actually a little bit ahead of where we wanted to be.”
  • The Islamic State will have occupied those cities for well over two years before the offensives begin, far longer than any of those it has lost so far. The battle for Mosul, long a Pentagon priority, has already been delayed by at least a year
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The extra resources are an acknowledgment, U.S. officials say, that the war can’t be won without a greater level of American involvement.
  • intense Islamic State fire from the small but strategically important village of Al-Nasr, about 40 miles to the south. It was a reminder, said Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman, that “we’ve got a foot on his neck but he’s still got some fight in him."
  • We have to pause, reset a bit and do some things.”
  • U.S. officials say they have seen no fallout yet from the fracas in Baghdad, but don’t rule out that there could be one if the political instability continues.
  • One major effort for which the United States needs Turkish engagement is a faltering offensive against the Islamic State in the northern Syrian countryside of Aleppo province, bordering Turkey.
  • Cutting the Islamic State’s vital supply route to Turkey is considered an essential prerequisite for any eventual offensive to retake Raqqa.
  • The recent resumption of fighting around the nearby city of Aleppo has come as a fresh reminder that the war in Syria will continue to draw resources away from the Islamic State fight. Peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the conflict have deadlocked, eroding hopes that a political solution is in sight.
  • It was repelled, however, only with the help of intense U.S. airstrikes, underscoring the vital role the United States plays in securing recaptured territory.
  • But were you to remove that air power and the capabilities the Americans bring, I could imagine them making gains again on the ground.”
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