Morning Star.png No Foreign Help, No Massacre James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 19 January 2016 Syria's government blamed foreign supporters of extremist militants yesterday for Saturday's massacre of nearly 300 civilians. In letters to the UN secretary-general and the head of the security council, the Foreign Ministry charged that terrorist organisations still receive support from countries in the region and worldwide. This is despite the adoption last month of Security Council resolution 2254, which outlaws funding to terrorists, as part of the peace process. The letters pointed out that Saturday's attack by Islamic State (Isis) on the al-Bghailiye suburb of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour claimed the lives of more than 280 civilians, most of them women, children and elderly people. The extremists also kidnapped more than 400 civilians from the district and carried them off to other areas. The ministry pointed out that such atrocities could not occur without the funding, weapons and logistical support provided by the intelligence agencies of foreign states, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. It also condemned France's diplomatic rhetoric on the five-year civil war, accusing it of encouraging terrorists by "demonising the forces that are actually fighting terrorism." The letters called on the Security Council to enforce resolution 2254 against those states still aiding Isis and similar groups such as the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, the Army of Islam, the Army of Conquest and Ahrar al-Sham - the latter of which occupies the besieged town of Madaya. Isis claimed yesterday to have captured the Saiqa army camp and arms depots in the village of Ayash, north-west of the city, under cover of a heavy sandstorm that grounded Syrian and Russian jets. Meanwhile, shelling - apparently from northern Syria - hit a school in the Turkish city of Kilis, killing at least one person and injuring a child. Mayor Hasan Kara told TV reporters that mortars had hit the school, although other sources said artillery rockets were used. The Kilis provincial governor's office said that a school cleaner was killed and a girl needed hospital treatment. Kilis, north of the major Syrian city of Aleppo, is near areas controlled by the ragtag Free Syrian Army and Isis, as well as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b05a-Foreign-help-made-massacre-possib le#.Vp26zvl9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-b05a-Foreign-help-made-massacre-possibl e#.Vp26zvl9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
