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[miljan]

So ISIS is on the green team?  I'm pretty ignorant without the legends thing telling me what is what.

Right side is ISIS (they are the black/dark color, but they attacked from that white part of the map), left side are "normal rebels". They manage to cut out the supply line with combined effort yesterday. Yellow (top left and right) are kurd coalition.

[Helgoland]

I have a new favorite twitter account.

[Loud Whispers]

I have a new favorite twitter account.

I can't tell who's shilling who anymore

[Erkki]

Team Black\Green now has its own special operations team: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/02/16/tip-of-the-spear-meet-isis-special-operations-unit-katibat-al-battar/

I wonder if they're any better than FSA's A-Team. 

[miljan]

The untold story of the siege of two small Shia villages - and how the world turned a blind eye
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/nubl-zahra-a6889921.html

Not sure did i post this here as its some what old news:
SYRIAN OVERTHROW PLANNED BY UNITED STATES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6L_HSbv728

Joint Statement of the United States and the Russian Federation, as Co-Chairs of the ISSG, on Cessation of Hostilities in Syria
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/253115.htm

Iraq begins construction on Baghdad wall
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/iraq-baghdad-wall-deepens-sectarian-division.html#

[Loud Whispers]

The untold story of the siege of two small Shia villages - and how the world turned a blind eye
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/nubl-zahra-a6889921.html

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://i.imgur.com/jm1cJk7.png
Hezbollah starving out Madaya for the Assad regime on the orders of Iran. What a funny chain of command. At any rate the Shiites will not let up on Madaya unless the Shiite villages of Foua and Kefraya are given relief, as they have been under siege by rebel forces even longer than Madaya has been by government forces. This is somewhat harder to do as Foua and Kefraya are also besieged by Al-Nusra front. Snipers, minefields, artillery; the snow has wiped out the grass that the besieged were reduced to eating. Also notable is the government controlled city of Deir al-Zour which is besieged by ISIS. Government and military officials there receive basic supplies through its airport, but the citizens themselves are faring quite badly. Surprised they're still holding out. Some deals have been made to evacuate hundreds from both rebel and government besieged towns, but its hundreds of people when hundreds of thousands are besieged.
Paraphrased from this.

Syrian army and allies breaks rebel siege of Shi'ite towns

The Syrian army and its allies have broken a three-year rebel siege of two Shi’ite towns in northwest Syria, government and rebel groups said on Wednesday, cutting off a main insurgent route to nearby Turkey.

The two towns of Nubul and Zahraa, with an estimated 60,000 population, are connected to the border by areas under the control of Kurdish militias that provided them some access.

Al Manar, television channel of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, joined Syria's army and state media in reporting the breakthrough, which it said came after the army moved in from towns secured in a recent offensive in northern Aleppo province.

A Levant Front rebel said the siege was broken "after three days of legendary resistance by the revolutionaries facing the Russian military machine, an after more than 500 raids by Russian air planes".

Well I was right, all the Syrians needed was air support, not the West trying to bomb them, for them to utterly destroy ISIS.

"Ending the siege means the supply route to terrorists from Turkey to Aleppo has been severed," a Syrian military source said.

Syria's state-run news channel Al-Ikhbariyah quoted Nubul mayor Ali Balawi as saying the siege by mainly Islamist rebels was "cruel and caused much hardship", with severe shortages of humanitarian goods. The only route that brought some food and essential goods came from Afrin to the north of the town.

LW turns no blind eyes, damn straight.
Which is ironic because my actual eyesight is lousy.

Iraq begins construction on Baghdad wall
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/iraq-baghdad-wall-deepens-sectarian-division.html#

Interesting that everyone is worried about fortifications dividing their country, the Sunni fear the Bagdhad wall is for a Shiite annexation, the Shiite and Sunni fear the Kurdish trench is for a Kurdish annexation

[redwallzyl]

its Egypt but ill put it here:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/23/467800713/egypts-military-says-toddlers-life-sentence-was-case-of-mistaken-identity

*slow clap*

[Baffler]

its Egypt but ill put it here:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/23/467800713/egypts-military-says-toddlers-life-sentence-was-case-of-mistaken-identity

*slow clap*

That's just ridiculous, but at least they've admitted their mistake. Also...

In Egypt, a life sentence is understood as 25 years and mass trials like this one are common.

a life sentence is understood as 25 years.

Something doesn't add up here.

[Vilanat]

I guess they had a life sentence at the beginning, then changed the law for a 25 years maximum but kept the term, probably both for convenience and deterrence.

[Zangi]

Sure, 25 years is basically someone life, if you assume that they go in around 20-25 years of age, they'll come out in the late 40s-50s and ya know... old.  Combine that with probably poor diet/health care and hey, maybe they will live that long.

[Sheb]

Yeah, we have something similar in Belgium, where "life sentece" actually means 30 years.

[smjjames]

Not sure did i post this here as its some what old news:
SYRIAN OVERTHROW PLANNED BY UNITED STATES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6L_HSbv728

Pretty sure you didn't post that video, but you did go on about stuff found in wikileaks a ways back that showed (according to you) that the CIA was planning on overthrowing Syria or something.

It's no secret that we want Assad out and theres probably a couple contingency plans laying around since the government does that for lots of things.

Iraq begins construction on Baghdad wall
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/iraq-baghdad-wall-deepens-sectarian-division.html#

Interesting that everyone is worried about fortifications dividing their country, the Sunni fear the Bagdhad wall is for a Shiite annexation, the Shiite and Sunni fear the Kurdish trench is for a Kurdish annexation

What Kurdish trench?

[Loud Whispers]

Iraq begins construction on Baghdad wall
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/iraq-baghdad-wall-deepens-sectarian-division.html#

Interesting that everyone is worried about fortifications dividing their country, the Sunni fear the Bagdhad wall is for a Shiite annexation, the Shiite and Sunni fear the Kurdish trench is for a Kurdish annexation

What Kurdish trench?

Iraqi Kurds dug a 1,000 KM trench around the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq to make for safer patrols / border control / suicide bomber deterrence. When Turkmen and Bagdhad noticed the sudden appearance of a 1,000 KM trench surrounding Kurdistan they both got alarmed and suspected it is the first sign before total balkanization (it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that after the Kurds dug their trench the Bagdhadis started theirs)

[smjjames]

Not sure why the Sunnis and Shiias would think the trench is for annexation when it's just Kurdistan area. Though there probably are some spots with a mixture of groups that might get split off, but still.

Or maybe they are confusing annexation from seccession.

[Loud Whispers]

Not sure why the Sunnis and Shiias would think the trench is for annexation when it's just Kurdistan area.

It is precisely because it is just the Kurdistan area that they think it is for annexation

Though there probably are some spots with a mixture of groups that might get split off, but still.
Or maybe they are confusing annexation from seccession.

It would perhaps just be secession, but annexation into the Rojava would be more likely. I think they're using it in definition of internal factions annexing areas for themselves, such as the otherwise impossible situation of Baghdad annexing Baghdad