Syria

Syria: the non-ceasefire

On 12 February, talks in Munich produced an agreement to implement a so-called cessation of hostilities in Syria within a week, and allow the delivery of aid to besieged areas. On 15 February, however, Unicef said that Russia had bombed three hospitals in rebel held areas, and it is explicit that it will not cease its air strikes against rebel forces. Turkey shelled the positions of Syrian-Kurdish forces on every one of the three days following the Munich agreement. In fact, the risk of direct clashes between Russia and Turkey in Syria has increased, rather than decreased, since the agreement...

Catastrophe looms in Aleppo

As Solidarity goes to press on 9 February, 35,000 refugees are trapped on the Syria-Turkey border as they flee from a renewed assault by the Assad regime on Syria’s largest city, rebel-held Aleppo. Supplies to Aleppo have been cut off by Russian bombing. The Turkish government is refusing to let the refugees across the border. A grade less inhumane than EU governments, it is providing food and shelter in areas just on the Syrian side of the border, and says “if necessary, we have to and will let our brothers in”. Turkey is haggling with the EU governments and the USA, hoping to get more aid...

Turkey's hidden civil war against the Kurds

Across areas in south-eastern Turkey, areas that are overwhelmingly ethnically Kurdish, a virtual civil war is going on. The right wing Turkish AKP government’s response has been what they describe as “security operations”. These were first launched in the Sur district of Diyarbakır and the Cizre and Silopi districts of Şırnak in mid-December. The alleged target of this offensive is the Kurdish PKK (Kurdish Workers Party), which had an on-off ceasefire with the Turkish government in the last few years, whilst Kurds increasingly turned to legal political campaigning through their party, the HDP...

Little hope for Syria talks

The UN-convened Syria peace talks started on 1 February, but the opposition, or rather the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) selected by Saudi Arabia and the “Sunni Axis”, is meeting in separate sessions from the Syrian government team.. The largest Kurdish organisation, the PYD, and their leader Salih Muslim, are not there. The US wanted them in, but Turkey’s president Erdogan barred them. Arab forces involved with the PYD in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) have consequently refused to take part. Turkey insists that the PYD is part of the same organisation as the Turkish-Kurdish...

Les origines de l’«Etat islamique»

Solidarity n° 337, 24 septembre 2014 L’EI (l’Etat islamique, dont le nom complet est l’Etat islamique en Irak et au Levant), a maintenant éclipsé Al-Qaïda sur le plan de la férocité et de la renommée médiatique. Comment cela s’est-il produit ? L’Etat islamique est souvent présenté comme une création des services de renseignements occidentaux et syriens, qui aurait réussi à rassembler un certain nombre de hauts responsables militaires licenciés après l’invasion de l’Irak et qui auraient bénéficié d’une formation spécialisée dispensée par les Américains. Une grande partie de ce récit est tout...

Daesh strikes in Jakarta and Istanbul

Following attacks in Paris and Beirut in November last year, along with the shooting down of a Russian passenger jet, Daesh has stepped up its deadly operations outside of the claimed borders of its “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. Reflecting tactics that have long been the preferred method of Al Qaeda, Daesh claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Sarinah shopping mall in Jakarta Indonesia on 14 January. The attack, which killed four and injured many others, took place near foreign embassies and the UN and hotels used by foreign tourists. Indonesia is not the most fertile recruiting...

Syria: token and real wars

At the start of December David Cameron called Labour MPs who were voting against British bombing in Syria “a bunch of terrorist sympathisers”. He claimed he had a “moral duty” to bomb. As of the beginning of January, actual British air strikes in Syria have been so few as to be militarily meaningless. The first British bombings were on 3 December, on Daesh wellheads. A US source quoted in Private Eye described them as less than worthwhile. After further strikes on 3, 5, and 6 December, there have been no operations up to early January, other than an unmanned drone on Christmas Day. David...

Sectarian split grows on eve of new Syria talks

On 1 January Saudi Arabia put to death Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, a Shia cleric and leader of reformist opposition. 46 other prisoners were killed on the same day. Saudi Arabia carried out a total of 157 death sentences in 2015, putting it third in the world behind Iran (more than 289 judicial killings in 2014) and China (figures secret, but Amnesty’s last estimate was 1718-plus in 2008). Saudi authorities said that most of the 46 were Al Qaeda or other Sunni dissidents. But some were Shia. The executions have further sharpened Shia-Sunni polarisation in the whole region. Iran may now pull out of...

Syria: “Just a few more jets”, but civilians die

Hours after MPs voted for air strikes in Syria on 2 December, RAF jets carried out their first raids. The strikes are said to have targeted Daesh-controlled oil fields and military installations. Russia, which has been bombing in Syria since 30 September, has made strikes in the biggest Daesh-controlled city, Raqqa, which may have killed up to 30 civilians in a single raid. There is little evidence that Russia’s targets were well chosen. The Guardian has quoted a spokesperson for the anti-Assad “Free Syria Army” (which Cameron touts as a coherent and “moderate” anti-Assad force to defeat Daesh...

Daesh is not just “blowback”

The response from much of the left to parliament’s vote to commence air strikes in Syria has been characterised less by their usual collapse into the “anti-imperialism” of supporting your enemy’s enemy, than by an absence of commentary. It is good that most of the left have shifted from an (at best) implicit backing of reactionary regimes as long as they clash with UK-US imperialism, or feel that such a position is no longer popular. Yet in most of the left, what has replaced this is either a lack of commentary on Daesh, or at worst an ill-explained ″blowback″ argument. Socialist Worker...

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