What the fall of Idlib means: five points
Scott Lucas has a short comment and starts with:
Quote:
Last Saturday, after a four-day offensive, rebels captured Idlib in northwest Syria, the third provincial capital lost by the Assad regime in Syria’s four-year conflict. The five major lessons of Idlib for the winners (the rebels, the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra), the losers (the Assad regime, mainstream media), and those on the side (the US, the Islamic State).
Link:http://eaworldview.com/2015/04/syria...feat-in-idlib/
Afghan Hazaras fighting in Aleppo
A Der Spiegel report that explains how a few Hazaras have been captured fighting for the Assad regime in Aleppo. Coerced mercenaries who no-one cares for. Plus a description of recent fighting in the city:
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Exact numbers are hard to come by, but some 700 of them are thought to have lost their lives in Aleppo and Daraa alone. What's worse, most of them don't come completely on their own free will.
Link:http://www.spiegel.de/international/...a-1032869.html
Syria has chemical weapons: proving it
A short BBC article by SME on 'The challenge of assessing Syria's chemical weapons' when the regime has declared it has none:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32778193
He asks:
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So is the Syria declaration complete? Are chemical weapons still being used in Syria? And why is it so difficult to monitor what weapons they still have?
(He concludes) But to prove the use of chlorine as a weapon, let alone determine the perpetrator, will be a huge challenge.
The author is:
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Jerry Smith is the former head of contingency operations at the OPCW. He was the deputy head of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission to Syria.
Temporary thread for visibility. Chemical Weapons feature in several threads on Syria and that dreaded phrase 'red lines'.