Private, Baladi News
The city of Manbij is considered one of the largest and most important centers in the governorate of Aleppo and the largest city of its eastern countryside, in addition to forming the link between Aleppo and al-Raqqah. It's of paramount importance for Syrians and Arab as being the hometown of two of the most prominent Arab Poets "al-Buhturi and Omar Abu-Riche". However, today after being controlled by "ISIS" and the attempt of occupying it by "SDF" militia backed by international coalition which is committing genocides under the pretext of fighting terrorism, it has become a city which has sank into oblivion or the ruins of a city that once was here.
The city of Manbij comprises currently more than 300 thousand people, including the displaced from other cities, while the whole region of Manbij includes approximately one million people according to unofficial estimates.
Civilians are the Victims of Transboundary Projects in the North of Syria
The expansionist ambitions have blinded the conflicting parties in the city of Manbij and its surrounding in the eastern countryside of Aleppo to the life of thousands of civilians, as "SDF" militias, backed by international coalition aircrafts, are trying to seize control over the city that is under the control of "ISIS" since 2014.
"SDF" militias have been besieging the city for 48 days, cutting all the roads leading to it and didn't even open any humanitarian corridors for the civilians to leave, who are living tragic conditions amidst the lack of foodstuffs and medical cadres, let alone the bombardment on their houses by international coalition aircrafts along with "SDF" shells, "ISIS's" car bombs and minefields.
All of them are Criminals
SDF militias have committed a sin when they cut the humanitarian supplying roads from the besieged civilians in the city, in addition to the indiscriminate bombardment which has killed dozens of civilians who have nothing to do with "ISIS, where the international coalition has committed a crime in bombarding them instead of ISIS's members as most of those who died by the coalition's airstrikes are from civilians. The airstrikes of the coalition were indiscriminate and massive according to some activists from Manbij.
On the contrary, ISIS had another type of criminality, which represented in preventing the civilians from displacement before and during the besiegement. Its snipers had killed a number of civilians while escaping, in addition to preventing the families from going out through the checkpoints that have been spread on the exits of the city.
Abdul Moneim Eid, head of the media committee of the Revolution's Board of Trustees in Manbij, said in an interview with Baladi News: "We call on the international community and all the conflicting parties in Manbij to open humanitarian corridors, minister the wounded and give access to the medical supplies for the civilians in the city. There are more than 200 thousand civilians; some are from the young and the largest section is from the elderlies, women and children who were unable to get out earlier, and this is what appeared in the pictures of the massacre in the village of Tukhar, which claimed the lives of dozens of civilians".
Winning Supporters
"SDF" militia seeks to strengthen satisfaction and confidence of the international coalition through controlling of the city Manbij. Seizing control over the city means that "SDF" militia will entrench itself as the first ally of the international coalition and its striking force against "terrorism" in the region, and will gain the full support, which will enable it to achieve the dream of Kurdish militias, which are controlling it by the declaration of a Kurdish state in northern part of Syria.
Meanwhile, governments of the coalition countries seek to expel ISIS from the city, even at the expense of the civilians, in order to be presented before their people and voters as the conquerors of terrorism, for the sake of gaining their support. By doing this, they guarantee achieving their political and economic projects in the Middle East.
On the other hand, "ISIS" seeks to expand its control in the eastern region of Syria and the eastern countryside of Aleppo, as Manbij is considered its most important battles in northern part of Syria, so defeating "SDF" or depleting it to the maximum is the goal of ISIS in this battle.
Victims of the Projects
Civilians in Syria have always been the victims of the political projects for the conflicting parties. In Manbij, during the days of besiegement and bombardment, more than 700 civilians were killed and more than 250 names of them were documented, including more than 70 child and 50 women according to the activists' estimates. While the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has announced that the "documented" death toll of civilians reached 200 martyrs, including women and children since the beginning of the campaign.
International coalition aircrafts and "SDF" militia have stepped up their bombardment campaign during the past days by committing big massacres, the last of which was against the village of "al-Tukhar" on Tuesday, which claimed the lives of about 60 martyrs from civilians and wounded dozens.
Ibrahim al-Hajji, head of the Legal Office in the Political Authority in Manbij, said in a word with Baladi News: "Civilians are paying the price of the ongoing conflict in Manbij. I hold the International Community responsible in this campaign run by the international coalition and carried out by SDF. I particularly hold the United States responsible for the massacres it committed in Manbij, not to forget holding the Arab and Islamic countries responsible for not putting pressure on the coalition".
Media and Accusations
Everyone knows that the media coverage from inside the city of Manbij is weak due to the control of ISIS and its policy against the journalists, let alone the difficulty of accessing the region because of fear of all the parties. What the media is getting is limited to a personal communication among a number of journalists through the Turkish communication network that is covering the city due to its closeness to the borders, while the reaching news is only the bare minimum of what's happening there.
