[h=1]Thread starter's comments :
Below are two articles one about muslim part of Philipines and other from Syria. In both USA is helping forces alligned against puritan jehadists. Philipines was forcibly converted like Spain to Christianity, from Islam.
USA policy on sunnis is not fully clear despite Riyadh summit , in afghanistan again they are aligned against sunni forces of Taliban calling them Haqani network.
Continous syrian and Iraqi war using these days Daesh scapegoat (previously OBL and Alqaeeda), same bomb dropping in afghanistan using same Daesh logo , the same now in philipines , what is it ? Is it genocide of muslims especially sunnis by using Daesh thing ?
what is the guarantee that some of the terrorist acts ascribed to so called Mega Daesh is not done by say west's own agencies and war contractors to perpetuate war , or by antiislam forces or even by Iranian agents as we are told they have made inroads into taliban as well .
What is this pattern .?
Filipino troops recapture mosque, Duterte revisits Marawi[/h] AP | Published — Thursday 24 August 2017
MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte traveled Thursday to the main battle zone in southern Marawi after Philippine troops finally recaptured a main mosque where Daesh-linked militants had taken cover with their hostages in the three-month siege of the city, the military said.
Clad in a combat uniform, protective vest and helmet, Duterte congratulated the troops for regaining control of the Islamic Center, an indication they are nearing the final stage in ending the disastrous uprising. It was Duterte’s third known trip to the embattled city.
During his brief visit, Duterte inspected a devastated community near the frontline and talked to troops guarding a recaptured building. He also visited a military patrol base and “tried a sniper rifle and fired twice toward the direction of the terrorists,” a government statement said.
Army Col. Romeo Brawner said Duterte went to the main battle area, a cluster of dense, mosque-dotted communities which has been heavily damaged in the fighting, with military chief Gen. Eduardo Ano and top commanders.
More than 760 people, including 595 militants, have died in the Marawi fighting, which has sparked concerns that the Daesh group may have taken a foothold in Southeast Asia through local extremists as it suffers battle setbacks in Syria and Iraq.
About 600 gunmen launched the insurrection in Marawi’s commercial center on May 23 after a botched army raid to capture the group’s leader, Isnilon Hapilon, according to the military.
The United States and Australia have deployed surveillance aircraft to help Filipino troops locate the hundreds of militants who took positions in buildings, mosques and houses, some of them linked by underground tunnels. China provided heavy weaponry and Southeast Asian governments offered aid for troops and the hundreds of thousands of displaced residents.
It was not immediately clear if any militants or their hostages were in the mosque when troops entered the building Thursday after weeks of painstakingly slow advances because of sniper fire and an order from Duterte to avoid any massive attack that might harm an estimated several dozen hostages, including a Roman Catholic priest, used by the gunmen as human shields.
Brawner said the militants withdrew shortly before troops gained access to the mosque in fighting that wounded three soldiers. He said the gunmen had rigged the building with booby-traps and explosives which were being cleared by the troops.
“We recovered the mosque after some resistance but not through an assault with bombardment because we wanted to preserve the structure,” Brawner said.
The military says about 40 gunmen are still fighting in the main battle zone, now confined to a smaller cluster of communities after troops backed by airstrikes and artillery fire recaptured key bridges and crossed over a river toward the main militant position.
Some residents have started to return to neighborhoods declared safe by the military. Classes at the main Mindanao State University reopened Tuesday, although a clash between government forces and gunmen allied with the militants in nearby Marantao town, outside the city, underscored the remaining danger.
Duterte declared martial law in the largely Roman Catholic archipelago’s southern third until the end of the year to deal with the Marawi crisis and prevent other armed groups from reinforcing the militants or launching similar uprisings elsewhere in the volatile region.
source : http://www.arabnews.com/node/1150061/world
[h=1]Amnesty slams coalition’s reliance on ordnance in Raqqa[/h]
AP | Published — Thursday 24 August 2017
BEIRUT: The US-led coalition’s reliance on imprecise and disproportionately powerful ordnance in its campaign against Daesh in the Syrian city of Raqqa is exacting a significant toll on civilians, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday.
As the fight for Raqqa intensifies, “thousands of civilians are trapped in a deadly labyrinth where they are under fire from all sides,” said Amnesty researcher Donatella Rovera who led a week-long investigation in late July into the Raqqa offensive.
Also on Thursday, a top UN aid official for Syria said some 20,000 civilians are held as “human shields” by the militants in five neighborhoods of the city while facing constant air raids and shelling by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Jan Egeland urged the US-led coalition to consider a humanitarian pause in the city, saying it is “time to try anything” to allow civilians to escape the clutches of Daesh in Raqqa.
“This is the time to try anything to allow the safe escape. At the moment few people leave, because they are afraid for their lives,” he said.
