Syria Condemns Turkish War Crimes, US Keeps Killing Civilians

Smoke and dust rise after a US-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani (image: Reuters)

Syrian Foreign Ministry letters to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Security Council president Volodmyr Yelchenko condemned Turkey’s “repeated crimes and attacks” on defenseless civilians, along with violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

It called for UN intervention to halt its aggression. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Ankara’s war on Syria remains ongoing for nearly six years.

It “includes providing various forms of military, material and logistic support to the terrorist organizations, bringing foreign terrorists, facilitating their entry into Syria and setting up training camps for them on Turkish soil under direct Turkish intelligence supervision and providing arms and fire cover to the terrorist groups fighting inside Syria.”

Turkish attacks on Al Bab killed scores of Syrian civilians, injuring many more. Current operations are part of what Ankara calls Operation Euphrates Shield, begun last August to occupy parts of northern Syria with likely intent to annex it illegally.

On the pretext of combating ISIS, Turkish forces are battling Kurdish YPG fighters. According to Syrian UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari, bilateral talks with Ankara in Geneva next week are “impossible” unless it halts its aggression and withdraws its forces from Syrian territory.

He demanded Erdogan’s regime stop facilitating the flow of terrorists into Syria, along with arming and providing them safe haven in Turkey.

Russia, Iran and Turkey allied to sponsor two rounds of Astana, Kazakhstan peace talks between Syria and opposition forces (excluding UN designated terrorist groups) – to be followed by more comprehensive negotiations in Geneva next week.

Russia and Iran are committed for conflict resolution. Turkey’s intentions are suspect. So are Washington’s – responsible for six years of devastating war.

US-led so-called “coalition” war planes continue terror-bombing Syrian infrastructure and government targets. Thousands of civilians in harm’s way were slaughtered in Syria and Iraq, according to Russia’s defense ministry, last November saying:

The US Central Command “does not consider…thousands of peaceful Syrians and Iraqis killed by US airstrikes as ‘humans.’ ”

The slaughter continues with no letup since Trump took office, Pentagon high crimes whitewashed – the latest atrocity yesterday near Raqqa.

US terror-bombing killed a dozen or more civilians, injuring others, the death toll likely to rise. Others were killed by US warplanes in al-Thawrah, a district in the Raqqa governorate.

On the pretext of combating ISIS, US-led “coalition” warplanes kill civilians in targeted areas struck.

Syria is now Trump’s war. After 30 days in office, he’s continuing what Obama began – committing crimes of war and against humanity.