What is really going on in Aleppo? I've watched a selection of news channels, Al Jazheera, RT etc. But all are giving conflicting views!

Whoever's telling the truth, it looks like an awful place to be right now.

Conflicting views depending on which side they are on.

What is happening is that Assad is taking back control.

I clicked onto Politics (after GD) to see if there was a thread addressing that very question.

I really am perplexed about what is going on there. Why are civilans being killed by pro-government forces?

The only thing I can say about the warring factions in Syria is that it is a waste of time trying to identify the "good guys". Basically, there aren't any.

It's a sh1t storm of a mess, and no-one comes out of it with any credit.

Western governments supported rebels attacking the Syrian government, who were trying to stop ISIS, so we were, in effect, supporting ISIS by supporting people fighting people who were fighting ISIS. Meanwhile, the rebels were using civilians as human shields (using the same terminology the west uses for the same thing happening in Mosul), and the Russians and Syrians were attacking the rebels and killing civilians (just like we did in Mosul). Meanwhile Turkey is attacking the Kurds who are attacking ISIS, who are (were?) shipping their oil through Turkey. Meanwhile, ISIS is strengthening its position in Palmyra because the Syrian army is spending time getting rid of the rebels.

This pretty much!

Is Assad any better than IS?

So all these people on twitter saying things like"You are not alone, we can help you" #Aleppo. They are wrong we really can't do anything at all!

Simple answer. Wars tend not to be very civil for civilians trapped by the fighting. Longer answer-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EUXV60tz1Q

Views from allegedly SAA fighting inside Aleppo against Syrian government forces. And shows part of a Saudi uniform. But blazing away with heavy machine guns, mortars, tanks etc inevitably results in casualties.. Especially when the 'moderate terrorists' prevented civilians from leaving their turf.

But hopefully it'll end soon, then there's going to be a lot of reconstruction work needed.

Only in the sense that he's no danger to us which ISIS are

Assad probably isn't going to be planting bombs in Paris nightclubs

Yes but he's fighting "the rebels" and rebels are always good right? well they are in BBC and western media land.

So out of the various groups Assad would be the better to reign?

Not really, you have ISIS, Al Nusra, Al qaeda etc,

That would probably be best for us in Europe

It's going to be crap for Syrians whoever wins

True. All these reports of civilians being rounded up and shot. How true do we think they are?

Probably true. It's what happens in war. To the victor, the spoils and all that.

What about Putin, he's not adverse to murdering folk in the West.

Sadly, Syria itself has always been a mess of religions, factions, warlords, gangsters, refugees and others , presided over by an autocratic ruling class. Best to keep out and leave it to the locals. The Russians will come to regret their involvement in due course, I expect.

Of all the times for Western intervention, this would be one of them. Launch a full scale peace keeping mission in Aleppo and keep Assad's forces from exterminating the civilian population.

Trump would go up in my estimations if he called for that. Let America and NATO call Russia's bluff and at the same time save innocent civilians.

Western media and governments also seem to think that the rebels are civilians.

Here's the UN statement

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/P...21022&LangID=E

The important bit is the reports aren't verified so no-one actually knows what happened.

BIB 1 we shouldn't get involved, plus how do you differentiate civilians from rebels?

BIB 2 Exactly! That's how they hide!

The perfect recipe for disaster. Western support for the rebels has caused most of the killing. You seem to be OK with the rebels and ISIS killing civilians, but not Assad's forces. Best for the west to keep its nose out or we'll have another Libya on our hands.

Assad was killing civilians long before the civil war actually started.

The only way of ending this is for peace keeping troops to be brought in under the UN. Allied to that a judicial committee to look into the claims of civilians being murdered and a gradual move to a democratic government alongside an independent judiciary, plus the unarming of the various rebel groups.

Normally I would say that any peace keeping troops should be from the region - except some of the rebel groups are themselves backed by other countries.

Trouble is it will not happen. Bashir is not going to give way to a democratically elected government and Russia is not going to support it because they want a pro-Russian government in Syria. That is going to keep any plan stuck in the quagmire of UN politics. the US is not going to put any of it's troops on the ground since it is still haunted by Iraq, not that Russia would support it.

The ISIS backed groups have no interest either in some rapprochement. .

But there's more to what's going on in Aleppo than civilians being "in the way". I've read of pro-Assad soldiers actually going into homes and shooting people dead. That's what I find most troublesome.