Syria

[RTH10260]

On Syria’s Ruins, a Drug Empire Flourishes
Powerful associates of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are making and selling captagon, an illegal amphetamine, creating a new narcostate on the Mediterranean.

By Ben Hubbard and Hwaida Saad
Published Dec. 5, 2021 Updated Dec. 6, 2021, 3:45 a.m. ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Built on the ashes of 10 years of war in Syria, an illegal drug industry run by powerful associates and relatives of President Bashar al-Assad has grown into a multibillion-dollar operation, eclipsing Syria’s legal exports and turning the country into the world’s newest narcostate.

Its flagship product is captagon, an illegal, addictive amphetamine popular in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. Its operations stretch across Syria, including workshops that manufacture the pills, packing plants where they are concealed for export and smuggling networks to spirit them to markets abroad.

An investigation by The New York Times found that much of the production and distribution is overseen by the Fourth Armored Division of the Syrian Army, an elite unit commanded by Maher al-Assad, the president’s younger brother and one of Syria’s most powerful men.

Major players also include businessmen with close ties to the government, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other members of the president’s extended family, whose last name ensures protection for illegal activities, according to The Times investigation, which is based on information from law enforcement officials in 10 countries and dozens of interviews with international and regional drug experts, Syrians with knowledge of the drug trade and current and former United States officials.

The drug trade emerged in the ruins of a decade of war, which shattered Syria’s economy, reduced most of its people to poverty and left members of Syria’s military, political and business elite looking for new ways to earn hard currency and circumvent American economic sanctions.




https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/05/worl ... assad.html

[Foggy]

That is really terrifying. That may represent the future for a lot of poor countries, especially those that still discriminate against women (that alone will lock your country into poverty for the foreseeable future).

TFA tried to implement a kakistocracy, but America was too big for such a small man. This is very different from that, in that this might a successful model for turning any poor country into a stinking hellhole. But with TFA and the billionaires chipping away at the top, and millions of state-controlled druggies chopping away at the bottom, maybe civilization is in real trouble.

We may be heading toward some sort of cataclysmic event that will reduce world population below a billion, and then a lot of tough years of rebuilding. But Earthlings learn from their mistakes ... eventually. The planet that emerges after the apocalypse will not be Mad Max.

My thinking on the subject is evolving, but I can't read a story like this and not have dark thoughts about the world and its future. This is why I insist on living another three hundred years. The next three hundred years are going to be SO INTERESTING.

[RTH10260]

What to Know About the Civilian Casualty Files
A New York Times investigation found that the American air war in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan has been plagued by flawed intelligence, poor targeting and thousands of civilian deaths.

By Michael Levenson
Dec. 18, 2021

In the years since American boots on the ground gave way to a war of airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has made a central promise: that precision bombs and drones would kill enemies while minimizing the risks to civilians.

Recent investigations by The New York Times have undercut that promise. In September, The Times reported that a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, which American officials said had destroyed a vehicle laden with bombs, had instead killed 10 members of a family. Last month, The Times reported that dozens of civilians had been killed in a 2019 bombing in Syria that the military had hidden from public view.

Now, a Times investigation has found that these were not outliers, but rather the regular casualties of a transformed way of war gone wrong.

Drawing on more than 1,300 documents from a hidden Pentagon archive, the investigation reveals that, since 2014, the American air war has been plagued by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and imprecise targeting and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children.

In addition to reviewing the military’s own assessments of reports of civilian casualties — obtained through Freedom of Information requests and lawsuits against the Defense Department and U.S. Central Command — The Times visited nearly 100 casualty sites in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and interviewed scores of surviving residents and current and former American officials.

Here are key takeaways from Part 1 of the investigation. Part 2 will be published in the coming days.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/18/us/a ... tagon.html

[RTH10260]

possibly paywall

The Civilian Casualty Files

BY AZMAT KHAN, LILA HASSAN, SARAH ALMUKHTAR AND RACHEL SHOREY
DEC. 18, 2021

The New York Times is making public hundreds of the Pentagon’s confidential assessments of reports of civilian casualties resulting from U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The documents lay bare how the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting, and the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, many of them children.

The documents were obtained through Freedom of Information requests beginning in March 2017 and subsequent lawsuits filed against the Defense Department and the U. S. Central Command. To date, The Times has received more than 1,300 reports examining airstrikes in Iraq and Syria from September 2014 to January 2018, more than 5,400 pages in all.

Independent reporting by The Times has closely matched much of the basic information from the documents, but it also found important discrepancies and oversights in some instances, including the location of a strike or the number of people killed or injured. Despite the inaccuracies, the documents serve as an important record for researchers seeking to understand the Pentagon’s internal processes.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... files.html

[RTH10260]

A Dam in Syria Was on a ‘No-Strike’ List. The U.S. Bombed It Anyway.
A military report warned that striking the giant structure could cause tens of thousands of deaths.

