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War in Ukraine: Syrian rebels warn against Russian war tactics

2022-03-09T10:34:56.984Z


The bombings in Ukraine remind many Syrians of their own suffering. Now they are collecting relief supplies - and giving tips on how to outsmart the Russian army.


Enlarge image

A White Helmet sits among troops in Saraqib, Syria (2019 image)

Photo:

Anas Alkharboutli / dpa

The Russian air force has been bombing cities in Syria since 2015, and in Ukraine for the last two weeks.

Now the Syrian White Helmets have offered their support to Ukraine.

The White Helmet boss Raed al-Saleh told the Washington Post that they wanted to help by any means necessary.

The Russian army has no principles, he warns, "they have neither morals nor decency."

For seven years, the rebels in Syria would face the Russian army.

Now the Ukrainians would also get to know "the most bestial, most immoral and most criminal killing machine" of that time.

In the Syrian war, which has been going on since 2011, the Russians have sided with the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Since September 2015, they have been flying airstrikes on cities occupied by rebels and Islamists, and the air force has repeatedly bombed hospitals and schools.

Saleh says there is a system: the Russians want to break the will of the civilian population.

The White Helmets are a volunteer-based civil defense group operating in Syria's rebel-held areas.

In 2016, the organization was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Video recordings by the organization repeatedly documented attacks and bombings by the Syrian and Russian military.

Syria and Russia, on the other hand, accuse the White Helmets of being close to terrorist groups.

"He's all Aleppo in Ukraine now, isn't he?"

Specifically, the Syrian White Helmets now want to start a video series to help the Ukrainians in the war.

The explanatory videos should deal with, among other things, how to rescue injured people from buildings that are still under fire or how to deal with unexploded rockets.

The White Helmets also want to deliver relief supplies and, according to Saleh, are willing to send relief workers into the country.

Other Syrian rebels and resistance fighters also feel reminded of their situation by the Ukraine war.

Some have offered to fight in Ukraine.

Among others, the notorious North Syrian rebel leader Suheil Hammoud announced on Twitter that he wanted to set off.

The fact that Russia offers "escape corridors" is described by many Syrians online as a farce.

The weapons that the Russians were testing in Syria would soon fall on Ukraine, one wrote.

"Image by image" is now being traced in Ukraine what had already happened in Syria, another told the Al-Jazeera broadcaster.

"He's going all out in Aleppo in Ukraine now, isn't he?" he says of Putin.

A former rebel representative, who was negotiating escape routes from the besieged Aleppo, also warns against the corridors.

"For the Russians it was little more than an early declaration of victory," he told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".

The Russian offer of a corridor confronts two evils: “If one agrees to set up humanitarian corridors according to a fixed timetable, then this inevitably leads to the end of the timetable marking the beginning of the systematic bombing.

Then everything and everyone behind the lines will be considered an enemy, and the Russian military machine will be unleashed with indiscriminate brutality.« On the other hand, rejecting such corridors does not mean that the bombardment will stop.

Mr

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-03-09

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