Aleppo: Reports of executions as Syrian army closes in

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have been entering homes in the last pockets of Aleppo held by rebels and shooting people on the spot, the United Nations has said.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he had been told that 82 civilians, including women and children, were shot in their homes or on the streets on Monday.

The grim reports came as government forces continued their advance on the last of the rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, once Syria's commercial and cultural heart. Government forces on Tuesday were in control of most of eastern Aleppo, as the four-year battle for the city neared a bloody end.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/middleeast/aleppo-syria-government-gains/index.html

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Sadly, I can remember when some people used to claim that reports of Syrian Government atrocities were nothing more than "MIC propaganda".

[Botany]

1. And those troops are backed by Putin

n/t

[David__77]

2. Combat may end soon.

I think Aleppo will be unified and major combat over soon.

[frazzled]

5. Is that how you describe it?

"Unified"? As if this were a good thing? As if tens of thousands in the city had not fled or been bombed or shot? As if millions in the country had not already met similar fates?

That's sort of like saying Europe was "unified" under the Nazi regime after all the Jews and other "undesirables" fled or were murdered, or otherwise deported and sent to meet their deaths in the starvation camps and gas chambers.

Amazing sangfroid.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Yeah, that's really not how I would have phrased it, either.

So sad all of this started with peaceful demonstrations a few years back and turned into a bloodbath by Assad and Putin.

[David__77]

10. Yes.

I didn't use "unified" to indicate the situation as being either bad or good. I meant that, across the large majority of the city, there will be a unified political administration.

[frazzled]

11. There is a value judgment attached to the notion of "unified"

Because you didn't say unified under a despotic (perhaps even genocidal) regime, even.

To say that the city is unified disregards the fact that there is no opposition left there to be non-unified: they are either displaced or dead.

Unified is the wrong term. I don't know what the right one is: occupied? conquered? overtaken? But it is certainly not unified.

How can you nonchalantly claim that your description of Aleppo as simply unified under a single political administration is neutral when that administration's "forces had also reportedly entered homes and killed those they found inside, including women and children." When a United Nations official calls this Aleppo assault “a complete meltdown of humanity.” That's not a unified government administration for the city: it's war crimes.

[David__77]

13. I don't claim that my description is neutral.

I claimed that I didn't use "unified" to indicate the situation as being either bad or good. That said, a standard dictionary only conveys whatever value judgment may be communicated by "to make or become a single unit; unite." I take that as a workable definition.

I'm familiar with the UN statement, which may be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21022&LangID=E.

[Wuddles440]

12. Sorry, but this "situation" is not "either good or bad"...

it's actually horrendous! It's an absolute affront to humanity and anyone with any decency would recognize that we're witnessing an incredible travesty.

[David__77]

14. War is insanity.

I think it's bad.

[Yupster]

18. As soon as Russia sent troops in

this became the natural result.

Our time to do anything about this was before Russia sent in troops. After that it was just a matter of time before Assad retook what he wanted.

Since it's going to happen, I'd rather it happen quickly and the rebels leave the country. I just hope we'll protect the Kurds once Assad turns on them. They deserve better than abandonment.

[Chiquitita]

3. Thank you for posting.

Feeling grief.

[riversedge]

4. pic: Syrian children flee with their families from the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood in Aleppo on Tue

Syrian children flee with their families from the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood in Aleppo on Tuesday.

[democrank]

7. Im at a loss for words.

.

[smirkymonkey]

9. So am I. This is just so heartbreaking and almost too overwhelming

to contemplate.

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. This situation is just unbelievably awful.

Those poor people.

There is no Syria left. It is all just a pile of rubble out in the desert. I hope Assad is happy. He completely destroyed a whole country and massacred thousands and thousands of people.

[Cal Carpenter]

15. Kick

[AngryAmish]

16. No matter who won this was going to happen.

The people there have had too much history, too much tribal hate and the only reason a lid was kept on it this long was because Assad the Elder was such a butcher.

[brooklynite]

17. As someone who's been to Aleppo, no.

My wife and I were there in 2011. The Shia got along with the Sunni; the Muslims got along with the Christians. What HAPPENED was that the Syrians (majority Sunni) got in their heads after the Arab Spring that they had an opportunity for Democracy.