Days of fighting and revenge killings in Syria leave about 1,000 dead

The overall death toll including civilians in Syria between loyalists of chinless ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and security forces has now exceeded 1,000, with the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) reporting a total of 1,311 deaths by March 10th. Specifically, security forces at 231; Assad loyalists at 250; and civilians up to 750, many killed in revenge attacks. 

Exact numbers depend on the source.

The clashes began Thursday and marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power and had him fleeing to Russia for refuge.

The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence. MSNBC and "The View" blamed it on Trump.

The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.

Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to the Associated Press about killings whereby gunmen belonging to the "religion of peace" shot Alawites, mostly men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts. These acts of terror appeared to resemble those of whoat Hamas did to Israelis on October 7, 2023, but without the rapes, beheadings, kidnappings, and immolation of women and children. 

Maybe it's a jihad thing.

Those in hiding asked that their names not be made public out of fear of being killed by gunmen, adding that thousands of people have fled to nearby mountains for safety.

Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, reported that bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, making it impossible to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.

Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, told the AP that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.

Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighboring villages and towns.

SOHR said that 428 Alawites were killed in revenge attacks in addition to 120 pro-Assad fighters and 89 from security forces. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday.

“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.

If they aren't killing Christians and Jews, they're killing each other.

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Airstrikes on Iranian-backed terror groups kill 18

The Associated Press reported that unidentified warplanes targeted an arms depot overnight along with Iranian-backed militia posts in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. At least 18 fighters were killed, according to Syrian opposition activists.

The strikes come amid increasing tensions in the region and the crisis between Iran and the U.S. in the wake of the collapsing nuclear deal between Tehran and global powers.

An official with an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq blamed Israel for the airstrikes that hit in the eastern Syrian town of Boukamal. There was no immediate comment from Israel but let's face it, Iran is to Israel as the mainstream media is to Trump.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that Iran has no immunity anywhere adding that the Israeli military “will act — and currently are acting — against them.”

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the airstrikes began late on Sunday and continued after midnight, killing 18 Iranian and pro-Iranian fighters and also causing extensive damage.

Another local activist collective in eastern Syria however, claimed the death toll to be 21 jihadis and 36 wounded and said the strikes targeted positions held by Iranian militias and Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, which is comprised mostly of Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim militias. They did not specify who the dead and wounded were.

Naturally, an anonymous Syria-based official for the Iraqi militia claimed that Israel was behind the attack, adding that four missiles fired by warplanes hit a post manned by Iranian gunmen and members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. He claimed that there were no Iraqi casualties in the strike which hit about 2 miles from the Iraq border.

The Israeli military remained mum on the airstrike but said rockets launched from Syria on Monday fell short and did not land in Israel. The military said the rockets were launched from the outskirts of Damascus by Shi'ite militants operating under the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The military said it holds the Syrian government responsible for the attempted attack.

And so it goes.

Israel sees Iran as its main threat and allegedly struck Iran-linked targets in a pre-emptive self-defense strategy hitting targets as far away as Iraq. Israel has also struck Iranian targets in Lebanon and Syria.

Also Monday, Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon, shortly after it crossed from Israel amid rising tensions along the border between the two countries in recent weeks. [The plastic drone pilot is believed to have parachuted to safety.]

A Hezbollah statement said the drone was downed with “suitable weapons” over the village of Ramieh and that the militants now have it and are playing with it. The statement did not elaborate further.

The IDF said a “drone on a routine mission in northern Israel fell,” without elaborating on what it was doing nor how it was downed. It said the drone was “simple” and that there was no risk of a breach of information if it fell into enemy hands. 

Last month, Hezbollah leader Sayaad Hassan Nasrallah said his anti-Semitic group would confront and shoot down any Israeli drones that enter Lebanese airspace, raising the potential for conflict amid heightened tensions.

Nasrallah spoke after authorities said one alleged Israeli drone crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, landing on the roof of a building that houses Hezbollah’s media office, and another exploded and crashed in a plot behind the building, causing material damage.

