Russia Allegedly Bombs FSA Rebels in Syria

From a story published by The Independent:

The US believes Russia has launched its first airstrikes in Syria just hours after the country’s Parliament approved Vladimir Putin’s request for military intervention.

No further information was given but activists in Homs and Hama provinces have posted images and video online claiming to show Russian planes bombing groups of non-Isis rebels who are fighting Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

...

But areas reportedly hit by Russian planes today included Latamneh and Tal Wasit, both in Hama governate, and Zaafrana, Homs.

All are held by the Free Syrian Army, secular rebels, or non-Isis Islamists including Jaysh al-Fath (the Army of Conquest).

This is happy news indeed! It's long overdue that those NATO-trained, NATO-financed, NATO-armed "rebels" in Syria be blown to pieces by Russian bombs. :-D

I thought Russia was pretty open about going into Syria to aid the current regime, and I'm all for letting them. US isn't doing shit but dropping arms into the country in hopes in ends up in the right hands but ends up in ISIS hands anyways. If Russia wants to be proactive, not like we can do anything about it. My only concern about Russian presence in Syria has to do with Israel, who recently bombed Syria because stray fire fell within their borders. If they do such a thing and it hits the wrong people, I don't think the US is going to go helping Israel if that means fighting Russians.

@lamprey263: From what I heard on tv, Russia and Israel are coordinating with each other in order to ensure that their forces don't end up accidentally clashing.

I don't like the Assad regime, either in terms of morals or in terms of U.S. strategic interests, but on the other hand if Assad falls, ISIS and other terrorist groups would likely grab more power. Perhaps an Assad victory might be the best of the available options: certainly letting the civil war drag on doesn't seem to be good for anybody but arms dealers and mercenaries.

Russia is just blatantly evil now adays. At least we can take solace in that their country is in the crapper.

No one can really argue against Assad being a dictator but at the same time no one can argue against the clear fact that Syria post-western controlled civil war against assad, was a peaceful and prosperous country with a relative similar lifestyle to most western countries. People was educated, had a decent wage avg. and the country was well visited by Tourists.

So it's about time that someone like Russia helps Assad so ISIS won't win, because if they do win Syria, Iraq is bound to fall next.

And a islamic fundamentalist state with that much power, is bad news for the west in ways that cave hillbilly Bin Laden would never be able to.

Utter nonsense.

At least do yourself the favor of reading up on Syria , Russia and how messed up the western countries lead by US have left Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria.

Because last time the Russians checked, Afghanistan was in good shape. [/sarcasm]

Why aren't you banned yet?

Oh look, American planes and Russian planes carrying out active missions in the same air space. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, you mean they left it worse than with the US backed Bin Laden.?

I have to agree with this viewpoint. In an ideal world, there would be a viable alternative to Assad's government, but the reality is that the "Free Syrian Army" and other allegedly moderate rebel groups barely exist any longer. They would never be able to prevent ISIS and Al-Qaeda-affiliated factions from seizing power.

For Syrians, the options are limited to ISIS and Assad, and I imagine that most Syrians see Assad as the lesser of two evils.

The west opposes ISIS and a brutal dictator.

Russia supports that dictator.

The U.S. can fix many things, but not culture, Iraq and Afghanistan were set up as democracies, the U.S. can only do so much when they have a cesspool of a culture.

Russia supports the only person it makes sense to support right now in Syria. US and the west support rebels who hand over their American issued guns to ISIS which they then can use to kill civilians and western people.

And sure US can do many thing but use their brains is not one of them. Was Saddam a dictator , was Qaddafi a Dictator sure. is Assad a Dictator, were/are they brutal and ran their countries hard. Yes they did but that is the way that kind of culture has to be run. Look at Iraq now, Look at Syria, look at Libya , look at Afghanistan, all are in a terrible mess and we have ISIS and Taliban gaining more and more control, because the people left in control are either power hungry, to weak or left in control with no intention of ever being a muppet for the western world.

Also democracy is not something you can force on anyone who does not want it, not to mention that the insane idea the west has that it's the best form of government is nonsense.

No one in the West really wanted to commit fully. So, let the Russians have a go at it. We'll have to see if Russia is willing to put boots on the ground because it's the only way to eradicate ISIL.

There are moderate Muslim fighters in the region. Russia has been backing this guy for a long time now, well before the nastiness with ISIS.

