Comments about UN aid campaign in besiege areas in Syria

Reading the article by The Guardian titled as "UN accused of taking sides in Syrian conflict" makes wonder why it took so long for someone to comment about this matter. UN is acting like this for a long time but only now someone decided to speak against it.

It is more than clear that UN is downing its head to Assad Regime.

UN says its mission is to preserve world peace yet we dont see it having any active voice in the Syria conflict, UN didn't take any step to prevent the event, nor to change the course of it and now its not taking any action to help those affected by it.

It takes almost forever for UN to deliever aid in besiege areas in Syria and their excuse is that the Regime is not answering their requests... Since when and Intergovernamental Organization strong like UN, supported by pretty much the whole globe, needs any approval to deliever aid to those suffering and dying for hungry because of a government that kill their own civilians?

If our global peacekeeper organization is so weak it can't even impose themselves toward governments like the one in Syria, then it is useless and we dont need to have it anymore. 

Despite all the dificulty delivering aid to Syria, with 75% of the requests of delivering aid in besiege area being denied in 2015, Syria government areas didn't stop receiving them though. It is estimated that 95% of the food sent to Syria, were delivered in government controled areas.

While it is too hard for UN to send trucks to cities like Daraya, they didn't seem to have any dificulty dropping aid in places like Deir ez Zour. Why didn't they drop aid in besiege areas too? Good questions. Maybe the fact that these areas dont support Bashar might have something to do with it.

It is not UN's business anyways, Their job is to keep the peace and in extreme events, try to make innocents affected by conflicts suffer the less possible, providing them support, food and medicine. Leaving asides governments and keep the impartiality.

Link for the report by The Syria Campaign Taking Sides

Ribat

A mujahid murabit during ribat, guarding rebels positions in Latakia, Syria

Syrian Conflict: A War Against Health Service

Since the beginning of the of the Syria civil war in 2011, 326 medical facilities have being bombed and around 670 medical personnel have been killed. Despite the International Rules of War, which clear states that medical personnel, units and transports must be respected and protected in all circumstances, attacks against hospitals have become well spread by the Regime and its allies in Syria, leaving the status of collateral damage and assuming a position of strategy of war.

Even before the war, great part of the Syrian people already had difficulty with access to Health service. The inadequate usage of capacity, uneven distribute of human resources, overall inequity, lack of skilled staff and leadership and qualified nurses and allied health professionals conspired to turn improvements in the quality of the care into a challenge to the country.

With the crises, great part of the already small amount of well qualified Syrians, manage to escape the war, settling as refugees in nearby countries, among them, engineers, teachers, and health professionals. Due to the war and especially the airstrikes, vital infrastructure inside Syria has been compromised or destroyed, resulting in a lack of energy, food and water sources, sanitation service and shelter.

The Situation Inside Hospitals

"The most basic things are not available – anaesthetics, painkillers, medication for chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. We have no anti-inflammatory injections, cough syrups or anti-diarrhoea medicine. We replaced medical plasters with paper. We have to use items many times without sterilization. We are not able to store blood – a suitable donor has to be found during an operation. When things do become available the prices are high and they are usually close to their expiry date and have lost their effectiveness by the time we get them.”- Hanan, nurse in a hospital in Homs.

Due to the lack of professionals and resources, the access to health care has become even more restricted and the lacks of maintenance of the medical equipments and shortages of drugs and medical supplies have deeply affected the quality of the service.

Stock of medication has already exhausted and with the drug production and distribution facilities inside Syria shutting down, the only way to bring supplies into the country is through the unofficial routes, coming from neighboring countries.

With the difficulty to find even basic medication, displaced families are not being able to get children vaccinated, resulting in many of them suffering from measles, meningitis and polio (once eradicated in 2014, it is again on the rise), diseases that can easily be prevented if the medication is available.

With the destruction of power plants, power cuts are frequent forcing hospitals to run on generator power, but obtaining fuel is difficult. In some cases, doctors are forced to operate without electricity.

Although many Syrians are willing to donate blood, due to the lack of power in the region, most hospitals are not equipped with refrigerators turning it impossible to keep a blood bag bank.

In consequence of the situation faced, the number of routine operations has been diminished and patients with chronic diseases were forced to interrupt their treatment to give room to more urgent cases as those with life-threatening injuries receive higher priority.

Targeting Hospitals

Despite the rules of International Law ensuring security of hospitals, the same is not noticed in practice, hospitals are being deliberately target since the beginning of the conflict in Syria. It is estimated that around 326 medical facilities have being bombed so far, mainly in rebel held areas.

