"Significant escalation" as Syrian fighter jets bomb city of Aleppo - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18973719[/url] [quote=BBC News][B]Fighter jets have bombed eastern areas of Syria's second city Aleppo, a BBC reporter near the city says.[/B] The attack is seen as a significant escalation in the conflict. It is thought to be the first time that warplanes have been used in Aleppo, our correspondent says. Rebels launched an offensive against Aleppo at the weekend in an attempt to wrest control of the city from the army. Fierce fighting has been reported close to Aleppo's old city.[/quote]

Aww shit

Has Syria used their air force before this, or is this the first case of such an attack?

Need a no-fly zone.

Ugh can we finally do something about this? Gadaffi used jet planes on his people so we blew his shit up, why not do the same here?

[QUOTE=DaysBefore;36913519]Ugh can we finally do something about this? Gadaffi used jet planes on his people so we blew his shit up, why not do the same here?[/QUOTE] "Because it's not our business being there."

[QUOTE=Ricool06;36913496]Has Syria used their air force before this, or is this the first case of such an attack?[/QUOTE] I believe the Rebels blamed the air force for part of the Houla massacre, and some bombings in Damascus.

[QUOTE=DaysBefore;36913519]Ugh can we finally do something about this? Gadaffi used jet planes on his people so we blew his shit up, why not do the same here?[/QUOTE] Because of a fundamental flaw in the UN: Veto.

[QUOTE=Mindtwistah;36913977]Because of a fundamental flaw in the UN: Veto.[/QUOTE] Yeah, but with Libya, it was NATO that implemented the No-Fly Zone. Not the UN. NATO could do the same here, if they so desired. The only major problem I can really see sprouting from doing this is it would probably really piss off Russia and China. [QUOTE=QuikKill;36913533]"Because it's not our business being there."[/QUOTE] See also: "They don't have anything we might want from them, like oil."

[QUOTE=Marcolade;36914182]Yeah, but with Libya, it was NATO that implemented the No-Fly Zone. Not the UN. NATO could do the same here, if they so desired. The only major problem I can really see sprouting from doing this is it would probably really piss off Russia and China.[/QUOTE] NATO had to get [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973]UN authorisation[/url]

[QUOTE=smurfy;36914191]NATO had to get [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1973]UN authorisation[/url][/QUOTE] Oh. Well, color me stupid then. Sorry. :downs:

Funny how the world comes to the aid of some countries immediately when being massacred by their dictator, and then others such as Rwanda, and now Syria, no one is doing anything. Irks me so much, all those innocent people being slaughtered while waiting on help that may never come.

NATO should by all means tell the UN to stuff it. What's the UN going to do to NATO? Send angry letters? And even if the two troublemakers of the UN try to get a resolution through to condemn NATO, all the NATO nations can just veto it like they've been veto'ing theirs. UN problem solved.

[QUOTE=Marcolade;36914182] See also: "They don't have anything we might want from them, like oil."[/QUOTE] More like, "Russia and China can still sell weapons to Syria, so they've blocked any attempts at intervention via the UN". Can we please stop with this "Hurr oil" shit?

I find this quite funny [img]http://puu.sh/LjUp[/img]

Can someone catch me up on this? I haven't had time to really look into it... I hate not knowing.