Or maybe they just needed more time to develop into a full democracy.

It's something that should be followed by everybody, Its biggest strength is that it eliminates extremists from having any sort of power, look at sadam hussein who killed millions of his own people. Other forms just lead to brutal leaders like Assad killing hundreds of thousands of their own people.

I'd probably make an exception for Qaddafi. I don't think the US really wanted to oust Qaddafi. After all, he came clean with his WMD program and had been recently removed from the State Department's sh*t list when he got toppled. Quite honestly, the US should've stayed out of getting involved in the Arab Spring.

Assad would probably have complied as well. But after seeing what happened to Qaddafi, his survival instincts kicked in. It was one thing to comply with the UN with regards to WMDs and another thing to get ousted and get his head chopped off.

Russia is at it again?

good

The fact that you think that killing is happy news is extremely disturbing.

Too much ignorance in this thread I'm not going to contribute

On second thoughts, I'll go with this.

Why? If you think people here are putting out BS, then set them straight. I don't have a problem if I get corrected.

Now i am curious , who is not banned yet?

First Georgia, then Ukraine, and now Syria.

I guess Russia is trying to be important again.

Why don't we (America) leave and let the Russians bang their head against this wall for a few decades. The last time they got involved in a civil war it led to the collapse of their government and as long as Putin is in charge it couldn't happen to a better guy.

US media is just demonizing Russia.

I don't think Americans can really judge Russia. Thanks to USA we in Europe are now drowning in refugees. You should fix your own mess, but instead you're ready to bail with tail between your legs. But, hey, as long as your weapons industry has enough wars and people to sell their weapons to, everything is great. Consequences be damned.

You Euros also have a hand in supplying arms to both Assad and the rebels. Me personally? I think the Russians have a better say in matters there because they have been a major supplier of arms to various Arab countries far longer than the US. They've just been quiet going about it. So long as the moolah comes to Russia, who cares what rhetoric floats around.

@Stesilaus said:

From a story published by The Independent:

The US believes Russia has launched its first airstrikes in Syria just hours after the country’s Parliament approved Vladimir Putin’s request for military intervention.

No further information was given but activists in Homs and Hama provinces have posted images and video online claiming to show Russian planes bombing groups of non-Isis rebels who are fighting Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

...

But areas reportedly hit by Russian planes today included Latamneh and Tal Wasit, both in Hama governate, and Zaafrana, Homs.

All are held by the Free Syrian Army, secular rebels, or non-Isis Islamists including Jaysh al-Fath (the Army of Conquest).

This is happy news indeed! It's long overdue that those NATO-trained, NATO-financed, NATO-armed "rebels" in Syria be blown to pieces by Russian bombs. :-D

yes hooray for Russia. Kill those syrian refugees so you can keep Syria as a client state!!!

I believe Syria gets its weapons from Russia not the USA.

I beleive Europe was heavily involved in pushing for the removal of Assad.

But hey, blame someone else! Courageous of you.

I'd like to see his opinion having the same thing happening in his own homeland.

hush, if vladimir putin kills his own people to keep them quiet, it's ok.

If the reports are accurate, then the victims of the Russian bombing were among the CIA-backed mercenaries who are waging a war of aggression against the democratically-elected government of Syria. As such, they were thoroughly legitimate targets for Russia, whose military is operating in Syria with the consent of the Syrian government.

Incidentally, the assertion that Russia hit CIA proxies comes straight from the always-indiscreet mouth of Senator John McCain, who spat it out on CNN:

“It’s interesting their initial strikes were against the individual and the groups that have been funded and trained by our CIA,"

said McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, on CNN's "New Day" on Thursday morning.

Source

@Stesilaus: You're really so blind that you support a brutal dictator? smh

You really do got to feel bad for the Middle East's people. Everyone just shits on them and it's the world's playground for wars. Human rights are still in the Middle Ages there.

Thank god we don't live there.

You mean "Thank god we don't live in the countries we've been been ruining for decades."

However, that cynical statement would actually be false, because plenty of Americans DO live in the Middle East ...

Hmm, i think you mean "some middle-eastern" people shit on their own people in the name of some backwater religion and age-old tribe mentality.

All the west does is stick their head in the sand and yell "protect Israel and everyone is best off with democracy" Which we clearly see is correct in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.