U.S. Air Strikes in Syria

On the morning of September 23, 2014, the US and a coalition of Arab dictatorships started to bomb targets inside Syria.



Legal Basis
Domestically the Obama administration claims its strikes in Syria are covered by 2001 laws allowing the president to strike people involved in the September 11 attacks. Internationally, they represented to the UN Security Council a justification of legitimate self-defense. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power offered the explanation "'States must be able to defend themselves' when 'the government of the state where the threat is located is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territory for such attacks'"

It is unclear whether USA even attempted to get a UN authorization. Ms. Samantha Power,  US Ambassador to the UN, gave an interview to ABC on that matter, Obama needs no U.N. approval to order airstrikes in Syria.  USA may gotten some cold shoulder at UN from Russia   (which modeled its Ukraine activities on previous USA activities in Libya and Syria, and was unhappy with sanctions as follow-up),   However, it is not known that  UN resolution would fail; what is known is that there were Lavrov-Kerry contacts, and Putin conversation with Ban Ki Moon, shortly before  US-lead air strikes in Syria commenced. Drawback of not having UN authorization is that next time around, somebody else may try to do the same, and  possibly in less justified circumstances.

UN: This year speech of President Obama is different in content from the speech last year. But nevertheless, Russia will support United Nations Security Council resolution on terrorists and foreign mercenaries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Wednesday.

Before Ber Mahli
Early mishaps, fall 2014
 * U.S-led raids hit grain silos in Syria, kill workers: monitor – Reuters, Sep 29, 2014
 * ''The raid hit Kuniko gas plant, which feeds a power station in Homs that provides several provinces with electricity and powers oil fields generators, the Observatory said.

May 1, Sarrin or Birmahle
Reports came in from the SOHR and others of a US-led coalition airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Aleppo province. Reports vary, growing, from more than 20 to a widely-reported 52, from six families ABC news report mentions rebels also fired a rocket attack on civilians in a government-held area somewhere in Aleppo, perhaps to avenge the assassination of one of their commanders, "Badr Khaled Siraj, who is better known as Khaled Hayyani," SOHR's director Rami Abdelrahman said. This is troubling, coinciding with an air strike killing more civilians we know nothing about, at the same time. Consider, someone called these targets in. And Hayyani was known for - and criticized by the SOHR for - shelling civilian targets in government-held areas (example report, February). Hayyani is also referred to as the inventor of the "Hell Cannon" by pro-government sources (example report) The latest attack(s) could be an answer to the supposed elimination of a threat to government-secured civilians - that killing Hayyani won't stop the shelling, just cause more. It could be a sort of tribute to him.

ABC citing SOHR's Abdelrahman puts the coalition strike in "Birmahle." "Ein Arab: Srain" is the site where VDC records say 71 civilians were killed in coalition bombing, May 1. "Srain" probably means Sarrin on Wikimapia, due south of Ain Arab aka Kobane and just behind the Aleppo border. Birmahle might refer to the town just south of that, Malhah (Bir-Malhah). Both are on the Euphrates river in Aleppo Province, as all reports say. VDC lists one identified man and 70 mostly unidentified people (70 "Adult male" should mean all sex categories left blank, unknown - this is the default - there should be women and children here) from nine families, some related, from six clans total. All VDC info is open to question.
 * Jumah al-Shawakh Family 1 (13)
 * Ali al-Shawakh Family (15)
 * Eid al-Sleibi Family (10)
 * Sufeian Family (4 listed, 5 implied)
 * Hussain Jumaa al-Sleibi Family (5)
 * Mustafa al-Muhammad Ali (9)
 * Mahmoud al-Hussain al-Sleibi Family (4)
 * Shawakh al-Haj Bakour Family (6)
 * Jalal al-Sleibi Family (6)

The government-reported attack killed 22 and injured 45 in a "government-held districts in the contested northern city of Aleppo" per this report, mentioning SOHR confirms at least 10 killed. ABC and other reports say the state media toll was 12 dead, 45 injured. The VDC lists no non-warplane shelling deaths in Aleppo so far in May: "regime" and coalition aerial bombing is all they report killing people. (month of April 3 to May 3 - to Aril 30 rocket and artillery shelling deaths are listed, most clearly blamed on the government, others just "shelling" - none blamed on rebels)

The Guardian reports the United States will look into the claims.
 * Major Curtis Kellogg, a spokesman for US Central Command, told the Associated Press there was no information to corroborate the Observatory’s claims. However, Kellogg said: “We take all allegations seriously and will look into them further.”


 * The US-led coalition earlier said its strikes near Kobani during that time destroyed seven Islamic State positions and one vehicle.


 * Later on Saturday, the US military said it had carried out 24 more strikes against Isis targets in Syria and Iraq.

In fact, considering the past reliability of SOHR and other activist-based reports about "regime" bombing attacks and other "regime" crimes that turned out to not be that, there is some cause for skepticism here. The evidence is what will make the actual truth of the matter more clear, as and if it becomes available.

The SOHR later adjusted the death toll upward to 64 civilians killed, including 50 women and children, in what it termed a "massacre," in a feature article on their website May 4. As speculated above, this was in "Ber Mahli village near the town of Seren in Aleppo," and there were 31 children killed. It says the attack came after the coalition got "information about a procession of IS vehicles in the village," and proclaims:


 * We in SOHR were shocked when we heard the denial of the U.S led coalition forces on this massacre, rather than starting a serious investigation to bring those responsible to justice and to compensate the survivors and the affected.

After

 * SOHR.com June 6 A family of 7, man and wife, 5 children, were all killed in another coalition strike in "the village of al- Dali located in east of the town of Serrin in northeast Aleppo." They cite multiple sources ("cross-cutting") but don't specify which ones. The SOHR says the total civilians killed in Syria by coalition strikes is now 148.

ThisWhiteHouse Definitions
"The bizarro dictionary of war employed by this White House"


 * Military adviser
 * ''According to the Obama administration, the 1600 “military advisers” that have steadily been flowing in Iraq fall outside this definition, despite the fact that “military advisers” can be: embedded with Iraqi troops; carry weapons; fire their weapons if fired upon; and call in airstrikes, without directly engaging the enemy. It is a definition rejected by virtually every military expert.
 * “Calling in airstrikes is just as much combat as firing a rifle at someone,” said John A. Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel who served in a tank battalion in Iraq and helped write the Army’s counterinsurgency field manual. “What that guy really is doing is painting a house with a laser designator that results in that house being vaporized.”
 * The American advisers are armed, and if they are shot at by the enemy, they are authorized to return fire. In a close combat advisory role in a city, experts said, the American troops would tell Iraqi commanders which house to hit, how much ammunition to use in an assault, and how to organize medical evacuation for their troops.


 * Civilian:
 * It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.


 * An “imminent” threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons will take place in the immediate future.
 * "To translate: “imminent” can mean a lot of things … including “not imminent” "
 * So when you hear the words “imminent attack”, “civilians”, militants” or “ground troops” from now on, be careful: if the government says they’re not misleading you, it might only be because they’ve secretly changed the definition of “misleading”.