ON Monday the US launched air strikes on the Libyan city of Sirte against ISIL, at the request of one of the current Libyan governments, the Unity government that the US, UK and France are currently backing.
‘At the request of the Libyan Government of National Accord, the United States military conducted precision air strikes against ISIL targets in Sirte, Libya . . .’ Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. The US strikes on Sirte ‘will continue’, he added.
There are already French and British special forces deployed in Libya. There are already UK and US naval units off the Libyan coast. Clearly, a new imperialist war is now being prepared in North Africa where there are already many thousands of French troops. This war will be opposed by the Libyan and all North African people, and will inevitably lead to more terrorist attacks inside Europe – as European governments are well aware.
Meanwhile in Syria, the Islamists reacted to the Syrian-Russian government attempt to create a ceasefire – to bring aid to the starving citizens of Aleppo, and to provide four safe routes out of the city for civilians and for armed insurgents who wanted to surrender – by launching a fierce, well prepared and well armed assault on the city.
Russian Defence Minister Rudskoy reported that the Syrian army, backed by Russian warplanes, thwarted this attack by about 5,000 terrorists who were spearheaded by suicide bombers in fuel tankers. He added that the Sunday onslaught was halted on the Monday after the killing of more than 800 terrorists, the destruction of 14 of their tanks, and 10 tankers plus more than 60 vehicles loaded with arms and ammunition.
Rudskoy pointed out that ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and other factions affiliated to them from the so-called US-backed ‘moderate opposition’ are seeking to continue their attacks against Syrian troops in Aleppo. The ‘moderates’ on Monday shot down a Russian transport helipcopter over Idlib province, which was returning from delivering aid to Aleppo, killing the five Russians on board and mutilating their bodies on the ground.
In the face of this onslaught the US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday had the gall to tell Russia to ‘restrain’ itself and the Assad government, since the UN had decided that August 1st was the day on which the political transition to get rid of Assad would start.
Kerry said the Syrian government’s attacks had prevented the warring parties from meeting for negotiations on Monday – the target date set for the ‘regime’ and opposition forces to agree on the framework of a political transition.
‘The target date was set with the agreement that the parties were going to be able to go to the talks and begin immediately to negotiate,’ he said. He continued: ‘But because of the continued offensive operations of the Assad regime, the opposition found it impossible to sit in Geneva and actually negotiate without the cessation of hostilities.’
In fact, the opposition on August 1st was too busy assaulting Aleppo with forces trained and armed by the USA and Saudi Arabia, and shooting down Russian transport planes, to attend talks.
The plan, endorsed by the UN in December, called for the creation of a transitional body that should have taken place on August 1st, followed by a new constitution and elections by mid-2017.
Kerry concluded: ‘These are important days to determine whether or not Russia and the Assad regime are going to live up to the UN, live up to the cycle, or not. . . And the evidence thus far is very, very troubling to everybody.’ Syria is refusing to die!
In fact, Kerry is yesterday’s man. There is a new would-be Democratic President hovering in the wings, Mrs Clinton, who has already said that, if elected, she intends to get rid of Assad. She is infamous for her gloating over the murder of Gadaffi in 2011, saying: ‘We came, we saw, he died.’ US imperialism is gearing up for full-scale intervention into Libya and to step up the war in Syria after the November presidential election.
US and UK workers must be ready to give full support to Assad and to defend Syria and Libya against any new imperialist attacks with massive political and revolutionary strike actions to bring down the two major imperialist governments.