“There is heavy shelling from the surrounding and encircling (US, allied Syrian local) forces, and there (are) constant air raids from the coalition. So the civilian casualties are large,” Egeland added. “There seem to be no escape for these civilians.”
Coalition spokesman Col. Joe Scrocca said the coalition does “everything within our powers to limit harm” to civilians.
Scrocca said in comments e-mailed to The Associated Press that Daesh had years to prepare Raqqa’s defense, making a house-to-house, street-by-street battle, as well as civilian casualties, inevitable.
He also dismissed Amnesty’s report on civilian deaths, saying it is based on “scant information” and plays into the hands of the militants.
“The unfortunate death of civilians is a fact of war that weighs heavy on our hearts, however, if (Daesh) is not defeated the cost will be even higher, and it will be paid not just in Iraq and Syria, but in our homelands across the globe,” Scrocca said.
Amnesty’s team documented 95 civilian deaths, including 41 children and 25 women, in June and July because of the US-led campaign. Amnesty said it interviewed dozens of civilians, humanitarian and medical personnel and others.
Amnesty said the US has been providing artillery support, using Howitzers which fire 155 mm shells and GPS-directed 227 mm mortars, for the Kurdish-led Syrian forces it backs on the ground. The local forces are armed with 120 mm mortars.
“Coalition forces’ reliance to a large extent on weapons which have a wide impact radius and which cannot be accurately pinpointed at specific targets to neutralize IS targets in civilian neighborhoods has exacted a significant toll on civilians,” the report said. Resident testimonies indicate the missiles have targeted areas of hundreds of square meters, rather than specific targets “which, if true, would constitute not only disproportionate but also indiscriminate attacks.”
The report said civilians also come under fire from the Russia-backed Syrian government forces fighting Daesh militants to the south of Raqqa. At least 30 civilians were killed in that campaign, it said. At the same time, Daesh militants use civilians as human shields and hide among them from advancing forces, the group said.
The report also said that the coalition’s use of airstrikes, while more accurate than artillery fire, has often hit civilians at home or while they attempted to flee.
Amnesty criticized the coalition for “poor reporting and inadequate investigation” of civilian casualties, saying they lack basic information on weapons deployed or visits to sites of attacks.
In its three-year campaign in Syria and Iraq, the coalition says it can verify 624 unintentional civilian deaths.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1150166/middle-east
Below are two articles one about muslim part of Philipines and other from Syria. In both USA is helping forces alligned against puritan jehadists. Philipines was forcibly converted like Spain to Christianity, from Islam.
USA policy on sunnis is not fully clear despite Riyadh summit , in afghanistan again they are aligned against sunni forces of Taliban calling them Haqani network.
Continous syrian and Iraqi war using these days Daesh scapegoat (previously OBL and Alqaeeda), same bomb dropping in afghanistan using same Daesh logo , the same now in philipines , what is it ? Is it genocide of muslims especially sunnis by using Daesh thing ?
what is the guarantee that some of the terrorist acts ascribed to so called Mega Daesh is not done by say west's own agencies and war contractors to perpetuate war , or by antiislam forces or even by Iranian agents as we are told they have made inroads into taliban as well .
What is this pattern .?
Filipino troops recapture mosque, Duterte revisits Marawi[/h] AP | Published — Thursday 24 August 2017
MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte traveled Thursday to the main battle zone in southern Marawi after Philippine troops finally recaptured a main mosque where Daesh-linked militants had taken cover with their hostages in the three-month siege of the city, the military said.
Clad in a combat uniform, protective vest and helmet, Duterte congratulated the troops for regaining control of the Islamic Center, an indication they are nearing the final stage in ending the disastrous uprising. It was Duterte’s third known trip to the embattled city.
During his brief visit, Duterte inspected a devastated community near the frontline and talked to troops guarding a recaptured building. He also visited a military patrol base and “tried a sniper rifle and fired twice toward the direction of the terrorists,” a government statement said.
Army Col. Romeo Brawner said Duterte went to the main battle area, a cluster of dense, mosque-dotted communities which has been heavily damaged in the fighting, with military chief Gen. Eduardo Ano and top commanders.
More than 760 people, including 595 militants, have died in the Marawi fighting, which has sparked concerns that the Daesh group may have taken a foothold in Southeast Asia through local extremists as it suffers battle setbacks in Syria and Iraq.
About 600 gunmen launched the insurrection in Marawi’s commercial center on May 23 after a botched army raid to capture the group’s leader, Isnilon Hapilon, according to the military.
The United States and Australia have deployed surveillance aircraft to help Filipino troops locate the hundreds of militants who took positions in buildings, mosques and houses, some of them linked by underground tunnels. China provided heavy weaponry and Southeast Asian governments offered aid for troops and the hundreds of thousands of displaced residents.
