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Please guys, stay on topic.
This thread is about the situation in Iraq and Syria. |
http://www.iraqinews.com/features/turkish-army-ordered-to-withdraw-from-iraq/ (IraqiNews.com) BAGHDAD- The Turkish army on Saturday ordered its troops stationed in Iraq to withdraw immediately. This news was flashed at the official Iraqi television.
The decision came after Turkey experienced a military coup, where the military troops spread at the streets of Turkish capital Ankara and Istanbul, while the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to punish those who were responsible of the putsch, and called upon citizens to prevent the coup. http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950426000672 (pro regime) TEHRAN (FNA)- Informed sources said that the Turkish intelligence agents, who have been training Nouralddeen al-Zinki terrorists in Northern Syria, have been ordered to leave the battlefields in Aleppo due to the Syrian government forces' increasing advances and meantime lack of unity among militant groups.
"Suicide attacks of al-Nusra front and Nouralddeen al-Zinki on the government forces' position to reopen Castillo supply line to Northern part of Aleppo city have thus far failed and the Syrian army forces' advances in different battlefields in Northern Aleppo have continued," the sources said.
"On the other hand some of the terrorist groups have no intention to partake in Aleppo battles against the government forces. All these have forced Turkey to start evacuating its trainers and intelligence officers from Aleppo," they added.
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(Reuters) - France and the United States are preparing a coordinated strike against Islamic State on the militant group's stronghold in Mosul, Iraq, French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said.
"(French Defence Minister) Jean Yves Le Drian is in Washington. He is preparing with the Americans a coordinated attack on Mosul," le Foll said on France Info radio.
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault spoke about a Washington meeting of the anti-Islamic State coalition in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.
Le Foll said he could not confirm a report in Le Parisien newspaper, citing an Associated Press report, which said two French special forces soldiers had been killed in Libya on Sunday. However, he confirmed that French special forces were present in the country.
"Special forces are there, of course, to help and to make sure France is present everywhere in the struggle against terrorists," he said. uk.mobile.reuters.com
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some resolve might happen in this conflict mostly because Assad+Iran+Russia fully encircled Aleppo and have it under siege ( http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-18/syrian-forces-cut-off-lifeline-to-rebel-held-aleppo/7636738 ).
http://www.rferl.org/content/us-secretary-state-kerry-russia-lavrov-meet-revive-syrian-cease-fire-peace-talks/27874914.html U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would hold talks on the war in Syria with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a summit next week in Laos. ...Kerry held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lavrov in Moscow last week, striking an agreement on "concrete steps" to salvage a failing cease-fire and restart long-stalled peace talks. + Show Spoiler +"We would take stock of where our negotiation is" at the Laos summit, Kerry told reporters in Vienna on July 22. "In the event there are brackets around certain things or issues that are not resolved by the current discussions, he and I will have to resolve them," he said. Syrian peace talks have stalled and a cease-fire brokered by Russia and the United States in February has largely collapsed amid heavy fighting. But U.S. President Barack Obama is insisting on keeping dialogue with Moscow open on Syria, Kerry said. "The president...has authorized and ordered this track," he said. a take on Russia->US+allies bombings from last month http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/22/russia-bombed-sas-outpost-in-syria/ Russian aircraft bombed a military outpost used by SAS troops backing Syrian rebel fighters, as part of a Kremlin campaign to bully the West into closer military cooperation in the country, US officials have said.
The Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs on the remote post in south eastern Syria just 24 hours after a detachment of 20 British special forces soldiers had left, the Wall Street Journal reported. the rest + Show Spoiler +The close call on June 16 was part of a Russian campaign to pressure the Obama administration to agree to closer cooperation in the skies over Syria, officials told the paper.
After the first wave of bombing, US commanders warned their Russian counterparts that the garrison was part of the international military coalition against Islamic State and should not be attacked.
But around 90 minutes later, US warplanes circling nearby saw Russian jets drop a second barrage of bombs on the target.
A US spy plane overhead tried to reach the Russian pilots directly on agreed emergency frequencies, but the Russians did not answer.
Four rebels were killed in the strike.
When US officials demanded an explanation from Moscow, they were told Russian pilots had struck the outpost because they thought it was an Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (Isil) base.