[QUOTE=Daddy-of-war;36915574]Can someone catch me up on this? I haven't had time to really look into it... I hate not knowing.[/QUOTE] March 2011 people start protesting and calling for President Assad to resign, the government shoots them. It keeps happening, until the protesters reach level 18 and evolve into rebels, grabbing a bunch of guns. Areas of the cities of Homs and Hama fall to the rebels but the government counterattacks with tanks and artillery and retakes them. Tens of thousands of refugees flee across the northern border into Turkey, where camps are set up to house them. For months, not much happens. Various districts of various cities rise up, and are put down again. Syria is suspended from the Arab League and sanctioned by them, the EU and the US. UN efforts to impose sanctions are vetoed by Russia and China. Contrary to popular belief, NATO never expresses any intention of intervening, but its member states push for heavy sanctions. April 2012 the UN finally passes their first resolution on the conflict, calling for a ceasefire and deploying [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Supervision_Mission_in_Syria]UNSMIS[/url], a team of 300 unarmed observers, to check the status of the ceasefire. To everyone's surprise, the ceasefire actually works at first, and for the first time in a year guns fall silent across Syria. But after about two days, the fighting flares up again. UNSMIS remains in Syria, providing a good source of confirmed-true reports on the violence. May 2012 the world is outraged when the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houla_massacre]Houla massacre[/url] is uncovered, and confirmed by UNSMIS. The Syrian Army and pro-government militants killed 108 people, including 49 children. Syrian diplomats are kicked out of most Western countries in protest. June 2012 a Turkish jet conducting a training mission near the Syrian border (possibly within Syrian territorial waters, but no one knows for sure) is shot down, killing both of its pilots. In response, Turkey calls an emergency meeting of NATO, after which it announces that it has changed its rules of engagement; any Syrian forces spotted near the border will be treated as a threat and a 'military target'. The Turkish Army follows through on this threat, deploying rocket launchers and artillery along the border, and repeatedly scrambling jets and helicopters in response to Syrian units near the border. Also in June, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qubeir_massacre]a second massacre[/url] is carried out by pro-government forces. UNSMIS travels to the town to verify the reports, but are fired on and forced to retreat. A week later the head of UNSMIS, General Robert Mood, suspends the observer mission due to escalating violence. He says he will lift the suspension as soon as it becomes safe to do so, and the observers remain in the country but conduct no further patrols. July 2012 [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turaymisah_massacre]a third massacre[/url]. UNSMIS makes a special exception, travels to the town and verifies the reports. Then the capital city Damascus rises up, and several districts fall to rebel control. A bomb kills the defence minister, his deputy, the intelligence chief, and an aid to the Vice President. For a while it looks like the capital may fall to the rebels, but the government redeploys a huge number of troops from other areas of the country and manages to suppress the uprising. There are unconfirmed reports that President Assad may have fled to the coastal city of Lattakia as rebel forces came within miles of his presidential palace. However, the government's redeployment of troops left other areas of the country unguarded, and the Damascus uprising inspired another one in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a cornerstone of its industrial and commercial economy. All of the border crossings with Iraq and Turkey are captured by rebel forces. Many of them are swiftly retaken, but this is only good for propaganda value as the land surrounding them remains under rebel control. There are still pockets of violence in Damascus, but most of the urban fighting right now is in Aleppo. Various other areas of the country remain under rebel control, and it's unclear how strong Assad's army is after the Battle of Damascus - does he still have enough troops to hold the whole country? He clearly now has to keep a large number of them in the capital, or else it may rise up again and present the biggest threat to his power. Hilary Clinton [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18973719]reckons[/url] the rebels are making so much progress that they're close to creating a 'safe haven' in the country where Assad's troops can't effectively attack them. Hope I didn't forget anything too important. It [I]looks[/I] like I'm biased towards events that happened in the past few months, but no. Until this year basically nothing happened, it was just rebels kicking off here and there and being bombed to shit by the army.

[QUOTE=Ricool06;36913496]Has Syria used their air force before this, or is this the first case of such an attack?[/QUOTE] On one BBC report on Homs I SWEAR I saw a fighter jet zoom across

The BBC's Ian Pannell [url=http://twitter.com/BBCiPannell/status/227865077762637824]just reported[/url] that his cameraman has caught the jets over Aleppo and that footage will be on News at Ten

[QUOTE=smurfy;36918249]The BBC's Ian Pannell [url=http://twitter.com/BBCiPannell/status/227865077762637824]just reported[/url] that his cameraman has caught the jets over Aleppo and that footage will be on News at Ten[/QUOTE] Hell yes.

