Wednesday, October 26, 2016

NATO Ops Caught in Aleppo is West's Worry

A Syrian man runs for cover as smoke rises from buildings nearby following a reported bombing attack, Aleppo, Syria (file photo)
 
This could explain why NATO governments have been so anxious in recent weeks to halt the Syrian-Russian offensive on Aleppo. Could it be that they need to extricate their special forces embedded with terrorist-dominated militants?

Imagine the world headlines that not even compliant Western news media could suppress if the Syrian army with Russian air support liberated the last redoubt of al-Nusra Front only to find among the defeated jihadists professional troops belonging to the US, Britain, France or some other NATO member. Washington and its Western allies who proclaim to be fighting terrorists and “only” supporting “moderate rebels” would be caught with their hands deep inside the cookie jar, so to speak. Embarrassing, to say the least, to have such a honeyed-lie exposed in glaring reality.
 
There’s something decidedly eerie about the current situation in the northern battleground city of Aleppo. On Tuesday night, a NATO air strike was reported on the village of Hassajek, near the city, in which at least six people – believed to be civilians – were killed. The Russian government says the strike was carried out by two Belgian F-16s fighter jets. What was that about? And why the silence from Washington and NATO over such a flagrant violation? Is somebody getting nervous?

Then the day before the humanitarian pause declared by Syrian and Russian forces came into effect on Thursday, sources in Aleppo told how busloads of militants had already begun leaving the city. Significantly, some of the vehicles had blacked-out windows. Syrian sources say that the passengers on those buses were not foreign jihadists, but rather were special forces from NATO countries. That claim has not been verified. There are long-held suspicions that anti-government militants holding east Aleppo under siege for the past four years have been receiving covert, direct support from NATO special forces. It has been well-documented that NATO governments have been arming and training militants in waging a war for regime change in Syria. Therefore, it would be plausible that NATO commandos would actually be on the ground in militant-held ghettos of Aleppo.
 
Some further reasons for suspecting this direct form of Western involvement are the following: the so-called Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which is funded by the US, British and French governments, has suddenly become a crucial source of stylized propaganda for Western officials and media accusing Russia and its Syrian ally of war crimes.

Western media routinely use video footage supplied by the AMC purporting to show the aftermath of Russian and Syrian airstrikes. The AMC is described as an “amateur”, “activist” source. But its information appears to be anything but amateurish. The footage is often obtained from aerial drones flying high above bombed-out buildings. What kind of “amateur” has access to such sophisticated technology, and, furthermore, able to operate it? That suggests that the AMC is receiving professional technical support to run an information war. Since NATO countries are known to heavily fund the unit, then it’s reasonable to think that those countries also supply supporting personnel. A second pointer to NATO troops being on the ground in Aleppo stems from the recent assessment by Lt General Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff, which found that militants in east Aleppo are receiving hi-tech modern weaponry, in particular US-made TOW anti-tank missiles. As with the above drone technology, it seems reasonable to assume that NATO personnel would more than likely have to be present in order to train militants in deploying these sophisticated weapons.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201610191046508616-nato-aleppo-west-worry/