Last week, Israel and Hezbollah fired upon each other for the first time in years. Hezbollah started by launching anti-tank missiles at an Israeli armored vehicle near the border, causing no casualties. Israel retaliated with artillery fire into southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said last week’s missile strike was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike near Damascus last month that killed two terrorists. Israel said the attack thwarted an Iranian-arranged drone attack squad. Days after the airstrike, Hezbollah said two Israeli attack drones crash-landed in Beirut.

And so it goes.

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Syrian chemical weapons factory head assassinated

It doesn't matter that a Syrian rebel group claimed responsibility for the assassination of the director of a government chemical weapons factory in a car bomb attack. They could have uncovered video showing a Syrian rebel rigging the bomb. The Syrian government will blame the Jews for everything bad that happens in the world.

Aziz Asber was the director of the Syrian Scientific Research Center, a center dedicated to the chemical extermination of everyone who opposes the current Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad [aka: No Chin Bashar]. Asber died near the city of Homs when explosives planted in his car detonated, pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan reported Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack occurred Saturday. The SOHR is a monitoring group.

The Abu Amara Brigades rebel group claimed responsibility in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, and not one member of the group is Jewish, yet Syria still blames the Jews. The group is an affiliate of Tahrir al-Sham, which is linked with al-Qaeda.

Not nice people and not affiliated with any Jewish organizations in Israel.

Al-Watan blamed Israel for Asber's killing.

But perhaps al-Watan makes a good point. After all, an Israeli official refused to comment on the report, says Reuters. And Israel has carried out air strikes in Syria to stop weapons transfers to Lebanese terrorists Hezbollah, which supports Syria's campaign against the rebels.

Western governments say the research center was a covert chemical weapons facility and has been targeted by air strikes last year.

In April, the U.S., France and Britain struck a "research" facility in Damascus in response to a gas attack in Douma killing over 40 people.

A UN investigation held Bashar al-Assad's regime responsible for a sarin gas attack on the then-rebel bastion Khan Sheikhoun in April of last year, which killed about 100 people.

But the most horrific attack blamed on Assad, was in 2013 in which over 1,000 people died from serin gas in a rebel-held area in the suburbs of Damascus.

No Chin Assad's forces are backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, so you know that they're evil.

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Head ISIS Scum Crumpet confirmed dead

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, a top U.S. General overseeing the war in Iraq against ISIS and Syria has no idea if head crap weasel Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead or alive.

"Quite honestly, I don't know," Townsend said. "I hope he's deader than a doornail. If he's not, as soon as we find out where he is, he will be."

Doornails are known to be among the deadest object on earth and none have ever made it back to the world of the living.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told Reuters on Tuesday that it has "confirmed information" from Islamic State sources [who never fib] in the sleepy little town of Deir al-Zor that Baghdadi has died, but didn't specify when.

But Townsend noted that Baghdadi has been reported dead more than once in the past leading highly religious Islamists to posit that he must have come back from death to carry out the work of Allah.

"The Russians some weeks ago claim to have killed him in an airstrike," Townsend said. "I've received some reporting since then that suggested he was not killed there by the Russians, but I don't know," he said as he steepled his fingers in thought. "Since then, we've heard all kinds of reporting that he's alive, that he's dead."

During the interview Townsend said, "I don't have a reason to believe that he's alive. I don't have proof of life, you know." A reporter pressed him about whether it was his "assessment" that Baghdadi had indeed died.

Townsend leaned slowly into the camera and said, "I. Don't. Have. A. Clue."

If Baghdadi, a PhD from the Islamic University in Baghdad, is dead, it would be a blow to ISIS, but Townsend said he isn't sure it really makes a big difference in the larger scheme of things.

"I suppose it probably doesn't really matter if no one knows if he's alive or dead," Townsend said. "Someone is guiding ISIS, the organization. And what we have seen with all these paramount leaders is you take them out, and someone else steps up."

"It would make me feel better to know that he was dead," he added.

UPDATE: at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET, SOHR confirmed that al-Baghdadi is dead.

"(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank, [ISIS territory] in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor" Rami Abdulrahman, the Director of SOHR told Reuters.

But this hasn't been confirmed by Amaq, the official news agency of ISIS.

SOHR's sources didn't say how or when al Baghdadi died, but he was supposedly living in the Deir Ezzor are for the last three months.

The Pentagon, Kurdish and Iraqi sources immediately said they couldn't corroborate the SOHR report.



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