It was not immediately clear if any militants or their hostages were in the mosque when troops entered the building Thursday after weeks of painstakingly slow advances because of sniper fire and an order from Duterte to avoid any massive attack that might harm an estimated several dozen hostages, including a Roman Catholic priest, used by the gunmen as human shields.
Brawner said the militants withdrew shortly before troops gained access to the mosque in fighting that wounded three soldiers. He said the gunmen had rigged the building with booby-traps and explosives which were being cleared by the troops.
“We recovered the mosque after some resistance but not through an assault with bombardment because we wanted to preserve the structure,” Brawner said.
The military says about 40 gunmen are still fighting in the main battle zone, now confined to a smaller cluster of communities after troops backed by airstrikes and artillery fire recaptured key bridges and crossed over a river toward the main militant position.
Some residents have started to return to neighborhoods declared safe by the military. Classes at the main Mindanao State University reopened Tuesday, although a clash between government forces and gunmen allied with the militants in nearby Marantao town, outside the city, underscored the remaining danger.
Duterte declared martial law in the largely Roman Catholic archipelago’s southern third until the end of the year to deal with the Marawi crisis and prevent other armed groups from reinforcing the militants or launching similar uprisings elsewhere in the volatile region.
source : http://www.arabnews.com/node/1150061/world
[h=1]Amnesty slams coalition’s reliance on ordnance in Raqqa[/h]
AP | Published — Thursday 24 August 2017
BEIRUT: The US-led coalition’s reliance on imprecise and disproportionately powerful ordnance in its campaign against Daesh in the Syrian city of Raqqa is exacting a significant toll on civilians, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday.
As the fight for Raqqa intensifies, “thousands of civilians are trapped in a deadly labyrinth where they are under fire from all sides,” said Amnesty researcher Donatella Rovera who led a week-long investigation in late July into the Raqqa offensive.
Also on Thursday, a top UN aid official for Syria said some 20,000 civilians are held as “human shields” by the militants in five neighborhoods of the city while facing constant air raids and shelling by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Jan Egeland urged the US-led coalition to consider a humanitarian pause in the city, saying it is “time to try anything” to allow civilians to escape the clutches of Daesh in Raqqa.
“This is the time to try anything to allow the safe escape. At the moment few people leave, because they are afraid for their lives,” he said.
“There is heavy shelling from the surrounding and encircling (US, allied Syrian local) forces, and there (are) constant air raids from the coalition. So the civilian casualties are large,” Egeland added. “There seem to be no escape for these civilians.”
Coalition spokesman Col. Joe Scrocca said the coalition does “everything within our powers to limit harm” to civilians.
Scrocca said in comments e-mailed to The Associated Press that Daesh had years to prepare Raqqa’s defense, making a house-to-house, street-by-street battle, as well as civilian casualties, inevitable.
He also dismissed Amnesty’s report on civilian deaths, saying it is based on “scant information” and plays into the hands of the militants.
“The unfortunate death of civilians is a fact of war that weighs heavy on our hearts, however, if (Daesh) is not defeated the cost will be even higher, and it will be paid not just in Iraq and Syria, but in our homelands across the globe,” Scrocca said.
Amnesty’s team documented 95 civilian deaths, including 41 children and 25 women, in June and July because of the US-led campaign. Amnesty said it interviewed dozens of civilians, humanitarian and medical personnel and others.
Amnesty said the US has been providing artillery support, using Howitzers which fire 155 mm shells and GPS-directed 227 mm mortars, for the Kurdish-led Syrian forces it backs on the ground. The local forces are armed with 120 mm mortars.
“Coalition forces’ reliance to a large extent on weapons which have a wide impact radius and which cannot be accurately pinpointed at specific targets to neutralize IS targets in civilian neighborhoods has exacted a significant toll on civilians,” the report said. Resident testimonies indicate the missiles have targeted areas of hundreds of square meters, rather than specific targets “which, if true, would constitute not only disproportionate but also indiscriminate attacks.”
The report said civilians also come under fire from the Russia-backed Syrian government forces fighting Daesh militants to the south of Raqqa. At least 30 civilians were killed in that campaign, it said. At the same time, Daesh militants use civilians as human shields and hide among them from advancing forces, the group said.
The report also said that the coalition’s use of airstrikes, while more accurate than artillery fire, has often hit civilians at home or while they attempted to flee.
Amnesty criticized the coalition for “poor reporting and inadequate investigation” of civilian casualties, saying they lack basic information on weapons deployed or visits to sites of attacks.
In its three-year campaign in Syria and Iraq, the coalition says it can verify 624 unintentional civilian deaths.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1150166/middle-east
