Gary Johnson Makes Another "Aleppo" Gaffe | The View
BEIRUT Syrian government forces and rebels waged fierce battles north of Aleppo on Friday, a week into a Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian army to take the entire city.
Syrian government forces made a significant advance on Thursday north of Aleppo, capturing the Handarat refugee camp, a few kilometers (miles) from the city. There were conflicting accounts on the outcome of the fighting.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said government forces had built on the Handarat advance and captured the adjacent Kindi Hospital area on Friday morning, edging closer to the city.
A television station operated by Lebanon"s Hezbollah, which is fighting in support of the government, also said the Kindi Hospital area had been captured.
But rebel sources denied that the government had captured the Kindi Hospital area, saying fighting was still going on.
A senior rebel official also said that government forces were shelling the rebel-held districts with artillery from a hilltop to the east of the city.
(Reporting by Ellen Francis and Tom Perry; Editing by Tom Perry and Richard Balmforth)
Syrian ambassador laughs as journalist asks about Aleppo hospital bombings
The Obama administration has repeatedly said it is Russias responsibility to stop its own attacks and to ensure that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria complies with the agreement Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov reached nearly three weeks ago in Geneva to reduce violence in the conflict and allow humanitarian aid into besieged areas.
The two clashed over the conflict in the United Nations Security Council last week, when Mr. Lavrov said the United States had failed to persuade moderate Syrian opposition groups to separate themselves from the extremist fighters of the Nusra Front, an offshoot of Al Qaeda that now calls itself the Levant Victory Front, and abide by a cease-fire.
Mr. Kerry said the Russian and Syrian militaries were primarily responsible for the continuing violence, including the Sept. 19 bombing of an aid convoy to Aleppo, which American officials say was carried out by Russian aircraft despite Russian denials.
Mr. Kirby dismissed the Russian assertion that the Aleppo operation has been aimed at terrorists. Thats not whats happening, he told reporters. What were seeing them hit is not Nusra.
When Mr. Kerry became secretary of state he often asserted his goal for Syria was to change President Assads calculation about prevailing on the battlefield and thus set the stage for a political settlement.
The United States has undertaken a covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels forces bombed by the Russians soon after they deployed their warplanes to Syria a year ago.
But President Obama has been extremely reluctant to take additional steps, such as allowing Arab partners to provide surface-to-air missiles to the opposition, establishing no-fly zones or threatening the Assad government with punitive military action.
Nor is it clear if the administration would be willing to broaden the economic sanctions imposed on Russia in the aftermath of Moscows intervention in Ukraine two years ago.
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Civilians in these areas have limited or no access to food, medicine and basic necessities.
Interagency conversations about other options and alternatives that might be available to us and to our partners continue, said Mr. Kirby, who declined to provide specifics.
Asked what consequences the Russians faced if diplomacy ended, Mr. Kirby pointed to the war itself. Extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria, to expand their operations, which will include no question attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities, he said. And Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags.
Congressional critics mocked Mr. Kerrys threat to end talks as toothless. No more lakeside tte--ttes at five-star hotels in Geneva, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said in a statement. We can only imagine that having heard the news, Vladimir Putin has called off his bear hunt and is rushing back to the Kremlin to call off Russian airstrikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian aid convoys around Aleppo.
A statement from Russias Foreign Ministry did not mention Mr. Kerrys threat to Mr. Lavrov, saying the two diplomats had discussed possibilities of influencing the situation in Aleppo in the interest of normalizing it by returning to their Sept. 9 agreement.
At a hastily called Defense Ministry briefing Wednesday night in Moscow, Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir said the actions by Syrian and Russian forces in Aleppo were a response to militant shelling and other provocations, including what he called plans for a chemical weapons attack.
He offered no details but said, Under these conditions, the Syrian command had to take retaliatory measures against militants.
When the cease-fire agreement was announced, the Obama administration hoped that the possibility of joint action against militant jihadists would be enough of a lure to ensure Kremlin cooperation.
For months, Russia had pressed the United States to collaborate in Syria against the Islamic State and Nusra Front, not merely deconflict air operations as the American and Russian militaries do now.
For the Kremlin, Russian-American military collaboration in Syria could be presented as having validated its decision to intervene militarily in the conflict and, more generally, its aspirations to expand Russian influence in the Middle East.
But the Russian priority at this point appears to be to help the Syrian government retake Aleppo.
Even if the talks are broken off, the American military will continue to deconflict its air operations with the Russian military, the State Department said.
The attacks on Aleppos medical facilities dominated a meeting on Wednesday of the United Nations Security Council, where diplomacy aimed at halting the war has been repeatedly frustrated. A Security Council resolution adopted in May beseeching combatants to protect medical facilities in war zones has been ignored.
Joanne Liu, the international president of the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, told the Council that threats to health care workers had worsened, warning that throwing medical impartiality to the wind may also become a new norm of warfare.
The Syrian ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, asked by a journalist whether his government had carried out the airstrikes on the two Aleppo hospitals, laughed.
Inside the Council chamber, Russias deputy ambassador, Evgeny Zagaynov, said he condemned attacks on medical targets but warned against a rush to blame Syria and Russia without verifiable data.
The British deputy ambassador, Peter Wilson, pointed out that only Russian and Syrian warplanes were bombing rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Syria and Russia bear full responsibility for these atrocities, he wrote on Twitter.
The secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, in some of his sharpest remarks on Syria, said about the Aleppo airstrikes: Those using ever more destructive weapons know exactly what they are doing. They know they are committing war crimes.
A high-ranking member of the Fatah al-Sham rebel group in Syria is dead, rebel sources say, after fighter jets bombed a meeting of the groups leaders near Aleppo.
Abu Omar Saraqeb, who also goes by the name Abu Hajer al-Homsi, was killed during the air raid in a rural part of Aleppo, which rebels say was likely carried out by a U.S. fighter jet, though the nationality of the jets has not been officially acknowledged.
The rebel group, a former al-Qaida affiliate, announced the commanders martyrdom in a post on Twitter.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an aircraft bombed a meeting of commanders of the Army of Conquest alliance, killing Saraqeb and another rebel alliance commander named Abu Muslim al-Shami, though it said it was unclear whether the air strike was carried out by U.S. forces, the Syrian government or Russian forces, all of which have been conducting bombing raids in the area.
Saraqeb was said to be one of the leading members of al-Qaida in Iraq. He fought against U.S. troops during the occupation in 2003 before travelling to Syria, where he became a key commander in the former al-Nusra Front, which later became Fatah al-Sham after breaking ties with al-Qaida.
If it was greater attention Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson wanted, he got it but probably not the kind he wanted.
As part of a media blitz in New York to try to raise his polling numbers enough to qualify for the upcoming presidential debates, Johnson fielded a range of questions Thursday with the aim of demonstrating he can take on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
But one stumped him.
"What would you do about Aleppo?" Johnson was asked on MSNBC"s Morning Joe, a question about Syria"s largest city, which has been engulfed by the country"s ongoing civil war.
"What is Aleppo?" Johnson responded.
Syria"s 2011 pro-democracy uprising, which gradually devolved into civil war, has sparked a refugee crisis across the Middle East and Europe as millions fled their homes for safety.
When reminded of those facts by MSNBC on Thursday, Johnson said he"d work with Russia to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war and that the conflict was an example of the dangers of meddling in the region.
Johnson later acknowledged to another MSNBC reporter the attention to the error was deserved and apologized in a statement, saying he was thinking of an acronym, not the Syrian city.
"I blanked," he said. "It happens, and it will happen again during the course of this campaign."
He added, "Can I name every city in Syria? No. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes. Do I understand its significance? Yes."
Many election observers, including former candidate Mitt Romney, believe Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson should be included in the upcoming debates. (George Frey/Getty Images)
The error couldn"t have come at a worse time for Johnson. He needs to average 15 per cent in a set of polls to qualify for the presidential debates, the first of which is Sept. 26. He picked up high-profile support Wednesday night when former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tweeted that Johnson should be allowed in the debates.
Johnson seemed to recognize the peril of the Aleppo error. In a subsequent interview on ABC"s The View, he said: "For those that believe this is a disqualifier, so be it."
Shared images of destruction
In the U.S., his comments sparked debate over the lack of foreign policy discussions in these presidential elections. But for many Syrians it was an opportunity to vent their frustration and bring the world"s attention to one of Syria"s oldest cities, and the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the five-year civil war.
Using the hashtag, .WhatIsAleppo, Facebook and Twitter users shared stories of its ancient history and its modern woes. Some posted pictures of Aleppo"s beautiful narrow streets and the 13th century citadel that towers over the city.
Others shared images of the destruction that has beset Aleppo, particularly its rebel-held neighbourhoods, which were recently described by one rebel fighter as "like walking into Hiroshima."
Many posted pictures of Aleppo"s residents, such as the iconic image of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, photographed sitting on an orange chair, covered in dust, his pale face smeared with blood following an airstrike.
The population of Syria"s largest city has fallen from 3.1 million in 2011 to an estimated two million today, as families have fled four years of violence and hardship. Once Syria"s commercial centre, large parts of Aleppo are under siege and food and basic necessities are often scarce, dependent on humanitarian aid convoys that arrive only after complex international negotiations. Aleppo"s renowned textile factories have been destroyed.
Gas, barrel bomb attacks cited
The city"s rich cultural and religious mix of Christians, Muslims, Armenians and Kurds has been torn apart by the conflict.
"If you are wondering .WhatISAleppo: More than 100 cases of suffocation in al-Sukkari neighbourhood, .Aleppo, in a chlorine gas .BarrelBombs attack," the Syrian Coalition, an exiled opposition group, tweeted. It referred to a suspected toxic gas attack by government helicopters on Tuesday that killed two people and left at least 80 with breathing problems. The government on Thursday denied using the toxic gas.
For Wissam Zarqa, a 34-year-old resident of rebel-held Aleppo, the city is the embodiment of the "will to live." He returned to his hometown from Saudi Arabia last year and gives English classes to children whose schools have long closed.
