US Holds Thousands of Syrian Refugees Hostage
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Syria is Washington’s war, launched by Obama in March 2011, escalated by Trump, no end of it in prospect.
It’s all about wanting pro-Western puppet rule replacing Syrian sovereign independence, isolating Iran, ahead of a similar scheme to topple its government.
That’s what Washington’s imperial agenda is all about, wanting all sovereign independent governments eliminated, seeking dominion over planet earth, its resources and populations – naked aggression its favored strategy.
Most Americans are mindless about what’s going on, major media suppressing what’s most important to report, featuring disinformation instead, acting as press agents for wealth, power and privilege, treating readers and viewers like mushrooms – well watered and in the dark.
Syria is in the eye of the storm, war in its eighth year, Washington using ISIS and other terrorists as imperial proxies, supplemented by US-led terror-bombing, responsible for massacring countless tens of thousands of Syrian civilians.
US forces operate in Syria illegally, occupying northern and southern territory on “18 bases in the northeastern and eastern provinces of” the country, according to Fars News.
Russian military analyst Vladimir Kozin said “the US is training terrorists in 19 military bases in Syria.”
Northern ones are in “Ein al-Arab (Kobani), Kharab Ashak, Manbij, Ein Issa, Raqqa and Tabaqa in Raqqa province, al-Shadadi, al-Houl, Tal Tamar, Tal Bidar and Romeilan in Hasaka province and al-Amr oilfield and al-Bahrah region in Deir Ezzur province,” according to the Arabic language al-Watan broadsheet.
The Pentagon’s illegal al-Tanf base was established in southern Syria near the country’s border with Iraq and Jordan.
Last summer, Kozin said “(t)he US intends to set up a military base equipped with state-of-the-art military hardware and systems” along the Syrian/Iraqi border.
Washington under Republicans and undemocratic Dems came to Syria and Iraq to stay, intending permanent occupation, using military bases in both countries as platforms for endless regional wars of aggression – aided by NATO, Israel, the Saudis, other Gulf states, Turkey and Jordan.
US forces illegally occupy a 55-square km area in southwestern Syria near the Iraqi/Jordanian border.
Russia’s General Staff called the area a staging ground for America’s war against the Syrian government, including from its al-Tanf base.
US special forces gave ISIS and other area terrorists safe haven at al-Tanf, training them for use as Pentagon proxy troops.
Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees are tapped inside the US-controlled Rukban refugee camp along the country’s border with Jordan – the area a Russian established deconfliction zone not observed by Washington and its terrorist foot soldiers.
Rukban refugees are held hostage by US forces and terrorists they support under dire humanitarian conditions, using the camp to recruit new fighters to combat government troops.
Aid is vitally needed, thousands of refugees risk starvation. On Saturday, US forces blocked a UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) humanitarian mission to deliver it. January was the last time aid was let into the Rukban camp.
Russian General Vladimir Savchencko slammed what happened on Saturday, saying:
“The inability of the US side to live up to its commitment to provide security in the 55-km area around its (al-Tanf) base stopped the convoy from going. UN officials said the delivery had been cancelled over lack of security guarantees.”
The Pentagon refused to provide it. Savchenko added that territory around al-Tanf is swarming with “large number(s) of armed and uncontrolled (US-backed jihadists) who can stage any manner of provocation(s).”
The area bordering Iraq and Jordan is “extremely dangerous” for aid workers. According to Syrian Network for Human Rights director Ahmad Qazem, at least 14 refugees in the Rukban camp died for lack of aid in the past few days alone.
Damascus explained that the 55-km territory US forces control is a haven for ISIS and other terrorist fighters, used as a platform for attacks on nearby areas.
According to Middle East Eye, “(i)n the past three years, tens of thousands of people have fled to the camp from Islamic State group-held parts of Syria…”
Last year, the UN estimated around 45,000 refugees in Rukban. Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups number them at about 60,000.
Unknown numbers of deaths likely resulted from protracted dire humanitarian conditions in the camp.
Without US security guarantees so far not forthcoming, aid cannot be delivered to the camp. Dangerous conditions prevent it.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
