Tragedy in Aleppo continued

Last night (Tuesday) the Russians claimed that the fighting in Aleppo was over. Today it burst out again and the agony of the people of the city continued.

Very late tonight (Wednesday) rebels said a truce to allow evacuation of the city was back on again.

The United Nations said that raids by the Syrian government and its allies on an area "packed with civilians" most likely violated international law.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that

"While the reasons for the breakdown in the ceasefire are disputed, the resumption of extremely heavy bombardment by the Syrian government forces and their allies on an area packed with civilians is almost certainly a violation of international law and most likely constitutes war crimes."

I note that the disgusting rag calling itself the "Morning Star" has been condemned by people over a large part of the political spectrum,

including moderate Labour MPs and former Corbynistas like Owen Jones,

for a front page referring to the impending conquest of Aleppo by Syrian government forces as "liberation."

I don't often agree with Owen Jones but I do agree with his description of what is happening in Aleppo as not liberation, but slaughter by a murderous regime.

It will be interesting to see whether Labour's leader or shadow foreign secretary have anything to say about the Morning Star headline. This is what happened, according to the pro-Labour Daily Mirro newspaper, when a group of protestors led by Peter Tatchell asked Jeremy Corbyn to support aid drops in Syria.

I do not share the position of those are always against any Western military action. Those who take that position but also speak out when non-Western powers like Russia bomb women, children, schools and hospitals to atoms are entitled to at least a little respect for their consistency.

Those, however who oppose any Western military action and condemn anything Britain, NATO and the USA do, but never utter the tiniest squeak of protest at the actions of powers like Russia or sects like Hezbollah, no matter how many innocents they kill, deserve no respect at all.

This week the British electorate has had the chance to see who is in each of these categories.

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