Videos Made by Civilians Fleeing Aleppo Show Scenes of Devastation

[uhnope]

Source: New York Times

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the city of Aleppo and its environs in recent days as the Syrian military, backed by the punishing air power of Russian jets, made an aggressive push into a region of the country that long ago fell from government control.

Many of the fleeing civilians had remained in their homes for years despite the war raging all around them. Their flight alarmed aid groups and scuttled peace talks held in Geneva, and it filled social media with homemade video and personal accounts of their harried trek.

Many of the videos posted online in recent days showed the devastation in and around Aleppo that drove so many people to leave. Each clip provides a glimpse into life in wartime, but because of the nature of social media posts in conflict zones, there are things about them that sometimes cannot be determined, including the identities of individuals who made videos and whether or not they are still alive.

One video posted to YouTube by members of Al Buraq Media Institution, an activist media group, showed what it said were the first moments after a Russian airstrike in the Aleppo neighborhood of Mashhad. The scene is chaotic: Emergency sirens wail, the street is strewn with chunks of rubble, a thick cloud of dust hangs in the air and high-pitched voices can be heard shrieking. It is not clear how many people were killed or injured in the strike.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/world/middleeast/videos-made-by-civilians-fleeing-aleppo-syria-show-scenes-of-devastation.html

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Assad & Putin killing civilians & creating still more hundreds of thousands of refugees for Putin's dreams of fascist empire

[tazkcmo]

1. : (

The Russian fascist empire or the American oligarchy? The world needs a third choice, peace. But how...

[Got it]

2. Your One Issue

I get it, you don't like Putin. However, anyone who has followed events know full well that United States foreign policy is responsible for much of the disaster that been visited upon that region. Trying to blame Putin is just ridiculously shallow.

Go ahead, do what you usually do. Call me a Putin lover.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

4. Thank you - and we must put a name to this - bush

...

[uhnope]

11. welcoming to DU

enjoy your stay

[killbotfactory]

3. Well I'm glad our hands are clean in all this

We and our allies only encouraged and bankrolled a civil war. We are operating completely within international law, and have the internationally recognized right to decree which governments should be overthrown and who gets to lead them.

[moondust]

5. Timeline:

peaceful Arab Spring protests perhaps hoping for peaceful democratic political change-->brutal dictator starts shooting them, possibly at the insistence of Pooty-Tooty who didn't want his naval base threatened by unknown new government (similar to the Crimea situation)-->protestors make decision to fight back against brutal dictator rather than surrender and possibly be executed, perhaps assuming (wrongly) that NATO would come to the rescue and provide air support like they did in Libya-->protestors now freedom fighters-->U.S. provides limited weaponry to freedom fighters rather than watch them be slaughtered for lack of anything to fight back with, allowing freedom fighters to win or lose their own fight-->after 4-5 years of fighting freedom fighters winning so Big Foot Pooty-Tooty intervenes with major military power to save brutal dictator and ensure continued security of his only naval base on the Mediterranean.

Brutal dictator might have seen the light and negotiated his way out of a total loss, leading to a ceasefire and political solution rather than millions of refugees, a lot more dead civilians, and several giant piles of rubble where cities once stood...IF NOT FOR BIG FOOT POOTY-TOOTY COMING TO HIS RESCUE AND PROLONGING THE TRAGEDY INDEFINITELY.

You really have to squint and strain and make shit up to see the U.S. and NATO as the bad guys in all this.

[elias49]

6. Oh yeah! We did a wonderful job in Libya.

I think you might be a little too intimate with that Moondust

[moondust]

7. WTF?

The NATO military mission succeeded in Libya. Rebels in Syria *may* have expected to receive the same kind of support. The failures in Libya came after Gaddafi was gone.

[killbotfactory]

8. Sure... We totally had nothing to do with it.

Time Magazine, December 19, 2006: http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1571751,00.html

“The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document that says that the U.S. already is “supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists” in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that “these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists.”… The Front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that for decades supported the violent overthrow of the Syrian government.

CBC News, April 8, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-s-admits-funding-syrian-opposition-1.987112

“The U.S. State Department acknowledged Monday it has been funding opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, following the release of secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks that document the funding. The files show that up to $6.3 million US was funnelled to the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based dissident organization that operates the Barada TV satellite channel, which broadcasts anti-government news into Syria. Another $6 million went to support a variety of initiatives, including training for journalists and activists, between 2006 and 2010.”… “On Monday, the Interior Ministry identified the gangs as “armed Salafi groups,” referring to an ultraconservative form of Islam that has its roots in Saudi Arabia and can be found all over the region. The statement carried by the state news agency said they were seeking to establish “emirates” and were “abusing the freedoms and reforms launched in the comprehensive program with a timetable by President Bashar Assad.”

Reuters, April 18. 2011: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-usa-syria-wikileaks-idUSTRE73H0E720110418

“The State Department has secretly funded Syrian opposition groups, according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, The Washington Post reported on Monday. The cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million since 2006 to a group of Syrian exiles
The U.S. money for Syrian opposition figures began flowing under President George W. Bush after political ties with Damascus were frozen in 2005, the newspaper said. The financial backing has continued under President Barack Obama, even as his administration sought to rebuild relations with Assad, the Post said.”

And then when things kicked off, we sent money and arms to the "moderate rebels" for the past five years..

but, yeah, our hands are totally clean.

[moondust]

9. Nobody is saying U.S. hands are "totally clean."

There's no telling how many millions have been funneled into various Syrian groups through the years by the Saudis, Iranians, maybe Turks, maybe Kurds, maybe Iraqis, maybe Russians, maybe others. We'll probably never know the totals.

My issues are the killing of civilians and prolonging a giant clusterfuck and there are two parties mainly responsible for that: a brutal dictator and his brutal angel.

The U.S. obviously could have sent in bombers and big guns years ago if it was really determined to overthrow Assad.

Thanks for the links.

[uhnope]

12. you're using facts and rationality in an argument

with shills and fanboys of a fascist dictator. Thank you for representing the reality-based community

[NutmegYankee]

14. +1

Thank you for saying what had to be said.

[Little Tich]

10. Putin is a bad man. n/t

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. Devastation, yes. People fleeing, no.

The video doesn't show anybody fleeing. It's mostly young men yelling and recording. Are they refugees? Survivors? Fighters? Not clear from the segment.