In the village of Qalaat al-Madiq, in the northern Hama Province, the Syrian government and rebels from the Jaish al-Nasr completed a massive prisoner exchange, swapping some 112 people back and forth in a deal overseen by civilian negotiators.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the release, and while the exact split of who was released isn’t wholly clear, a large number of civilians were involved on both sides, with several children freed in the deal. Some of the children were reportedly born in detention.
Some of the detainees were said to have been held since 2011, and those civilians freed by the rebels were transferred to the coastal Latakia Province, a government-held territory. They included large numbers of people from the Alawite religious minority, which is widely targeted by the rebels.
It’s unclear where the civilians released by the government will be going, as the rebels in Hama don’t have a lot of territory, and the closest rebel area, the Idlib Province, is seeing growing internal violence between different rebel factions.
The Islamists are TERRORISTS. They are NOT “rebels”.
C’mon Mr Ditz,. Give it up, admit the truth and STOP CARRYING WATER FOR WAHABBI MURDERERS.
Terrorists can be rebels, and rebels can be terrorists. The two are not opposites. Terrorism is a means (attacks on civilian non-combatants for the purpose of creating terror pursuant to any goal) while rebellion is pursuant to a specific end/goal (overthrowing a government).
Failure to use your preferred nomenclature is not “CARRYING WATER FOR WAHABBI MURDERERS” even if you say it in all caps.
Gary’s point is valid. ‘Terrorists’ can be called ‘freedom fighters’ too but don’t try to tell us that choosing that term over the other doesn’t demonstrate loyalties.
Jason Ditz erred in his choice of the term ‘rebels’ but it may have just been carelessness.
And you Thomas, should just choose your side. By doing that, you wouldn’t be making the mistake of attacking people such as Gary who has shown good intentions in this instance.
Don,
I chose my side long ago. I side with peace. Neither the Obama regime nor the Trump regime, nor the Assad regime, nor any of the assorted rebels, are on the same side as I am so far as I can tell. They’re all violent creeps and I want nothing to do with any of them.
I know you chose your side long ago and fwiw, you chose the right side. For that reason you should be able to understand you don’t shoot off you mouth picking fights with Gary and what he said. From time to time, Jason Ditz needs correcting and that means you don’t have to stick up for him.
But it’s your style isn’t it Tom. You stuck up for Raimondo too and alienated others who condemned his foolishness, until you decided to finally get it figured out.
You need to understand that you are never going to find a compatible bedfellow in a libertarian. It’s always going to be a compromise against we who are on your side.
As far as I can tell, you could safely side with the Assad regime. After all, he’s Syria’s leader who is fighting US fomented revolution by means of terrorism. Unless you are one of those ex-marines who would choose to turn the other cheek?
Ditz was correct. The rebels are rebels. They may be terrorists too, but they are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, rebels. That’s just a fact.
I am a libertarian. I don’t side with any street gang. I don’t have any reason to believe Assad is necessarily the worst of them (although Amnesty is now saying he had 13,000 civilians secretly hanged), but I’m just not interested.
“a large number of civilians were involved on both sides”
NO, this is UNTRUE. The Islamists were combatants, while many of the terrorists prisoners were ordinary civilians. We have seen this sh*t before, yet our MSM pressitutues refuse to touch it.
Very good news; hearing that not all sides kill all the captured soldiers and other prisoners.