Russia alone had already bombed 24 hospitals in the past eight months in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Daraa, including one run by Doctors Without Borders in Maarat al-Numan, Idlib. This week, once again a hospital was target by Russia in Idlib.

“The doctor who treats my enemy must be my enemy”

Far from a simple mistake, bombing hospitals had become a strategy of war since the Syrian government considers hospitals running in rebel held areas as legitimate military facilities under a counter-terrorism law but due to the lack of paper trail, it is just hard to produce any proof that Syrian and Russian governments are ordering their pilots to target hospitals.

If attacking hospitals and clinics was not enough, “double tapping” is also becoming a common strategy used by the Regime and its allies, which consist in bombing a hospital and bombing it for the second time after first responders have arrived on the scene to take care of people injured in the first attack.

Al Quds, hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders in Aleppo, targeted in airstrikes

All these evidences don’t leave room for doubts whether these attacks are intentional or not. It is clear that they are trying to kill the maximum number of hospital workers and patients as possible.

Bombing hospitals and killing its personnel decrease the capability of the health service in areas held by the opposition, intimidating doctors and patients, leaving the population with a feeling of vulnerability and giving them a sense of insecurity under opposition protection, forcing them to flee the area.

Undiscriminating Attack Against Doctors

“Kill a doctor and you kill thousands”

Decades ago, humanitarian groups were viewed as impartial, enjoying a certain level of protection even in war zones, it is not the case anymore. The Syria conflict doesn’t represent a threat to civilians only but also to doctors and all hospital workers, with them being target repeatedly.

In April, Mohammed al-Kos the only remained doctor in the besieged city of Zabadani was killed by a sniper alongside a member of a rescue team. In the same month, al-Quds a hospital supported by Doctors Without Border in the city of Aleppo was also bombed to the ground, killing Dr. Mohammed Wassim Moaz one of the few pediatrician and the last qualified who continued to work in the city. Three days after the attack in al Quds hospital, Al-Marjah Primary Healthcare Center, a pediatric and gynaecological clinic was also attacked, killing two doctors.

Doctors also risk being labeled as “enemies of the regime” and arrested for treating the injured in areas not held by the regime, cases of doctors being imprisoned and tortured to death were reported since the beginning of the revolution.

Dr Abbas Khan for example, a British orthopaedic surgeon who traveled to Syria to treat civilians was arrested and killed in 2013 in an “unknown prison or place of detention” in Damascus without any legal justification.

Rebuilding is an Act of Resistance

In a desperate attempt to continue operating, hospitals had been set up in homes, farms, caves and even underground. Most hospitals being rebuilt in Syria is now fortified, bunkers practically, and part of its activities happens in the basements of the actual hospitals.

Despite the danger and risks, there is no other choice but to build the hospitals back, knowing that they will be probably hit a second time, or even a third one. As the rest of the World watches these international crimes against humanity from the sidelines, without any government support, the Syrian people are left to rebuild hospitals out of donations.

As long as the Regime bombs hospitals to the ground, Syrian people will continue to rebuild them as it is not only a humanitarian necessity but an act of Resistance, reminding the World of the nonviolent activism that gave voice to the Syrian Revolution in its beginning, and that will continue to exist as long as the Syrian people resist.

A Hospital in Douma

And the World remains silent

Breakway between JN and AQ: A Brief Analysis

A lot of debates going on about the breakaway between Jabhat al Nusrah and al Qaeda, whether the group should indeed distance itself from their cental affiliate or not. West seems up to press Nusra to do so, yet the jihadist group doesn't seem willing to down their head to the West. The breakaway could bring consequenses and and in long terms small "advantages".

Strategically speaking the breakaway of Nusra would bring international legitimacy and a sort kind of immunity to the group, taking them out of the terrorist list and joining the ceasefire list, and even getting invitation to the Peace Talks.

It is clear the will of US and other countries in this breakaway, since al Nusra is one of the biggest group fighting in Syria at the moment, focusing in local jihad and capable of fighting and ovethrowning the assadist regime. US first strategy of backing more moderate fighters (FSA linked fighters) already failed and part of this failury was thanks to Nusra who manage to seize the group. So in US mind, nothing more logical than supporting the group that was strong enough to capture their own trained soldiers.

On the other hand, islamically speaking, breaking away with AQ could change part of Jabhat al Nusra's aqeedah and manhaj, turning them into a more moderate group, engaging in irjah (murji'ah action), causing the loss of their jihadi legitimacy.

