Protecting Aleppo Civilians Requires Eliminating Terrorists, Says Assad
by Stephen Lendman
“That’s our mission, according to the constitution, according to the law, that we have to protect the people, that we have to get rid of those terrorists from Aleppo,” Assad stressed.
“This is where we can protect the civilians. How can we protect them while they are under control of the terrorists?…We need to attack the terrorists, that’s self-evident.”
On October 31, Syria’s General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said (US-supported) terrorists in Aleppo are exploiting Russia’s humanitarian ceasefire to escalate attacks on civilians in government-controlled parts of the city.
In the last three days alone, 84 noncombatants were killed, hundreds of others injured, mostly women and children.
Fars News cited Syrian army sources, saying thousands of terrorists launched multiple rounds of attacks, “codenamed the Great Epic Operation,” attempting “to break the army’s siege…but failed to do so.”
Russia continues insisting Washington and its allies separate nonexistent “moderates” from terrorist fighters. Why defies explanation.
All anti-government forces are US-backed death squads, massacring civilians, using chemical and other banned weapons.
On Monday, Sergey Lavrov said “(i)f earlier we said that it seemed that the US and its allies were unable or did not want to separate the moderate (opposition) from Jabhat al-Nusra, then now we should say…they do not really want to do this.”
That makes groups allied with al-Nusra “a legal target in accordance with those decisions of the UN Security Council.”
So far, Putin hasn’t ordered resumption of Russian aerial operation against US-supported terrorists in eastern Aleppo.
How much longer will he wait before acting? How many more Syrians will die in the interim? The only way to defeat terrorism is by smashing it – in eastern Aleppo, elsewhere in Syria, throughout the region and beyond.
Hopefully reality is beginning to hit home in Moscow. Syria’s liberating struggle advances when Russia is fully engaged. Otherwise, Washington’s imperial interests are served.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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