SYRIA ON AMERICA’S ‘HIT LIST’ OF NATIONS

Syria's back in the news, hot on the heels of the fragile 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah announced on 27 November.

Turkish-backed rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Syria, made a lightning advance on the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo, capturing much of it within hours. HTS, and another Turkish-backed group, the Syrian National Army (SNA), aim to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad and establish strict Islamic rule in Syria.

But there could be more at play in the suddenly active anti-Assad campaign, as this video featuring retired senior US military officer Wesley Clark reveals. General Clark relates how he first found out about an early 2000s US hit list of places to be 'taken out.' Most, if not all, of the counties he names have since been on the receiving end of some heavy-duty US meddling. Syria is on that hit list.

Bashar al-Assad has been in the crosshairs of US imperialists and Israel, their allies in the region. The anti-Assad war first broke out in 2011, led by the Nusra Front, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Western media lent a cloak of acceptability to a hodgepodge of anti-Assad jihadist groups, often referring to them as ‘moderate rebels.’

Though this video is mainly in the context of the Iraq invasion, Syria gets a mention - as do some African countries.

Video credit: Democracy Now

Sources:

https://theconversation.com/what-is-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-and-how-did-the-islamist-group-evolve-into-a-key-player-in-syrias-civil-war-245017

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/12/1/syrian-rebels-seize-control-of-aleppo-city-in-a-lightning-offensive

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/02/nx-s1-5211873/hts-islamist-syria-aleppo-assad-hayat-tahrir-al-sham

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241129-syria-jihadists-allies-shell-aleppo-in-shock-offensive