RED LINES: Facing Reprisals, Aleppo Civilians Plea for International Help.
Antigovernment activists and Aleppo residents said at least 80 people have been killed since Monday, most of them either caught in the regime’s advance or discovered hiding in their homes. Regime firing squads killed most of them, they said.
“The Assad militias are maybe 300 meters away, no place now to go, it’s the last place,” Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, a teacher, said in a live video feed early Tuesday morning.
“I hope that you can do something for Aleppo people, for my daughter, for the other children. I hope you can do something to stop the expected massacres,” he said.
The United Nations called again Tuesday for an end to the fighting and the establishment of humanitarian corridors to allow people to flee safely. “Thousands with no part in the violence have literally nowhere safe to run,” the International Committee of the Red Cross also said.
Activist group Aleppo24, which has a network of contacts in the city, said regime forces had burned more than 15 women and children alive. Another group, the Halab News Network, alleged that regime forces were killing all wounded patients left in field hospitals.
As I’ve been writing for a year or two now, “If you think the Syrian Civil War is bad, just wait for the reprisals.”
And here they come.
Also in today’s WSJ is this tangentially related report by Gerald Seib:
If you happened to be listening carefully, Donald Trump told us something important a few days ago about the profoundly different approach he intends to take toward the Middle East and the threat of Islamic extremism.
The president-elect’s message was largely overlooked because it came in the middle of a typically raucous and rambling “thank you” rally in Cincinnati. News reports focused on his announcement that he would nominate as secretary of defense Gen. James Mattis—“Mad Dog Mattis” as he seems destined to be called by his new boss.
In a separate passage, one in which Mr. Trump clearly was following a script rather than freelancing, he said: “We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments, folks.”
After wasting “$6 trillion” in Middle East fights, he said, “our goal is stability not chaos.”
He added: “We will partner with any nation that is willing to join us in the effort to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism…In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interest wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding and goodwill.”
“Peace, understanding and goodwill” are all likely to run face first into Middle Eastern realities, but the rest has the potential for a healthy dose of realpolitik.