AQ is a strong and influencial organization in the jihadist world and part of this is due to the fact that alongside Taliban, AQ is the oldest jihadist group in the jihad of nowadays. They have far more knowledge and experience in jihad (war and islam) they already have a solid aqeedah and a good amount of scholars. All this gives legitimacy to the small groups overseas giving bayah to them, most of these groups, including al Nusra, are relatively new groups that need a strong base to keep them together and give them a direction.

The other possibility though is that this breakaway could affect the group in the opposite way, turning them into a more radical faction like Jund al Aqsa, or Turkistan Islamic Party, groups that dont give ba'yah (pleadge alligancy) to AQ nor IS but still bear a even more radical ideology than JN. The same happened with the Islamic State when they broke their bayah with al Qaeda creating an independent group that ended up being more radical than their old school model.

It should be bear in mind that breaking away with al Qaeda doesnt necessary means breaking away with their Salafi ideology. It is hard to predict what path JN would choose without AQ but in both cases, this breakaway could bring benefit but also disunit between JN fighters and split their ranks.

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Ahrar al Sham is one of the few jihadist groups in history to take aid from non muslims or secular countries, this happens for the simple fact that accordiangly to the understanding of great part of Islamic scholars, this act goes against the Islamic Law.

As already mentioned by AS itself, even though both groups are Salafists/Jihadists groups, they dont share the same projects. Due to circumstances that weakened Ahrar in the past, in 2014 the group started to show the first signs of moderation.

Although they share a lot of similarities, different than Ahrar al Sham, Jabhat al Nusra has a far more radical Aqeedah that doesnt approve this kind of support, and they are not up to be signing any agreement, like this of the breakaway, for the sake of pleasing the West only.

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Al Qaeda has long planned to declare an Islamic State. With the situation in Syria after the Arab Spring, and all the chaotic enviroment turned Syria into the perfect incubator for the new generation of jihadi, AQ saw an opportunity in that. JN has this goal of establishing an Islamic State in Syria. As there can only have one legit Islamic State at the time, if these two groups were divided, AQ wouldn't be able to declare a State if Nusra did and vice versa.

As Zawahiri said in his last audio message: We have repeated over and over than the Muslims of Sham – and at the heart of them the brave Mujahidin – if they formed their Muslim state and chose their Imam, then whoever they decide to choose is their choice. This shows there is no need for JN to leave AQ in order to establish their Islamic State and instead of opposing to this, AQ would actually join them(give bayah).

As mentioned by Zawahiri: We, by the grace of Allah, are not striving for authority, rather we are striving for the rule of the Sharia. We do not wish to rule over the Muslims, rather, we want to be ruled as Muslims by Islam. Jihad is about unification of the muslim people and groups and not about spliting ranks and falling apart, together they are more powerful than against each other.

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US seem to be up to try supporting radical groups again, despite the bad experience they had in Afghanistan with the Taliban. But they must bear in mind their past experience, Ahrar al Sham's aqeedah doesnt represent the pattern of all jihadist groups, not all of them are willing to take aid from a western country nor down their heads to western policies and agenda.

Seems like Nusra is more interested in fighting against the Regime with all their ways than getting out of the West's terrorist list. Perhaps because they don't care about titles, perhaps because they don't care about the western projects.

Although some people agree with this breakaway, it is not a simple issue to solve, and would bring alot of consequences to the group. Despite all the pressure JN has being suffering regarding this matter, It is something that we wont probably see any time soon.

In the City of Aleppo

Infightings – Bringing Nothing to Nowhere

5 years ago, when the Revolution started, the main goal was to fight against the regime and take Bashar off the power. People were willing to unite themselves for this single cause. Groups were fighting side by side to take territories from Assad’ hands with hopes of freeing the country.

Now, the scenery we have is quiet different, groups are falling apart, even Islamists groups that were supposed to stay united, no longer support each other, and some groups are instead, taking the regime and alike as allies to fight against each other.

Rebels carry Ahrar Al-Sham (left), Free Syrian Army (center) and Nusra Front (right) flags in Idlib. March 29, 2015. 

Instead of uniting themselves, groups prefer to declare war against their own brothers, in order to protect their own status. Most of the times, not seeking benefit to the Syrian people, but for themselves. Everybody wants power, and once you get it you don’t want to lose it.

“Power is always dangerous, It attracts the worst and corrupts the best” - Edward Abbey

The main goal of Islamist groups were to build a State ruled by Sharia, based on the Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), yet they can’t even agree with each other about their understanding of Sharia itself. And instead of trying to solve their differences and find an agreement between parts, they prefer to take the hard way afraid of losing their power and their benefits to another leader.

