US Coalition Bombing of Raqqa Comparable to the World War II Destruction of Dresden: Russian Defense Ministry
"Raqqa has repeated the fate of Dresden of 1945, which was erased in the British-American bombarding," spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov said
Combat aircraft of the US and the coalition bombarded Syrian Raqqa like Germany’s Dresden was destroyed during World War II. In the operation to liberate the city from terrorists of the Islamic State (IS, terrorist organization outlawed in Russia), thousands of Syrian civilians were killed, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry General-Major Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.
“Raqqa has repeated the fate of Dresden of 1945, which was erased in the British-American bombarding,” the general said.
Now, Washington, Paris and Berlin announce urgently they are allocating millions of dollars and euros for as-if restoration of peaceful life there, but in reality they want “to hide evidences of the barbarian bombing by the combat aircraft of the US and ‘coalition’, which buried in Raqqa’s ruins thousands civilians, whom they “liberated” from IS,” the spokesman said. Today, he continued, the West hurries to target the funding to Raqqa only, while earlier the US, France, Germany and the UK refused to send whatever humanitarian assistance to Syria.
“Over recent years, Russia has addressed the US and the European capitals asking to send humanitarian assistance to the Syrians suffering from the war,” he said. “We have put a list of settlements, where that assistance was most wanted – without dividing the Syrians into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Every time, from Washington, Berlin, Paris and London the answer was the same: we cannot and we shall not.”
The general noted “the bravura statements, made by representatives of the US administration about the ‘outstanding victory’ in defeating IS in Raqqa cause bewilderment.” The Defense Ministry’s representative spoke about the statement by the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, published on Friday, where he said “the liberation of Raqqa is a critical milestone in the global fight against ISIS.” Before that, the Pentagon said the US-led international coalition jointly with the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi governmental forces liberated more than 87% of Iraq and Syria.
“Washington’s imagination is that IS controlled in Syria only Raqqa – a provincial city, where about 200,000 lived before the war, and by beginning of the coalition’s five-months operation to liberate it – not more than 45,000,” he said.
“Compare: Deir ez-Zor with the vast suburbs by the Euphrates before the war had a population of more than 500,000, and it took the Syrian forces with support from the Russian Aerospace Force ten days to liberate all that territory,” he added.
According to the spokesman, Deir ez-Zor, unlike Raqqa ruined in the bombing, every day now welcomes thousands civilians who return to their homes to restore the peaceful life there.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported with support from the Russian Aerospace Force 87.4% of the Syrian territory was liberated from IS.
The Syrian Democratic Forces coalition announced at a news conference in Raqqa the city was liberated from IS militants on October 20. The offensive in Raqqa with support from the US and the coalition began on June 6.
Featured image is from Global Look Press.
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