By Dave Philipps, Azmat Khan and Eric Schmitt
Jan. 20, 2022

Near the height of the war against the Islamic State in Syria, a sudden riot of explosions rocked the country’s largest dam, a towering, 18-story structure on the Euphrates River that held back a 25-mile-long reservoir above a valley where hundreds of thousands of people lived.

The Tabqa Dam was a strategic linchpin and the Islamic State controlled it. The explosions on March 26, 2017, knocked dam workers to the ground and everything went dark. Witnesses say one bomb punched down five floors. A fire spread, and crucial equipment failed. The mighty flow of the Euphrates River suddenly had no way through, the reservoir began to rise, and local authorities used loudspeakers to warn people downstream to flee.

The Islamic State, the Syrian government and Russia blamed the United States, but the dam was on the U.S. military’s “no-strike list” of protected civilian sites and the commander of the U.S. offensive at the time, then-Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, said allegations of U.S. involvement were based on “crazy reporting.”

“The Tabqa Dam is not a coalition target,” he declared emphatically two days after the blasts.

In fact, members of a top secret U.S. Special Operations unit called Task Force 9 had struck the dam using some of the largest conventional bombs in the U.S. arsenal, including at least one BLU-109 bunker-buster bomb designed to destroy thick concrete structures, according to two former senior officials. And they had done it despite a military report warning not to bomb the dam, because the damage could cause a flood that might kill tens of thousands of civilians.



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/us/a ... s-dam.html?

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[RTH10260]

Turkish forces kill Islamic State chief in Syria raid, says Erdoğan
Turkish president says Abu Hussein al-Qurashi killed after pursuit while northern Syria residents report clashes and large explosion

Ruth Michaelson and agencies
Mon 1 May 2023 01.38 BST

Turkish intelligence forces have killed Islamic State’s leader, Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, in Syria, Turkey’s president announced.

“This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organisation in Syria yesterday,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in an interview with the broadcaster TRT Türk on Sunday.

He said the intelligence organisation had pursued Qurashi for a long time.

Syrian local and security sources said the raid took place in the northern Syrian town of Jindires, which is controlled by Turkey-backed rebel groups and was one of the worst-affected in the 6 February earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.

The Syrian national army, an opposition faction with a security presence in the area, did not immediately issue any comment.

“The Isis figure Abu Hussein al-Qurashi … was stationed in a military post belonging to the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya mercenary group and was killed in Jindires, Afrin,” said a spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed primarily Kurdish fighting coalition in northern Syria, pointing to Turkish influence and control in Jinderes.

One resident said clashes started on the edge of Jindires overnight from Saturday into Sunday, lasting for about an hour before residents heard a large explosion. The area was later encircled by security forces to prevent anyone from approaching the area.

Residents said an operation had targeted an abandoned farm that was being used as an Islamic school.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ys-erdogan

[RTH10260]

Turkey destroying NE Syria oil, power facilities: Kurds
Hasakeh (Syria) (AFP) – Turkish bombardment has damaged more than half of Kurdish-held northeast Syria's power and oil infrastructure, dealing a blow to its energy-dependent economy, the Kurds' top commander said.

Issued on: 11/10/2023 - 16:17

Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), also criticised Washington for failing to do more to prevent the strikes, during an interview with AFP in the northern city of Hasakeh.

On October 5, Turkey launched a bombing campaign in Syria's northeast after it said militants who were behind an attack in Ankara came from and were trained in Syria.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration has denied the claim, and says at least 44 people, including security personnel and civilians, have been killed in the attacks.

"More than half of oil and electricity facilities were damaged" as Turkey struck dozens of sites including power plants and gas infrastructure, Abdi said.

His forces spearheaded the battle to dislodge Islamic State group (IS) fighters from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.

The assault has left residents without power since Thursday, in a region already struggling to provide just 10 hours of electricity per day.




https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/2 ... ties-kurds

[RTH10260]

Why Makeshift Oil Refineries in Syria Are A Ticking Time Bomb | Risky Business | Insider News

Insider News
10 Nov 2023

Thousands of backyard oil refineries are scattered across parts of Syria, and displaced residents rely on them for fuel to survive. But working inside these hellish facilities is dangerous – and it's wreaking havoc on the environment. We went to al-Bab, Syria, to find out why these illegal oil refineries are here in the first place, and why they're a necessary evil for the people living in Syria.

[Flatpoint High]

This just in: https://www.military.com/daily-news/202 ... rimes.html

PARIS — French judicial authorities on Wednesday issued international arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar Assad, his brother and two army generals for their alleged involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs, lawyers for Syrian victims said.

In addition to President Assad, the arrest warrants were issued for his brother, Maher Assad, the commander of the 4th Armored Division, and two Syrian army generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan.