The Syrian Civil War Thread

[Vanoi]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/...161524606.html

An American-born reporter for the London Sunday Times, Marie Colvin, along with a young French photographer, Remi Ochlik, were killed in Syria on Wednesday morning, according to several news reports. Colvin, one of the most celebrated war correspondents in the U.K., happened to be a guest on Anderson Cooper's CNN show last night.

The article is long, so i only copied the first paragraph of the article. This is what she said the before she was killed when talking to Anderson Cooper:

"There's been constant shelling in the city," Colvin said. "So, Anderson, I have to say, it's just one of many stories ... It's chaos here."
"Every civilian house on this street has been hit," she continued. "We're talking about--this is a very kind of poor popular neighborhood. The top floor of the building I'm in has been hit, in fact, totally destroyed. There are no military targets here. There is the Free Syrian Army. Heavily outnumbered and out-gunned."

It seems to me she was probably killed by shelling from the Syrian military. Shows how chaotic the fighting is there and how dangerous it is even for reporters to report in Syria.

[Kanaric]

And some like Broseph would call this person a liar and biased journalist.

[Treize]

There are no military targets here. There is the Free Syrian Army.

Huh?

[Vanoi]

Huh?

That confused me too. I think by military targets she was referring to buildings.

[Armenum]

When you go somewhere that's in the situation that Syria is in, put yourself right in the middle of the fighting, and you don't get killed - that's when you should be surprised...

[Principe Alessandro]

Artillery as always proved to be an ineffective weapon in urban areas which rather than killing the enemy causes unnecessary damage and civilian casualties. Anyway seems that the Syrian military doesn't care at all what they are hitting with their weapons.

[Vanoi]

When you go somewhere that's in the situation that Syria is in, put yourself right in the middle of the fighting, and you don't get killed - that's when you should be surprised...

She knew the risk. Thats how she got that eye patch.

[Armenum]

She knew the risk. Thats how she got that eye patch.

Hence it's unfortunate, but not surprising.

[mrmouth]

It's proof that Syria is shelling indiscriminately into a city of almost a million people.

[YukonTrooper]

The military targets she's talking about are definitely civilian buildings. However, you also have to remember that the various insurgency factions have taken over complete neighborhoods and thus civilian buildings become bunkers, bases, hideouts, barracks, etc. Of course, at that point, civilians are going to get cut down by crossfire and liberal shelling. It's unfortunate that this context gets left out in Western mainstream journalism and we're left with "security forces and military targeting civilians."

[molonthegreat]

It's proof that Syria is shelling indiscriminately into a city of almost a million people.

You don't think she was attached to fighting rebel groups which are a military target? Furthermore it's quite hard not to have some collateral damage when the rebels are operating from civilian neighborhoods.

[Vanoi]

The military targets she's talking about are definitely civilian buildings. However, you also have to remember that the various insurgency factions have taken over complete neighborhoods and thus civilian buildings become bunkers, bases, hideouts, barracks, etc. Of course, at that point, civilians are going to get cut down by crossfire and liberal shelling. It's unfortunate that this context gets left out in Western mainstream journalism and we're left with "security forces and military targeting civilians."

They have been targeting civilians. In this attack? No they just are indiscriminately shelling civilian neighborhoods. It still doesn't change the fact what they are doing is wrong.

[s.rwitt]

The military targets she's talking about are definitely civilian buildings. However, you also have to remember that the various insurgency factions have taken over complete neighborhoods and thus civilian buildings become bunkers, bases, hideouts, barracks, etc. Of course, at that point, civilians are going to get cut down by crossfire and liberal shelling. It's unfortunate that this context gets left out in Western mainstream journalism and we're left with "security forces and military targeting civilians."

How many threads would you make if ISAF started indiscriminately shelling entire cities in Afghanistan?

[Blaze86420]

Artillery as always proved to be an ineffective weapon in urban areas which rather than killing the enemy causes unnecessary damage and civilian casualties. Anyway seems that the Syrian military doesn't care at all what they are hitting with their weapons.

Homs is a major center of support for the opposition, any civilians there are considered dispensable by the regime.

How many threads would you make if ISAF started indiscriminately shelling entire cities in Afghanistan?

More importantly, how many times has he criticized the ISAF whenever one of their attacks on the Taliban results in collateral damage? Now that it's an anti-Western dictator doing it, it's ok. They were trying to kill freedom fighters, ehem, I mean terrorists hiding among civilians.

[s.rwitt]

^Which is simply disgusting.

[Sarissofoi]

One of the reasons why Syrian military use artillery against rebels.
http://www.voltairenet.org/Free-Syrian-Army-stronghold

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Battle of Homs was particularly deadly for the belligerents on both sides, as well as for civilians. During the first three days, the Syrian Arab Army was warded off by the rebels that blocked all entry points to their neighborhood. They destroyed all approaching armored vehicles using Milan missiles. Ultimately, the Syrian Arab Army had to resort to multiple rocket launchers to bombard the Milan firing posts, at the risk of causing heavy civilian casualties.
Each Milan shooting station, located on every street going into Bab Amr costs 100,000 euros, and each missile about 12,000 euros. The missiles were fired at a rate two to three rounds per minute. This equipment is manufactured by North Aviation (France) and MBB (Germany). It is supposed to have been given to the Free "Syrian" Army by the United Kingdom and Germany.
In April 2011, Doha officials acknowledged that Qatar had delivered Milan missiles to Libyan insurgents from Benghazi to help overthrow the Arab Jamahiriya, by way of the UN resolution that allowed the delivery of "defensive weapons " (sic) to the Libyan opposition.

So yeah arming rebels will bring more fight and lead to more deaths. Civilian too.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

One of the reasons why Syrian military use artillery against rebels.
http://www.voltairenet.org/Free-Syrian-Army-stronghold

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Battle of Homs was particularly deadly for the belligerents on both sides, as well as for civilians. During the first three days, the Syrian Arab Army was warded off by the rebels that blocked all entry points to their neighborhood. They destroyed all approaching armored vehicles using Milan missiles. Ultimately, the Syrian Arab Army had to resort to multiple rocket launchers to bombard the Milan firing posts, at the risk of causing heavy civilian casualties.
Each Milan shooting station, located on every street going into Bab Amr costs 100,000 euros, and each missile about 12,000 euros. The missiles were fired at a rate two to three rounds per minute. This equipment is manufactured by North Aviation (France) and MBB (Germany). It is supposed to have been given to the Free "Syrian" Army by the United Kingdom and Germany.
In April 2011, Doha officials acknowledged that Qatar had delivered Milan missiles to Libyan insurgents from Benghazi to help overthrow the Arab Jamahiriya, by way of the UN resolution that allowed the delivery of "defensive weapons " (sic) to the Libyan opposition.

So yeah arming rebels will bring more fight and lead to more deaths. Civilian too.

Hardly an excuse. ISAF doesn't get a free pass for bombing villages that have arms smuggled from Paksitan. The Coalition forces in the Iraq War didn't get a free pass to destroy villages/towns/cities if arms were smuggled in from Syria or Iran.

[s.rwitt]

Yeah it's the fault of those arming people fighting to no longer live under a brutal regime. They should know better than to want freedom for themselves and their families. We should email them and tell them to knock it off.

[Ulyaoth]

news I heard on it said she was planning on leaving just a few hours after the attack. She just wanted to stay a little longer to finish some story. Unfortunate.

[panzer 4]

meanwhile NATO refuses to help because there are no.... "assets" unlike in Libya