The civilians in their buses, mostly elderly, women and children, were guarded by "rebels" of Ahrar al Sham. They were hungry. Someone appeared on the scene and distributed crisps. When children flocked around the food distribution a blue car drove up and a very large explosion occurred. Four buses full of people and a number of cars were totally destroyed (Pics: 1, 2, 3)These would be civilians from a small Shia enclave in Idlib under siege by Salafist jihadis. Being Shia, the Salafists rebels consider it their religious duty to murder and enslave them. (As "apostates" the option of "converting" is not open to them.)
127 of the civilians, only a mile or two from the safe government area, were killed in the suicide attack including 95 children. Many more were wounded. An unknown number of Ahrar al Sham "rebel" guards were also killed.
"Our current and past strategies can no longer hold. We are facing environments that the masters of war never foresaw. We are facing a threat that requires us to redefine doctrine and the force in radically new and different ways. The future army will confront a highly sophisticated urban-centric threat that will require that urban operations become the core requirement for the future land-force. The threat is clear. Our direction remains to be defined. The future is urban."— "Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity," a Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command
Today the Cabinet will approve a decision about the celebrations to mark 50 years since the liberation of Judea, Samaria [biblical names for the West Bank] and the Golan Heights. We will also celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem. The Six Day War was one of the greatest victories in the history of Israel. It brought us back to parts of our homeland and completely changed our strategic situation. We will mark the 50th anniversary with a series of events. The main event will take place at Kfar Etzion and I thank Culture Minister Miri Regev and Minister Naftali Bennett for their cooperation in promoting these celebrations.
The Daily Mail, for example, prefaced its headline on to the story with the phrase "Putin taunts Britain again," 'astutely' claiming that the Russian ships' presence may be connected to the deterioration in relations between Moscow and London in recent weeks. The Sun, meanwhile, wittily titled their piece "The Russians are Coming...Again," and described the Russian vessels as "Vladimir Putin's warships," in a naming convention that seems to have become standard among UK media in recent years.
"Royal Navy heroes are tailing Russian warships as they steam toward the English Channel - for the THIRD time in just six months," The Sun's lead reads, sounding more appropriate for a wartime propaganda pamphlet than a boring story about some ships passing through international waters.
The Mirror's headline was similarly ominous, stating that the Royal Navy was "forced" to escort "Vladimir Putin's newest warships 'playing wargames' through English Channel..."
Willfully ignoring the Russian Defense Ministry's statements from earlier this month that the ships' mission, planned long in advance, was to head to the North Atlantic for anti-submarine warfare drills, The Mirror claimed that the Russian corvettes could really "be on their way to Syria."
The Daily Express was perhaps the most blunt, and most dishonest, in its approach, its headline to the story blurting: "Putin pushes British boundaries as WARSHIPS arrive in English Channel amid global tensions." The paper's tone seemed designed to give off the impression that the Russian leader had personally signed off on sending warships to the UK's coast just to rile up the Brits.
The Daily Star was similarly scary-sounding, its headline dramatically declaring that "Vladimir Putin's warships approach English Channel as Royal Navy ships scramble." Repeating The Sun's line about this being the 'third time in six months' that Russian ships were in the Channel, the newspaper replaced 'months' with 'years' for some reason, making the trumped-up event out to be even more of a non-story. As of this writing, the paper still hasn't corrected the obvious mistake.
To Russian observers, the weekend's frenzy was reminiscent to the hysteria caused by the passage of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier group through the Channel last October.
Back then, the same tabloids offered similarly ominous and over-the-top stories, writing endless nerve-racking reports on the Russians' 'provocative' move, commenting on potential interception plans by NATO, and citing retired naval officers' excited commentaries saying that the strike group's trip reminded them of the 'good old days' of Cold War-era tensions between East and West.
Let us face the truth: Assad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting savagery, he has not only recaptured Aleppo. He has also won back most of "operational" Syria.
Max Abrahms @MaxAbrahms - 2:07 PM - 16 Apr 2017
After reading dozens of stories about the Shia massacre yesterday in Syria I've come to the conclusion it was perpetrator-less.
The War Nerd @TheWarNerd - 11:53 AM - 16 Apr 2017Two smaller cities in the northern "rebel"-controlled Idleb governate, Al Foa and Kafriya, have been under "rebel" siege for over two years. Local government aligned forces are defending them. The civilian inhabitants are of Shia belief and seen by the sectarian Sunni "rebels" as unbelievers only worthy of death. The cities are supplied by airdrops from government helicopters. Meanwhile two "rebel" controlled cities near Damascus, Zabadani and Madaya, in the south are held under siege by government forces. They are sparsely supplied by UN and Red Cross convoys. Over the years a tit-for-tat of revenge acts bound the fate of the four cities. In total some 20-30,000 people are effected. A wide ranging agreement was needed to solve the unsustainable situation.
We find that "at least 112" Shia refugees were killed. By whom? Oh, it's a real whodunit according to Reuters... link
Prince admitted an "incidental" meeting but denied anything of consequence was discussed, blaming "permanent seditious bureaucrats" in the US intelligence community for leaking the information.Prince also said that the business his current company, Frontier Services Group, was doing with China did not include mercenary services.
Comment: Also see: UK goes further than UN with calls to end the genocide in South Sudan civil war