There are those who say that all this infights is just a matter of Aqeedah, it’s a fact that each groups has a different Aqeedah. But what they don’t realize is that they can’t just change Aqeedah to fit their group’s politics, rather they should do the opposite, molding their politics accordingly to Aqeedah, maybe like this they would be able to see they are not so different from each other and maybe find a way in between their group’s projects and vision of the future.

Ahrar is a good example of a group who molds Aqeedah to fits their politics. They have their own politics, and they say they want implement Sharia, but so far they did not. They say they support and work with others rebels groups, yet they don’t lose the opportunity to accuse and slander them.

A couple of days ago, Ahrar just stormed at the house of Hassam Aboud’s cousin in Sarmin, he got shahada in Khanaser, so his family was having a ceremony at his own house. Ahrar attacked the house and tried to arrest an old man. By the time Jund al Aqsa responded, Ahrar al Sham went off, avoiding confrontation. Later Ahrar accused Jund al Aqsa of joining the ceremony, when they actually were not.

Ahrar says they support al Nusra, “they just have different projects” they say, yet before Nusra attacking Div 13’ in Idlib, Ahrar advised Div 13 to hide all their heavy weapons before the attack happened. And so they did. After that, Ahrar also condemned Jund al Aqsa for taking part in the attack and killing some Div 13 soldier.

The thing with Ahrar is that they want to build a nation, they want to be part of the solution of Syria, yet they want to rip other mujahideen out of it as if they were not supposed to be part of the solution as well.

Another example of disunity happened during the offensive of SAA in Aleppo. ISIS were trying to take Khanaser Road back, some brothers in Liwa Tawba, a Jabhat affiliated group joined them trying to repel SAA, the idea was to take the road back to the rebel’s hand, which would benefit all groups in Aleppo. Yet as soon as rebels heard that, they condemned it, and after the offensive, JN made some arrests.

The war between ISIS and Nusra is not something new, we can easily say that basically this is a long term infighting happening since the division/creating of these two groups, from then to now things just got worst and no prospect of improvement.

If we were to list every causality between the Islamic State and Jabhat al Nusra, we would be writing pages and pages of reports, so just to make thing short, let’s list the more mainstream ones:

From articles in their magazines containing threats and accusations, to dispute of territory in real battles, like those seen in Deir ez Zor and Qalamoun, to mujahideen being arrested for fighting in the same side, just like it happened in the offensive in Khanaser Road and to Amirs being murdered, as it was the case of Abu Usama al Maghrebi.

With Islamists groups stepping back and pulling out their support for one another, the regime is advancing again. In a time of difficulty what groups need the less is disunity and that’s exactly what the Regime and their allies want, groups fighting and weakening each other, making them easier targets.

Instead of uniting, you see new groups being formed all the time, new groups, new leaders, different points of view and projects, which ended up bringing even more divergences. How will they ever find a solution for the whole country, when they can’t even find a solution between themselves? How will they fix divergences and provide a good quality of life for those living in their territory if they treat even their own brother with hostility?

A Brief analysis of IS community and a comparison with other Islamist groups community and how it influences in their support and unity

I bet lots of people already caught themselves wondering why Dawlah is such a strong group and how did they raise so fast…organization, money, oil? Yeah maybe, but I think that far and foremost “Unity” would be the best answer.

I’m not here to defend IS nor any other group, they all have their good and bad points, but no doubt that one of the best points of Dawlah is their sense of community. Not only regarding katibat and mujahideen but also their supporters and even online community.

Not saying that rebel groups need their own version of the Baqiyyah Family, but indeed they need to focus more on the support and unification of their own community.

The thing is, in IS’s perspective, it doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you are a supporter of Dawlah they will simply receive and support you, even if you don’t share the same ideas, they will in most of cases try to explain to you why things are the way they are and if you commit any mistake, they might fight you, but they wont turn their back to you.

IS supporters care about knowing each other, and even if they don’t, they have total conscience that you are their brother/sister and they will be there for you. So if you ended up in a “beef” with someone from a rival group, give them 5 minutes and you will see you will not be the only Baqiyyah around.

Of course it also reflects in the ground. IS leaders have total confidence in one another, something that calls attention on their leadership structure is that they don’t always need to ask for permission from their superiors.

Bias infection: Ofc the bad point in this support is that, if you don’t support them, you are directly classified as Kuffar, Sahawat or Murtad. Because you know, there is no “muslim” option cuz to be muslim you should be part of the fanclub.