The guy delivered [t]http://puu.sh/Lnsv[/t] [t]http://puu.sh/Lnt5[/t] [t]http://puu.sh/Lnty[/t]

[QUOTE=smurfy;36915382]I find this quite funny [img]http://puu.sh/LjUp[/img][/QUOTE] [b]RT[/b]: Those weren't ammunition facilities, they were schools and orphanages for kittens. You can't trust Wiki as a liable source, tehyr controlled by Zionists. :downs:

[QUOTE=smurfy;36916065]March 2011 people start protesting and calling for President Assad to resign, the government shoots them. It keeps happening, until the protesters reach level 18 and evolve into rebels, grabbing a bunch of guns. Areas of the cities of Homs and Hama fall to the rebels but the government counterattacks with tanks and artillery and retakes them. Tens of thousands of refugees flee across the northern border into Turkey, where camps are set up to house them. For months, not much happens. Various districts of various cities rise up, and are put down again. Syria is suspended from the Arab League and sanctioned by them, the EU and the US. UN efforts to impose sanctions are vetoed by Russia and China. Contrary to popular belief, NATO never expresses any intention of intervening, but its member states push for heavy sanctions. April 2012 the UN finally passes their first resolution on the conflict, calling for a ceasefire and deploying [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Supervision_Mission_in_Syria]UNSMIS[/url], a team of 300 unarmed observers, to check the status of the ceasefire. To everyone's surprise, the ceasefire actually works at first, and for the first time in a year guns fall silent across Syria. But after about two days, the fighting flares up again. UNSMIS remains in Syria, providing a good source of confirmed-true reports on the violence. May 2012 the world is outraged when the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houla_massacre]Houla massacre[/url] is uncovered, and confirmed by UNSMIS. The Syrian Army and pro-government militants killed 108 people, including 49 children. Syrian diplomats are kicked out of most Western countries in protest. June 2012 a Turkish jet conducting a training mission near the Syrian border (possibly within Syrian territorial waters, but no one knows for sure) is shot down, killing both of its pilots. In response, Turkey calls an emergency meeting of NATO, after which it announces that it has changed its rules of engagement; any Syrian forces spotted near the border will be treated as a threat and a 'military target'. The Turkish Army follows through on this threat, deploying rocket launchers and artillery along the border, and repeatedly scrambling jets and helicopters in response to Syrian units near the border. Also in June, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qubeir_massacre]a second massacre[/url] is carried out by pro-government forces. UNSMIS travels to the town to verify the reports, but are fired on and forced to retreat. A week later the head of UNSMIS, General Robert Mood, suspends the observer mission due to escalating violence. He says he will lift the suspension as soon as it becomes safe to do so, and the observers remain in the country but conduct no further patrols. July 2012 [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turaymisah_massacre]a third massacre[/url]. UNSMIS makes a special exception, travels to the town and verifies the reports. Then the capital city Damascus rises up, and several districts fall to rebel control. A bomb kills the defence minister, his deputy, the intelligence chief, and an aid to the Vice President. For a while it looks like the capital may fall to the rebels, but the government redeploys a huge number of troops from other areas of the country and manages to suppress the uprising. There are unconfirmed reports that President Assad may have fled to the coastal city of Lattakia as rebel forces came within miles of his presidential palace. However, the government's redeployment of troops left other areas of the country unguarded, and the Damascus uprising inspired another one in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a cornerstone of its industrial and commercial economy. All of the border crossings with Iraq and Turkey are captured by rebel forces. Many of them are swiftly retaken, but this is only good for propaganda value as the land surrounding them remains under rebel control. There are still pockets of violence in Damascus, but most of the urban fighting right now is in Aleppo. Various other areas of the country remain under rebel control, and it's unclear how strong Assad's army is after the Battle of Damascus - does he still have enough troops to hold the whole country? He clearly now has to keep a large number of them in the capital, or else it may rise up again and present the biggest threat to his power. Hilary Clinton [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18973719]reckons[/url] the rebels are making so much progress that they're close to creating a 'safe haven' in the country where Assad's troops can't effectively attack them. Hope I didn't forget anything too important. It [I]looks[/I] like I'm biased towards events that happened in the past few months, but no. Until this year basically nothing happened, it was just rebels kicking off here and there and being bombed to shit by the army.[/QUOTE] Not to forget Syria's recent threat to use chemical weapons in the event of western intervention.

Years later we will look back at this and realize a big mistake was made, and it will be too late to fix it.