"There is something magical about the return of life to an area after a barrel bomb has just been dropped," he told The Associated Press via WhatsApp messages. "When I first returned to Aleppo 16 months ago, a missile hit the last floor of the building I live in. Half an hour later, the kids had finished cleaning the street outside the building."
Unsurprisingly when its neighbourhoods are physically separated by gunmen and sandbags, the people of Aleppo are divided over what their city is.
".WhatIsAleppo. It was an industrial hub of Syria until rebels invaded, looted her factories & smuggled them to Turkey," tweeted Bassem, a self-proclaimed secular Syrian with a large following on Twitter.
But not for the first time in its long history, Aleppo finds itself torn between international powers. Turkey is a main supporter of the city"s rebel groups, and has sent its military to Aleppo province to fight Islamic State group extremists and rival Kurdish rebels. Russia and Iran are supporting the Syrian government"s bid to gain control over the city.
The U.S. and Russia are locked in protracted negotiations over a ceasefire in the city, after a previous truce deal collapsed in Aleppo in April.
Hillary Clinton mocked Gary Johnson"s lack of knowledge about Aleppo
MSNBC commentator Mike Barnicle seemed floored, replying, "You"re kidding." Nope, Johnson wasn"t.
Johnson later said he understood Aleppo. But just in case he has a less-than-white-knuckle grip on one of the most pressing foreign policy matters facing the United States and world, allow us to explain.
This is Aleppo
A decade ago Aleppo was a bustling economic hub boasting more than 2 million residents. Its robust history and ancient architecture drew many tourists. After four years of hellish battle, it was estimated last month that the city was home to roughly one-tenth of that number, between 200,000 and 300,000.
Why the drop?
Brutal fighting, plain and simple. Many residents were killed. Others fled. Those who remained haven"t received much aid and are suffering shortages of food, fuel and medicine, a situation that grew only more desperate in July when President Bashar Assad"s forces bombarded a major supply artery into the city. The fighting presses on, and even after rebel forces claimed to break the siege in southern Aleppo, humanitarian groups say there"s been little change to the residents" plight.
What"s the casualty toll?
In Syria, it"s an estimated quarter-million. There are also 5 million who have fled the country, and 6.6 million people internally displaced. In Aleppo, the tolls are murkier. A recent report stated that 6,000 people, mostly civilians, died in 80 days of fighting. Last month, the last 15 doctors serving the eastern part of the city wrote President Barack Obama to say that a medical facility in Syria was being bombed every 17 hours. At that rate, medical services could be destroyed in a month, "leaving 300,000 people to die," they wrote.
Who"s dying?
The violence is indiscriminate, as evidenced by a suspected chlorine gas attack that injured children and killed market patrons in the eastern part of the city. A barrel bomb attack also claimed children as victims a few weeks ago. Watchdog groups blamed both attacks on the Assad regime, which has denied using chlorine gas for military purposes in the past.In another disturbing case -- this one with a happier ending -- doctors had to deliver the baby of a mother seriously injured in a bomb attack. The child wasn"t breathing as he emerged from the womb, but doctors quickly got his lungs working. His mother survived, too.
Who is going to win?
Likely nobody. Reporting from such a violent locale can be tricky, but earlier this year, CNN"s Clarissa Ward went undercover behind rebel lines to give a fascinating picture of what"s happening on the ground. Months later, she would tell the UN Security Council point-blank, "There are no winners in Aleppo."
Is any end in sight?
Well, no. This week, diplomats, politicians and soldiers met in London to discuss the situation, but their plan was billed not as a blueprint for peace but a starting block for negotiations.
As the war involves a cast of warring players who are unlikely to get along (and many of whom weren"t present in London) -- including Russia, the United States, Turkey, ISIS, Hezbollah and Iran -- many are uncertain this is the best path to bringing the crisis under control.
Turkey To Eurasia - Russia"s Aleppo Battle Uses Houthis in Yemen - Morris
For five years now the Syrian civil war has ground out mercilessly. It"s left hundreds of thousands dead and uprooted 11 million people, half of whom have fled the country as refugees. What started as an Arab Spring like protest against the country"s leader has become a relentless and brutal conflict involving many powers across the region.
The battle and now bombardment that began four years ago in Aleppo, the country"s largest city, has been the bitter cauldron of that war. With scores of videos uploaded every day, showing the violence and destruction, the world has been able to watch as the city has been destroyed and tens of thousands have died. We"ve been able to see it, but it"s also been all too easy to look away.
Thanks to the brave work of filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab, which can be seen below, in the past few months Channel 4 News has been able to get closer to the horror than at any time since it became impossible for us to get in. Her work has highlighted the carnage in the hospitals, and the pain of the casualties and their families, which lie behind the statistics.
As this relentless battle and carnage continues, Channel 4 News will be reporting what happens in Aleppo in whatever form we can. Every day for the foreseeable future. In no small part thanks to the bravery and skill of Waad. Please watch her films.
Ben de Pear,
Editor, Channel 4 News
A warning, these reports contain images you may find distressing.
