Russian
military forces have discovered mass graves in eastern parts of the
Syrian city of Aleppo, with many of the bodies reportedly showing
signs of torture.
Maj. Gen.
Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for the Russian defense ministry,
announced the horrifying discovery on Monday. “Many of the
corpses were found with missing body parts, and most had gunshot
wounds to the head,” he said, according to RT, a Russian
state-owned news network.
Until
recently, the eastern portion of Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city
and industrial and financial center, was under the control of
so-called “moderate” rebels, many of whom have received both
intelligence and material support from the United States and its
allies in the Middle East.
Last week,
Russian and Syrian military forces oversaw the evacuation of
civilians from eastern Aleppo. Prior to that, the rebel-held portion
of the city had been controlled by two main factions, Jabhat
al-Nusra, a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida also known as the
Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham, another extremist group that receives
U.S. support despite being designated a terrorist organization.
In an
apparent attempt to court the U.S. government by distancing itself
from al-Qaida, the Nusra Front recently attempted to “rebrand”
itself. Despite efforts to market themselves as kinder, gentler
terrorists, the group has continued to commit atrocities, including
burning buses intended to be used in the evacuation and even blocking
food aid from reaching Aleppo’s starving residents. WikiLeaks’
archive of diplomatic cables reveals that the United States, Israel,
and Saudi Arabia have sought to overthrow the government of Syrian
leader Bashar Assad since at least 2006, and support for extremist
fighters remains a key part of that strategy.
Konashenkov
promised a full investigation into the war crimes of rebel forces in
Aleppo, suggesting in his statement that the results would surprise
many people who receive their news from Western mainstream media
sources. He said: “The completion of a uniquely large-scale
humanitarian operation by the Russian Center for Reconciliation in
Aleppo will destroy many of the myths that have been fed to the world
by Western politicians. The results of only an initial survey of
Aleppo neighborhoods abandoned by the so-called ‘opposition’ will
shock many.”
Russian
forces also found massive stockpiles of weaponry abandoned by fleeing
rebel groups. “In one small area, three tanks, two cannons, two
multiple rocket launchers and numerous homemade mortars were found,”
reported RT.
Throughout
the civil war, weaponry and equipment provided by the United States
and its allies, nominally intended for so-called “moderate”
groups like the Free Syrian Army, has instead ended up in the hands
of terrorist groups like the Nusra Front. A BBC report from December
of 2015 referred to the shipments of supplies from the West as a
“Wal-Mart” for extremists.
While
journalists on the ground have documented atrocities carried out by
rebel groups throughout the Syrian conflict, the mainstream media has
focused almost entirely on reports of war crimes committed by the
Syrian government, even though many of those reports are impossible
to verify.
False news
about Syria has continued to proliferate in recent days, including
reports of genocide carried out by the Syrian government that
featured fake or recycled photos.
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