Russian officials then told the Americans that the Jordanians had approved the strikes in advance, but this was denied by Amman. Moscow also said its air command headquarters in Syria was unable to call off the strikes because the US had not supplied the precise position of the outpost.
Nearly a month later, Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs on another US-linked base near the Jordanian border. The camp about 50 miles from At-Tanf housed about 200 family members of CIA-backed fighters and other displaced Syrians.
The attack killed two young children, aged two and three, along with two young women and a man in his mid-50s. In addition, 48 people were injured, all civilians.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment. .
some banter http://en.apa.az/world-news/asia-news/saudi-arabia-offers-russia-economic-incentives-to-drop-assad.html Baku. Turbet Baghirova – APA. Saudi Arabia will offer Russia access to the Gulf Cooperation Council Market and regional investment funds if it ends its support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in an interview with the Politico.eu news website.
“We are ready to give Russia a stake in the Middle East that will make Russia a force stronger than the Soviet Union “with access to a pool of investment” greater than China’s,” he said.
The Advisor to the Director of the Russian Institute for strategic studies (RISS) Elena Suponina called the minister’s statement primitive and accused him of being politically inexperienced. She noted that Russia's position in the international arena is not measured in petrodollars, and its interests are not limited to supporting Assad. but 'till then, the strikes continue and civilians keep dying. http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/07/23/476537/US-airstrikes-Syria-Manbij-Daesh-positions-civilians-killed-injured More than a dozen civilians are dead or injured after US warplanes launch fresh airstrikes in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.
Local sources said warplanes hit targets in al-Nawajah village east of of Manbij on Saturday, leaving at least 15 people dead or injured.
Some of the wounded victims are said to be in a critical condition, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement from London.
The fresh attack comes shortly after at least 140 civilians were killed in French and US airstrikes in Manbij on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to the Syrian Foreign Ministry, French warplanes struck the village of Tukhan al-Kubra north of Manbij, killing 120 civilians. The fatalities came a day after a US airstrike killed 20 civilians in Manbij.
Last month, at least 45 civilians were killed in two separate US-led airstrikes in the Syrian city, which is mostly populated by the Kurdish community.
On Thursday, opposition groups in Syria called on the US and allies to suspend airstrikes following the deaths of some 140 civilians in Aleppo until an investigation is completed into the deaths.
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There is really no point in posting presstv articles. They are so full of propaganda and consipacy theories and made up stuff that you will never know if its true or not.
And we have no reason to believe the Syrian government claim of French warplanes killing 120 civilians.
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well, glad you're not even impartial. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/19/us-air-strike-in-syria-kills-up-to-85-civilians-mistaken-for-isi/ + Show Spoiler + 19 July 2016 • 4:32pm
A US air strike killed nearly 60 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State (Isil) fighters.
Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.
Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants. but maybe you don't like telegraph.co.uk either so http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-manbij-idUSKCN0ZZ16Z + Show Spoiler +At least 56 civilians were killed on Tuesday in air strikes north of the besieged Islamic State-held city of Manbij in northern Syria, and residents said they believed the attack was carried out by U.S.-led warplanes, a monitoring group said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 11 children, and that dozens more people were wounded.
The U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, launched an offensive at the end of May to seize the last territory held by Islamic State (IS) insurgents on Syria's frontier with Turkey.
Supported by U.S. coalition air strikes, the SDF has surrounded and fought their way into parts of the city, but Islamic State attacks still occur in some areas of the surrounding countryside.
On Monday, 21 people were killed in raids also believed to have been conducted by U.S.-led coalition aircraft on Manbij's northern Hazawneh quarter.
In a statement, rights watchdog Amnesty International said the U.S.-led coalition must do more to prevent civilian deaths.
"Anyone responsible for violations of international humanitarian law must be brought to justice and victims and their families should receive full reparation," Amnesty's interim Middle East director Magdalena Mughrabi said.
Progress into Manbij city has been slow. The militants have deployed snipers, planted mines and prevented civilians from leaving, hampering efforts to bomb the city without causing heavy casualties, according to Kurdish sources.
The Observatory said at least 104 civilians have died from air strikes since the start of the Manbij offensive in late May.
Syria's main opposition body, the High Negotiations Committee, criticized both the SDF and the coalition, which it blamed for what it said were hundreds of civilian deaths around Manbij.
"The lives of Syrian civilians are being lost in their hundreds whilst there is a deafening international silence," it said in a letter addressed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Some armed opposition groups have been separately fighting the SDF in parts of Aleppo province.
Colonel Chris Garver, a spokesman for the U.S. coalition against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, said it was looking into reports of civilian deaths but was being "extraordinarily careful to make sure" air strikes were killing IS fighters.
"Around Manbij, the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC - Arab groups within the SDF), which is leading that fight, is being very slow and deliberate in that fight to protect civilians which we know are inside."
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights recently voiced concern for the roughly 70,000 civilians believed to be trapped between warring parties in Manbij.
"Civilians have...reportedly been killed if they leave their homes or attempt to flee. Families are unable to access local cemeteries to bury their relatives who have died or been killed, and are burying them in their gardens or keeping the corpses in bunkers," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.
"The town has no electricity or water at present, and no medical facilities are known to be operating. As the SDF closes in on the city, (Islamic State) has not permitted civilians to leave the area." and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/20/us-airstrike-allegedly-kills-56-civilians-in-northern-syria + Show Spoiler +In the early hours of Tuesday morning, activists described coalition aircraft hitting a cluster of houses in the village of Tokkhar, where nearly 200 people had gathered to seek shelter as the frontline shifted towards their homes. Most of those inside were killed or injured.
“The death toll is 117. We could document [the identity of] 73 civilians including 35 children and 20 women. The rest of the dead bodies are charred, or have been reduced to shreds,” said Adnan al-Housen, an activist from Manbij.
He said around 50 injured survivors were rushed for treatment to the border town of Jarablus, where they provided details about the attack.
Ahmad Mohammad from the Syrian Institute for Justice, a Turkey-based group which monitors human rights violations, has also documented 73 victims, from at least nine families. UK-based monitoring group AirWars has recorded the names of a similar number of dead from several different sources.
“This is likely the worst reported civilian toll of any coalition attack since the bombing campaign against Isis began nearly two years ago,” said AirWars director Chris Wood. The group had already warned of a rising civilian toll around Manbij.
“Since the siege began it’s our view that at least 190 civilians have been killed by coalition airstrikes, mostly US. We are concerned that the US-led alliance appears to have relaxed some of their rules concerning civilian casualties,” said Woods. A coalition spokesman denied any change to its rules of engagement.
https://airwars.org/data/ , but don't look in there if you still think that good guys exist and you're on their side.
or maybe you like https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/07/syria-high-civilian-death-toll-from-us-led-coalition-airstrikes-on-manbij/ or http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/led-air-strikes-kill-21-civilians-syria-160719045329897.html better The UK-based Observatory has put the total number of civilians killed by coalition strikes on Manbij since the Democratic Forces of Syria (DFS) launched their campaign there at the end of May, at 167.
Among the dead were about 44 children, 17 women and eight prisoners, the Observatory said.
"The US central command has confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was conducting air strikes in the area and says it needs to investigate allegations of whether civilians were injured or killed in this incident," Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said. US is losing and doesn't seem to give a fuck anymore.
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On July 25 2016 16:23 xM(Z wrote: well, glad you're not even impartial.
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Presstv is simply terrible as a source. That has nothing to do with being impartial or whatever. What they write is likely to be nonsense so its pointless to post it. Dailymail should be avoided as well btw, although I think even they are more accurate than presstv.
And your other sources confirm what I said. They dont say anything about 120 killed from French airstrikes. So yes I like those much better.
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first, no casualty report coming from a war zone is ever accurate(initial reports are always underestimated then media cuts/adds more numbers depending on which side is doing the reporting). second, how is 117(of which 73 identified victims) that much different than 120?(all quoted sources say the same; or you only read the title?).
- only US coalition forces bomb Manbij area; there is no way someone else bombed those people + Show Spoiler +July 18, 2016 Release # 20160718-01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SOUTHWEST ASIA — On July 17, coalition military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 12 strikes using bomber, attack, ground-attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets. Additionally in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 11 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using rocket artillery and attack and fighter aircraft against ISIL targets.
The following is a summary of the strikes conducted against ISIL since the last press release:
Syria * Near Abu Kamal, one strike destroyed two ISIL oil wellheads. * Near Manbij, 11 strikes struck eight separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 22 ISIL fighting positions. + Show Spoiler +July 19, 2016 Release # 20160719-01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SOUTHWEST ASIA — On July 18, coalition military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 21 strikes using bomber, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets. Additionally in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 10 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using rocket artillery and attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets.
The following is a summary of the strikes conducted against ISIL since the last press release:
Syria * Near Dayr Az Zawr, one strike destroyed an ISIL crane and an ISIL front-end loader. * Near Manbij, 18 strikes struck 15 separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 13 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL mortar system, seven ISIL vehicles, two ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive devices, an ISIL staging area, and an ISIL tactical vehicle. * Near Mar'a, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions. - there is official data for the strikes, based on nationality, but only until july 17th + Show Spoiler +The US is responsible for most Manbij strikes. Official data shows 637 US airstrikes in Syria & just 13 by partners May 22nd to July 17th ; when they'll release more data i wouldn't know.
but honestly i don't know what your problem is here?. what can you not accept?: that US+coalition killed them or that (allegedly)french air force did?, because the victim numbers quoted are the same across all sources (117 of which 73 identified).
Edit: the report from https://airwars.org/civcas-2016/ + Show Spoiler +July 19th 2016: Al Tokhar near Manbij, Aleppo governorate, Syria
Summary: In what may have been the single greatest loss of life from a Coalition action in the first two years of its war against Daesh, between 74 and 203 civilians were reported killed in a catastrophic event at the village of Tokhar – scene of a number of other recent civilian fatalities from alleged Coalition strikes. Local group Manbij Mother of All The World was the first to report the event, initially noting 25 or more fatalities. The group quickly raised the death toll to 56 then 59 civilians, eventually reporting that as many as 203 non-combatants had died. Most others placed the fatality range in the low 100s. Manbij Direct noted shortly after the strike, for example, that “so far there have been 94 martyrs identified, but there are still entire families under the rubble.” So-called Islamic State also issued a tweet mid-morning suggesting that 160 civilians had died. At least 73 deceased civilians have so far been named, including 11 or more children. There was some confusion about the site of the event. While Manbij Mother of All Worlds said five homes were struck on the outskirts of town, most other sources said a former school being used by displaced civilians was hit. According to Syria Direct, “The airstrike, at 3:00am Tuesday morning, destroyed a school in a-Tokhar.” The news site quoted local citizen journalist Abu Omar al-Manbiji as saying: “That school housed displaced people from neighboring villages. So far we count 124 dead from the attack, and that number could very well increase.” Others placed the event nearer 5am. The Coalition told reporters it was aware of the Tokhar allegations and had launched a preliminary investigation. The US’s proxies said they had supplied the intelligence for the strike, with the SDF noting in a statement that “a large group of Daesh militants was moving in the vicinity of the village and within Altokhar, with their vehicles and military equipment… We had received information that the village is free from civilians.” The SDF also claimed local groups were fabricating civilian casualty claims, in order to aid ISIL and discredit Kurdish forces. In contrast, the US’s other proxy the Free Syrian Army condemned “the horrific massacres committed – and which are still being committed – by the international coalition aircraft against unarmed civilians in the city and countryside of Manbej.” The Assad regime-controlled SANA instead claimed French aircraft were reponsible for the deaths: “French warplanes working as part of the so-called ‘international coalition’ led by the United States over the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic committed an illegal and bloody massacre (which is an affront to humanity) near the Syrian-Turkish border. They targeted with a violent aerial bombardment the village of Greater Tokhar, a peaceful village located in the northern outskirts of the city Manbej – exterminating entire families and flattening homes in an inhumane manner.” Approximately 74 of the dead have been named as follows: The family of Haj Mouaylad Al Zagheer or al Kabir – 5 killed The family of Bakkar al Ramadan – 8 killed The family of Suleiman al Dhaher – 5-6 killed including 1 or more children, though Suleiman reportedly survived The family of Hassan al Ibrahim – 6 killed The family of Ahmad al Ibrahim al Aoussi – 2 to 6 killed The family of Mahmoud al Abd al Rahman – 6 to 8 killed, with one son Bashar surviving The family of Amilad [or Haj Mouaylad] al Zaghir – 7 or 8 killed including 5 children The family of Abd al