On the other hand, we see a lack of support coming from rebel side, groups not always agree between themselves and when disagreed, they simply fight each other…

Of course cuz there isnt anything more logical to do.

As the case of Nusrah and Ahrar, two strong groups that unfortunatelly have different perspectives and opinions and instead of leaving all this behind and fight for the same cause, they decided to just start some fitnah until they realised it was bringing nothing to nowhere. Alhamdulillah Allah opened their eyes.

As for their online community, we notice a weak support from their side. They don’t really interact with eachother, what makes their community smaller, since they don’t really take the chance to get to know eachother. Different than IS people, we can say that they are not so LOUD.

Also they don’t really have a whole “market campaign” to gather support, online or physically, nor they are as accessible as IS are. Which make it difficult to people to reach them and have more contact to the situation the group are facing.

When it’s about advises, Islamists supporters are more reserved than IS people and don’t really advise their friends/followers as much as IS do, which is sad because there are lots of knowledgeable people out there . IS on the contrary loves to comment on things and point your mistakes out to correct you, sometimes even in a kind of brute way, but anyways, advises are always welcome….

On the other hand, the fact that IS supporters speak too much, doesn’t mean that they have knowledge about topics, in many moments, they just speak out of ignorance instead of reamining silent about the issue.

And Allah says in the Quran, 

And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned. (al-Isra’ 17:36)

Islamists are more quiet regarding talking about what they know not, and most of the time they prefer to shorten the topic by saying “I don’t know” or not even commenting at all.

The way they answer is also another issue, Baqiyyah people are always so excited and ready to answer that doesn’t matter what the group does, they will always go wild praising them, what makes them sounds childish most of the times. Now, islamists supporters are much more contained, they don’t go out jumping around when something happens, instead they keep the formalite, since its all about a war, not about a play.

We also rarely see Islamists supporters commenting, discussing or even questioning group’s actions, they are more silent, while in IS community any topic turns into a whole thread where people give their points of view, ask questions, etc. They don’t only interact with eachother but also participate somehow. Sometimes even some mujahideen appear to answer some questions and make themselves available, bringing the reality of the ground to the thread.

While in the Islamists side, mujahideen not always interact with supporters and not always discuss things.

Comparing IS to other groups, jihadists and non jihadists, in the global history, they are probably the most sociable, until now we had that far sight of fighter/soldier, since in our perpective, they didn’t have much time to spend outside the battlefield/engaging war affairs. IS on the other hand take their time to be “charismatic” to whoever wants to listen to them.

How right or wrong this “not so formal” IS approach is, nobody knows, it’s probably the first time that fighters have contact with “outsiders” the way IS does and for sure it makes us feel like part of their community, this indeed brought them not only attention but also support.

Other islamists groups prefer to take things more professional(?) and ended up not giving so much attention to their supporters . But maybe they need to start opening their minds and hearts, I don’t mean regarding supporters only, but to other islamists groups. They are stronger together than fighting each other and if they really unit themselves, they will for sure have more chances.

Maybe they just need some dialogue.

Aleppo was a good example of a place that could be in a different situation today if groups had united before. The assault happened at the same time as an “agreement” that was going on between groups, which Nusrah and Ahrar agaaain couldn’t agree at first, so while they were trying to figure out some points, the Regime was preparing the attack.

Unfortunately it seems like Islamists groups are more interested in compete with each other than actually unite each other to achieve a goal that is common to all of them. They should bear in mind that this fight is not about Power but about to liberate a whole country and its people.

Insha Allah with this Aleppo offensive things will change.

Islamists groups have been facing a huge loss of commanders during these previous months, its comprehensive that a loss of a senior local commander destabilizes and brings disunity to the already volatile situation on the ground.

And that’s exactly what the enemy wants, destabilization causes disunity, that’s what Russia and Iran Military advisors were planning with its strategic pivoting. So that’s the moment to do exactly the opposite, to be strong, and to strengthen the union.

It’s a fact that everybody wants to rule, but first things first, what matter now is to free Shaam and take Bashar out of the power.

Well, the point here is not to offend groups by pointing out their mistakes, but highlight some points that in MY point of view could be improved.

In my opinion: Yes groups can be more humble to each other (im not talking about mujahideen individually, im talking about groups as a whole). They need to focus on the support they receive and fortify their communities. They do need to be more open and have more dialogue, pointing out good points and points to improve of each group. You are all brothers, you should advise each other and accept the advises of others as well. 

Afterall, all groups have a common factor on the ground: Fighting the Regime and libertating Syria (InshaAllah).

And remember, fight for the sake of Allah, to make His words the highest, not for groups.