Massacre in Raqqa

July 21,2017 by Stephen Lendma 

(stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)

Defenseless civilians in Raqqa are being massacred daily by US terror-bombing.

According to the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria “intensification of air strikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in a staggering loss of civilian li(ves), but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced.”

Tens of thousands of civilians still in the city “fac(e) extreme danger (from) excessive airstrikes.” A humanitarian crisis grips the area. Individuals able to flee have limited or no access to food, water, medical treatment and other life’s essentials.

According to Doctors Without Borders’ northern Syria emergency coordinator Puk Leenders, aid supplies are “very, very limited, and the needs of the population are very high.”

Food delivered by the UN World Food Program is woefully inadequate to feed around 70,000 residents still in the city.

Raqqa is being silently slaughtered. Defense Secretary “Mad Dog” Mattis said “annihilation tactics” are being used – without explaining civilians are being massacred daily.

He lied claiming US forces are “do(ing) everything humanly possible consistent with military necessity, taking many chances to avoid civilian casualties at all costs.”

Terror munitions are being used in residential areas, including white phosphorous, an incendiary weapon capable of burning flesh to the bone on contact.

On July 20, AMN News said “(c)ivilians described the ‘massacres’ in the villages surrounding Raqqa as they arrived in Hama on Thursday, having fled the city and its surrounding countryside.”

“One man recounted how he had travelled form Raqqa where nothing was left save for ‘destruction by the Coalition and ISIS…’ ”

“Houses, families, children, women, all were hit by the random strikes,” he said.

Another civilian said “(t)here is a massacre at every village. There is no exception for that. Massacres took place in all of them.”

US terror-bombing raped and destroyed Mosul. Now it’s Raqqa’s turn. The city and countryside are being systematically annihilated, thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of civilians massacred in cold blood.

Most US-supported ISIS fighters were redeployed elsewhere in Syria. According to a Raqqa refugee, “streets are full of dead bodies. (S)chools were targeted…bridges and mosques.”

Civilian corpses “are lying in…streets.” Raqqa is an open-air graveyard. “Dogs (are) eating (dead) bodies.”

Civilians escaping the carnage blame US terror-bombing for what’s happening. One eyewitness said there’s “(n)othing…left in Raqqa except…destruction.”

“(M)assacres are everywhere.” City residents lost everything – their houses, possessions, spouses, children, everything because of indiscriminate terror-bombing.

Media scoundrels ignore the carnage, pretending it’s humanitarian liberation – countless thousands of civilians liberated from their lives.

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Massacre in Raqqa