Mawwas – 15 killed. Mr Mawwas and his son Khaled reportedly survived. One source said “his daughters, his children and his grandchildren” died The al Khardaghli family – numbers unknown The family of Rajab al Kasso or al Qasmo – 6 killed, except for Mohammad al Rajab and his son Walid The family of Mouaylad al Kasso or al Qasmo including children The son of Said Al Ahmad al Said The family of Bakkar al Mohammad al Mahmoud – a woman and two children killed One or more children of Kamel al Sitto Daughter of Mr. Mohammad al Mahmoud al Haj Saleh (13 years old) died on July 21st of injuries sustained in the attack Civilians reported killed: 74 to 203, including 12 or more children and 5 or more women Civilians reported injured: 30 Sources: Manbij Mother of All The World (1) [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All The World (2) [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All The World (3) [Arabic], EXTREMELY GRAPHIC IMAGES Manbij Mother of All The World (4) – civilian casualty list and photos [Arabic], Local Syrian Civil Defence, Manbij Direct [Arabic], Manbij Here [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All The World (5) [Arabic], Hathifa al Yaman Abu Al Majad blog – casualty list [Arabic], Manbij Direct (2) – casualty list [Arabic], GRAPHIC Youth of the Syrian Revolution [Arabic], Syria Relief Organisation [Arabic], GRAPHIC Halaab News Network [Arabic], Syria Direct, Airwars, The Intercept, Al Jazeera English, TeleSur, VICE News, Middle East Eye, ABC Australia, Wall Street Journal, Manbij Direct (3) [Arabic], Halab News Network – casualty list [Arabic], Hawar News – statement from ‘Manbij Military Council’, ie SAC or SDF [Arabic], SANA [Arabic], Syrian Network for Human Rights, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Free Syrian Army [Arabic], Amnesty International [Arabic], Reuters (1), Reuters (2), Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Manbij Documentation Agency – casualty list [Arabic], Manbij Direct (4) – photos [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All the World (6) [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All the World (7) [Arabic], Manbij Direct (5) [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All the World (8) [Arabic], Manbij Mother of All the World [Arabic], Quality of reporting: Fair Coalition position: For July 18th-19th 2016 the Coalition reported. “Near Manbij, 18 strikes struck 15 separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 13 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL mortar system, seven ISIL vehicles, two ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive devices, an ISIL staging area, and an ISIL tactical vehicle.”
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I said that pretty clearly, I can not accept Presstv. They have purposefully lied in the past, they will in the future, which makes them highly unreliable as a source. In general state owned and controlled media are a problem. Its a question of having standards.
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if your "standards" prevent you from assessing some fairly accurate reporting, then you call it bias. a. A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment. b. An unfair act or policy stemming from prejudice. and if you do it from a desire to belong to a side, you call it confirmation bias: Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.
anyway, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/un-syria-envoy-to-meet-us-russian-officials-july-26-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=102078&NewsCatID=352 U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will hold talks July 26 with top U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva in a bid to revive flagging peace talks, his office said.
U.S. mission spokesman Paul Patin told AFP that the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney will be at the meeting, while Russia’s Ria-Novosti news agency said Moscow will be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.
De Mistura’s spokeswoman Jessy Chahine, who confirmed the meeting, gave no details about its agenda, but the U.N. envoy has been trying to save a peace process which some feared was facing total collapse.
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On July 26 2016 02:47 xM(Z wrote:if your "standards" prevent you from assessing some fairly accurate reporting, then you call it bias. a. A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment. b. An unfair act or policy stemming from prejudice. and if you do it from a desire to belong to a side, you call it confirmation bias: Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.anyway, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/un-syria-envoy-to-meet-us-russian-officials-july-26-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=102078&NewsCatID=352 Show nested quote +U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will hold talks July 26 with top U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva in a bid to revive flagging peace talks, his office said.
U.S. mission spokesman Paul Patin told AFP that the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney will be at the meeting, while Russia’s Ria-Novosti news agency said Moscow will be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.
De Mistura’s spokeswoman Jessy Chahine, who confirmed the meeting, gave no details about its agenda, but the U.N. envoy has been trying to save a peace process which some feared was facing total collapse.