Regarding the weakness of media, al-Hajji said: "Media blackout is part of the brutal campaign the international coalition is waging. Activists and intellectuals of Manbij have reported what is happening in Manbij to the fullest and delivered it to the major media, which took a slight part of it and left the largest part undisclosed.
The most important thing in all this is the fear of most of the media from the accusation of supporting "ISIS", if published the results of the blockade, bombardment, and the crimes committed during the siege, either by "SDF" militia or the massacres committed by the international coalition aircrafts against civilians, despite of the continuous assertion on the suffering of civilians during the shelling and siege, which prompted a number of activists to launch a campaign on the social networking sites under the Hashtag: #Manbij_is_being_exterminated.
Under the Fires of Coalition, "SDF", and "ISIS"…Manbij Cries for Help
The Syrian Journalist, Ayman Muhammed, expressed his astonishment and admonition about how Syrians have shown more solidarity with al-Fallujah than Manbij.
Manbij, which is inhabited by more than 200 thousand civilians, is being subjected to a devastating war or a series of more ferocious wars.
Between the war of control being waged by "ISIS" against "SDF" and the bombardment by international coalition aircrafts, the strategic city is witnessing a catastrophic situation that it doesn't seem to end soon. The city located east of Aleppo is considered the main gate of having access into the governorate of al-Raqqah, the main stronghold of ISIS. Moreover, he Kurdish political leadership expressed openly its desire to annex the city of Manbij to its alleged federalism "Rojava". The land today -in Syria- is for who controls it, and not for its people, so after liberating Manbij at the hands of its people from the Syrian regime's authority following the breakout of the Syrian revolution, ISIS came to steal it from them and occupy it by the beginning of the year 2014, making it one of its most important strongholds in the province of Aleppo, then for "SDF" to start a new war against ISIS in order to occupy it under the pretext of liberating it from terrorism, and not to return it to the authority of its people, but to annex it to their petty country, backed by the strikes of the international coalition, led by the United States, and its political support.
With the intensification of the battles on the ground and the increase of airstrikes by international coalition which kill more civilians daily. Field activists have launched a new appeal directed to the world's honorable people from leaders, journalists, politicians, scientists and jurists, in which they said: "We, the displaced people of the city of Manbij and its countryside, call on the people of conscience and free word to stand with the oppressed peoples and the safety of civilians from the injustice and criminality along with saving the rest under this media blackout of the tragedy which more than 200 thousand besieged civilians are suffering from in the city of Manbij who are dying because of bombardment, sniping, or starvation".
The appeal added: "Manbij, the historical old city, is the oldest inhabited city in the world which is being annihilated at the hands of the international coalition under the pretext of fighting the terrorist ISIS. Manbij today is being surrounded by (ISIS and SDF) in order to exterminate the people and destroy it".
Activists have appealed the international community and the worlds' nobles to stand with the besieged civilians in Manbij and protect them, in addition to providing urgent humanitarian assistance and evacuating the civilians from it, pointing out that the city includes displaced people as much as the number of its population.
The author and writer Abdul Bassit Alyan, one of those who participated in launching this appeal, said: "We sent out this cry after we have despaired of the carelessness of the systems, organizations, and peoples from the tragedy of this era i.e. (Massacre of Manbij) to deliver the cries of the bereaved, children, the groans of the wounded, and the images of the dead bodies which their families were unable to bury.
Perhaps this cry can penetrate the walls of the media silence and move the consciences of the free journalists in the world, due to the media blackout on the atrocities committed by the criminal trinity (ISIS-Coalition- SDF) against the besieged people of the city of Manbij, which ISIS held as hostages and human shields. The coalition aircrafts bombard each building with a sniper, so they destroy the building on its people of innocent civilians, then SDF militias come and finish the mission by artillery shelling and sniping".
Concerning the current situation of the city, Alyan added: "the result was a massive destruction in the residential buildings in the western and southern neighborhoods and the spreading of the bodies of the martyrs in the streets, in addition to the displacement of the majority towards the city. He who can take the snipers aback and drag his brother's body and bury it in his backyard is very lucky".
The statement aims at delivering the voice of the innocent people of Manbij to every journalist with a conscience after imposing the media blackout on the crimes that are being committed against our people by different parties, according to Alyan.
The author warned that in case of ignoring these appeals, "the fate of our people will be a massive massacre that has rarely happened in the human history. The neighborhoods SDF militias are advancing into are turning into mounds of rubble and only a few who can evade sniping, mines, and bombardment can flee towards SDF-held areas to face displacement in the wilderness after the whole countryside has become unable to receive the increasing numbers of those people, while the majority are forced to displace into the city, which is already overcrowded. Therefore, the space is decreasing concurrently with the growing number of the displaced within the city, which makes the massacre inevitable if the fighting continued in this way".
Have the "International Coalition" Joined the Terrorist List?
When the Syrians first heard about the birth of what is called as "International Coalition" under the leadership of the United States for fighting terrorism in Syria, the Syrian people believed that the state of relief is near and that al-Assad will be referred to the International Criminal Court after having committed the most heinous crimes against the people, who have just called for change, but the international coalition responded to the Syrians with its devastating missiles that al-Assad is definitely not on the blacklist and that its terrorism is a "new terrorism" which doesn't pose a problem to the west.
The international coalition raised the slogan of "Fighting Terrorism". That slogan which turned into smart and devastating missiles, which caused more death to the Syrians and multiplied the number of casualties under the pretext of fighting "ISIS".
Successive massacres against the civilians committed reciprocally by the international coalition led by the US in more than one Syrian province with the regime and Russia.
The American coalition itself did not hesitate to form, arm, and support Kurdish mercenary militias and others to replace them in the areas evacuated by "ISIS" in order to bring about social rift in the Syrian fabric and in competition of the process of demographic change as well as creating animosity and revenge among the Syrian people which will turn to bloodshed over time.
The Syrian journalist, Ahmad Assi, said in an interview with Baladi News: "There is an international consensus by all the parties that have involved in the conflict in Syria to target civilians under arguments and different pretexts, the most of which is combating terrorism".
" Since the Coalition intervention in Syria till now, hundreds of civilians have been killed and even if the coalition has been truly and allegedly targeting terrorists, it should avoid targeting the civilians. Children and women are not involved in what's happening, but so far the targeting of villages and neighborhoods have been repeated, in addition to targeting the displacement camps by coalition aircrafts", he added.
Whereas the media activist, Majid Abdul Nur, one of the most prominent media activists in Aleppo and its countryside, sees that the international coalition has supported the formations that keep pace with its inclination: weapons and money, in exchange for making a change on the ground in favor of the big powers, pointing out that the violations of these formations are like the violations of the international coalition which the Syrians suffered from in all the areas where these formations were created.
The media activist believed that the international coalition dedicated through its actions and massacres terrorism in its ugliest forms, although it has claimed fighting it in Syria and justified its military presence for the sake of ending it, and talking about fighting terrorism does not simulates reality at all. He added: "if the international coalition has been actually founded to fight terrorism, we will have seen al-Assad today in the international Criminal Court, not on their media within the policy of re-marketing al-Assad".
The dissident lieutenant colonel, Muhammed Abu Bahjat, indicated through a telephone conversation with Baladi News, that the definition of terrorism to the west and US in particular, as well as fighting it match substantially with their goals and interests.
The lieutenant colonel went on saying: "we have seen this equation in Syria months ago. The international coalition led by the US has no intention in considering the violations and hideous crimes committed by the Syrian regime as terrorist. It's not out of love towards al-Assad or its regime, but because al-Assad is doing what they want and achieve their interests and goals in Syria".
In this context, the international coalition has committed horrific massacres during the last few hours in the countryside of Aleppo, during which it has killed more than 150 civilians, most of them are from women and children, after launching dozens of airstrikes against ISIS-held areas in Manbij, Jarablos and their suburbs.
The author and Syrian opposition member, Fawaz Tello", reported to Baladi News that what’s happening in Syria is not fighting terrorism, but feeding it with a counter-terrorism led by the American coalition, which is bombarding in the north to cover the Kurdish militias affiliated to Russia and Iran, just like Russia and Iran who are bombarding in other areas.
Tello considered feeding terrorism is another form of terrorism and represents in displacing the Arab Sunnis in Iraq and Syria under the pretext of ISIS with the help of ethnic and religious militias supported by the west. If they were serious about fighting terrorism, they should have worked with the Arab Sunnis in Syria and Iraq, according to Tello.
Meanwhile, the Syrian author and poet, Muhammed Darkoushi, said in an interview with Baladi News: "the dominating powers on the world from associations and secret organizations govern the world with democratic interfaces. These powers create the enemy and promote for it in the media in order to justify igniting the disputes in many areas of the world like Africa and the Middle East and to support the tyrants and despots therein for the sake of keeping these regions a market for the disposal of weapons.
The author considered that "al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Khomeini are purely western products aiming at creating tensions and spreading chaos, as nothing is better than investing in blood and that the international coalition doesn't aim at fighting terrorism, because who wants to fight terrorism, does fight its reasons, including social and political injustice which is being practiced by people like Bashar al-Assad against the Syrian people and Israel against the Palestinians."
The author went on saying: " "The international coalition doesn't want to fight terrorism, because who wants that does not support the sectarian militias of People's Mobilization in order to create a historical animosity between the Sunnis and Shiites. The objective of the international coalition is spreading the Iraqi experience (sectarian infighting) to the whole region in order to create sectarian, ethnic and religious cantons in which Israel is the strongest".