Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

Cannibalistic War in Syria

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Cannibalistic War in Syria

Syrians burn amidst war and violence as militancy escalates. The self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) violates humanitarian law and spills the blood of men, women and children on the grounds of their racial and religious backgrounds. ISIL practices its radical ideology and pays no heed to international law. Life is highly cheap in Syria and the locals’ freedoms are curtailed on a large scale. No iota of mercy is shown to women and wounded soldiers. The pictures of war victims, who lay in the streams of blood, fill one with a strong sense of hatred.
The idea of “man is man’s wolf” comes true when the militant fighters reveal their megalomania and evil in the battle grounds. The ISIL insurgents behead the masses violently out of rage and discrimination. The fighters do not have basic knowledge of humanity and custom of war. The situation in the besieged, rebel-held neighborhoods of east Aleppo has “gone from terrible to terrifying to now barely survivable by human beings”, UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council during his monthly briefing. Civilians in rebel-held eastern Aleppo are expressing desperation over their survival as fighting between the government and the opposition carves deeper into their half of the city. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces intensified their push for control over eastern Aleppo. They have reportedly captured a third of the area in what residents describe as an unrelenting ground and air campaign. The city, which was once Syria’s largest, has been divided between government and opposition control since 2012. The UN reports that at least 250,000 civilians remain under siege in the eastern part of Aleppo. For months, they have faced severe shortages of basic supplies, including food, water and fuel, in addition to constant bombardment.
With fighting edging closer to their homes, many civilians have sought refuge in two main shelters, Jibreen and Mahalej, set up by the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) in the west of the city. “Local authorities and humanitarian organizations do everything possible to help but the conditions are very dire, as we are talking about some 20,000 people fleeing into these places,” the ICRC’s communication coordinator Pawel Krzysiek is cited as saying.
The protracted war in Syria inflicted countless casualties upon the civilians, mainly women and children who have nothing to do with the war. After all, the ethnic minority groups bear the brunt of the militancy on the basis of their race and beliefs. For instance, Yazidi women fall victim to sexual harassment of Al-Baghdadi’s fighters.
The Syrian freedom fighters resorted to armed conflict to protest against Asad’s regime and establish a democratic administration based on public election. The victory of Arab Spring was the only gleam of hope for Syrian people and prompted them to seek democracy through any possible means. They dreamed of utopian world where they could exercise their rights and liberty without any barriers. According to the public belief, the traditional type of kingdom, in which the throne was handed from father to the son, was over and it was time to embrace democracy so that all should have equal share and active role in the government – it is the very rights of a nation and legal demand.
To their unmitigated chagrin, their dreams did not come true and the tension led to the proxy war, in which the ISIL plays a highly active role in it. This war imposed irreparable loss to this country and painful sufferings upon the Syrian nation. The situation has been changed worse than Iraq as the state reacted strongly against the legal demand of the nation. In other words, the Arab Spring started and went on gloriously but finally came to a stalemate in Syria.
Approximately 400,000 Syrians have been killed in the conflict that dates back to a 2011 popular uprising against Assad’s regime, according to the UN. In addition, about five million have fled into neighboring countries over the years, while six million remain internally displaced. The UN has described the situation as the “biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time”.
It is believed that current wars will lead to the spread of terrorism since the terrorist networks along with political mastermind fish in the troubled waters. What if the warring parties win the battle in Syria? Will the Syrian nation establish a democratic administration? No way. It will fall in the grip of terrorism the same as Iraq or Afghanistan. The ISIL seeks its political interests there and that is why the fighters muddy the water. In case of the regime’s downfall, the ISIL will claim share in the country’s control and will resort to terrorist acts while being denied.
It is believed that the ISIL group operates as a terrorist network in Syria and has to be eradicated by the world. The first issue is that ISIL fighters are widely involved in anti-human crimes. Secondly, it is based on no legal basis and blackmails the world through carrying out suicide attacks not only in the Middle East but around the globe. In a nutshell, ISIL came out of Iraq and Syria’s tension to usher in ideological and religious wars, perhaps to fill the vacuum of Osama’s death or strengthen some warring parties which are moribund.

Hujjattullah Zia is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at zia_hujjat@yahoo.com

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