You do quote what confirmation bias is, but that is not related to what is being talked about here.
Not wanting to deal with shitty sources is not confirmation bias, it is reasonable debate etiquette. You can find a source for everything, no matter how stupid it is. Not every source is created equal, and since it takes a lot less time to find a source for any statement than it takes to factcheck it, it is necessary to preselect bad sources and ignore them unless one wants to never do anything but factcheck bad sources.
Also, confirmation bias has nothing to do with a desire to belong to a side. Even the definition that you quoted does not claim any such thing.
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the belonging to a side part was a biological given: "Belongingness is the human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group. Whether it is family, friends, co-workers, or a sports team, humans tend to have an 'inherent' desire to belong and be an important part of something greater than themselves. This implies a relationship that is greater than simple acquaintance or familiarity. The need to belong is the need to give, and receive attention to, and from, others."
one should always know, want to know, what "the other side" looks like and you need to put your personal bias aside in order to do that. so, stop burring your heads in the sand, we're all humans.
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Al Qaeda's powerful Syrian branch announced on Thursday it was ending its relationship with the global jihadist network founded by Osama bin Laden and changing its name, to remove what it called a pretext used by world powers to attack Syrians.
In the first known video statement ever to show his face, the leader of the Nusra Front, Mohamad al-Golani, announced that the group would re-form under a new name, with "no ties with any foreign party".
The move was being made "to remove the excuse used by the international community -- spearheaded by America and Russia -- to bombard and displace Muslims in the Levant: that they are targeting the Nusra Front which is associated with Al Qaeda," he said. The group would now be called Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
Golani appeared in the video flanked by two other Nusra Front figures, in front of Jabhat Fatah al Sham's new white flag. Nusra Front's old flag was black, the colour used by ultra-hardline jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Earlier on Thursday, bin Laden's successor as al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced that he was giving the Nusra Front his blessing to break away. In his message, Golani thanked Zawahri for putting the interests of the Syrian people ahead of organisational interests.
The move appeared to be an attempt to appeal to Syrians who have long had deep misgivings about Nusra's links with al Qaeda and the significant presence of foreign jihadists among its ranks, which set it apart from Western-backed rebel groups.
It could alter the strategic alignment on the ground in Syria if the renamed Nusra gains acceptance among other rebel groups fighting against President Bashar al-Assad.
But Assad and his Russian allies are unlikely to accept the rebranding as requiring them to halt military operations that have put the Syrian leader in the strongest position on the battlefield for years.
The Nusra Front, long one of the most powerful rebel forces in Syria's five-year, multi-sided civil war, was excluded along with Islamic State from a U.S. and Russian-backed ceasefire this year, a loophole other rebels blamed for the truce's collapse.
Nusra is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and United Nations. Assad's other opponents have long said its presence gave the government and its Russian allies a pretext to abandon the truce and launch advances under the cover of anti-terrorist operations permitted under the ceasefire. uk.reuters.com
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Yes, because it was their name that put them on the list of terrorist organisation, and not their actions...
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http://www.itv.com/news/update/2016-07-30/cia-director-i-dont-know-if-syria-can-be-put-back-together/ The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, has said that he doesn't know whether Syria can be "put back together again" because there are so many different groups and interests in the country.
He suggested that a future Syria may be a "confederal structure" with the different factions governing their regions.
He also said that there will not be "tranquility in Syria until you're also able to address the Iraq issue", and that there needs to be a clear transition period where it is clear that Assad is "not part of Syria's future".
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On July 26 2016 02:28 Redox wrote: I said that pretty clearly, I can not accept Presstv. They have purposefully lied in the past, they will in the future, which makes them highly unreliable as a source. In general state owned and controlled media are a problem. Its a question of having standards.
You don't like presstv. We get it.
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On July 30 2016 11:31 Acrofales wrote: Yes, because it was their name that put them on the list of terrorist organisation, and not their actions...
AFAIK they did not carry a single attack outside of Syria. Did they?
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Unfucking believable, just shows how incompetent the SAA really is:
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that's an overreaction to an unclear situation; there's still fighting going on.
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How do you lose a damn air Base that is located on hilltops overlooking then rebel positions. The SAA didn't dig in or even fortify positions. Which I guarantee Al-Nusra is doing right now.
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