44 killed by bomb blasts in Syria, ISIS claims responsibility

July 27, 2016 • 9:15 am

This morning a largely Kurdish town in northern Syria has been attacked by two bombs, with ISIS claiming responsibility.  As the Guardian reports:

Media reports said a truck loaded with explosives had blown up on the western edge of the town of Qamishli, followed by an explosives-packed motorcycle a few minutes later in the same area. The blasts caused massive damage in the area and rescue teams were working to recover victims from under the rubble, the Sana news agency said.

Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mainly controlled by Kurds but Syrian government forces are present and control the town’s airport.

. . . Isis said it had carried out the attack in Qamishli, describing it as a truck bombing that had struck a complex of Kurdish offices. The extremist group has carried out several bombings in Kurdish areas in Syria in the past.

The predominantly Kurdish, US-backed Syria Democratic Forces have been the main force fighting Isis in northern Syria, capturing significant territory from the extremists over the past two years.

Wednesday’s explosion came as US-backed Kurdish forces pressed ahead with their offensive to take the Isis-held town of Manbij, also in northern Syria but to the east of Qamishli.

We can’t stop this kind of terrorism in the West, and are even more impotent in the Middle East. I suppose, if you were a mendacious apologist like C. J. W*rl*m*n or Glenn Greenwald, you could blame this on U.S.’s backing the Kurds. But that won’t wash because this is the deliberate targeting of civilians, which can’t possibly be justified by any form of oppression or colonialism.

25 thoughts on “44 killed by bomb blasts in Syria, ISIS claims responsibility”

  1. These mass casualty murders of civilians, out of the blue or on the front battle lines, are unbearably painful to learn about, time after time. The pain reminds me of “a disturbance in The Force”, from Star Wars, as though I can imagine and almost physically feel the fear and screams of the dead as they died and the injured as they continue to fight for life.

    1. I agree it’s horrible to hear these reports which happen on a daily basis. The only relief I can give myself is to accept that we are at war, and by comparison to other wars, the death toll is really very small. Not good, just small. It may be necessary to live through this period of instability and keep an eye on the future when this will be reported only in history books.

    2. I think that’s called Empathy, Connecting it with Star Wars concept of the “Force” I like,sort of a Psychic Empathy. I feel it too, as do all decent rational folks. On the other hand, sociopath’s don’t. Studies have shown they lack the ability to feel empathy and many even enjoy being the source of pain suffering and death, or at least applaud in the dark spaces of their hearts. In our current era the world seems to be producing an epidemic of sociopaths.

          1. Perhaps, and one might even argue (as I understand some researchers in psychology now do) that there are good as well as bad sociopaths/psychopaths, as the list seems to include many top CEOs, some of whom actually — in balance, mind you — do well for society as a whole. I’m no expert in the area, but I do appreciate the concept of net balance effect.

          2. P.S. The Democratic Convention seems to have gone well: Stocks went down. I hope that means Wall Street sees Hilary as the next President and expects she will clean out some corruption and bad behavior in that sector, shaking things up a bit. In balance, I think Wall Street would be reacting even worse with an emotion-guided and litigious Trump presidency, as that would be too unpredictable even for gamblers.

  2. They always find a way to blame it on colonialism. Young Muslim European men travel to Syria to murder and rape Yazidi girls because their feelings were really hurt when they found out what happened in the crusades!
    The murderer of the French priest had tried to go to Syria and has been detained: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/teenager-who-murdered-french-priest-was-like-a-ticking-time-bomb

    Once released from prison he committed his crime. His mother is a Professor.

    2. Colonialism? Of course it can be rightly blamed on colonialism. The Muslim Ottoman Empire, albeit relatively tolerant of other faiths, dominated the region for centuries.

  3. Greenwald and Werleman are totally narcissistic. Turkey will be pleased about this. And meanwhile Erdogan is detaining and torturing thousands of troops. It appears another Islamist, Gulen is probably behind the failed coup.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/detainees-beaten-tortured-and-raped-after-failed-turkey-coup-amnesty-says-a7154091.html

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36843180

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkeys-president-erdogan-uses-emergency-powers-to-close-around-two-thousand-gulen-connected-a7152471.html

    1. It is far more likely Erdogan, himself, planned the coup as a false flag operation, designed to create great political theater, then fail, all while making sure he and his henchmen went unharmed. It gave him the opportunity to assess and amplify loyalty among the Turkish population, and it gives him continuing cover to go after the thousands upon thousands he sees as potential enemies.

      Gulen was Erdogan’s supporter, until Erdogan started showing his true colors. Gulen was smart enough to get out of there, and I bet he would have been smart enough to avoid mounting such a quickly failed coup, as well, especially with all the coup-experience Turkey’s senior and long term military members actually have.

  4. ISIS wants CEUs for everything these days.
    I suppose they need to renew professional licensure status for equal-opportunity barbarism.

  5. How would Hari Seldon solve this? Assess which members of our civilization are most likely to help undermine fundamentalism that warrants violence. Muslims are mostly surrounded by Muslims. There is, however not sufficient reform among them to make a viable change among the extremists.

    Solution: Massive reform
    Timeframe: Two to three generations

    Could reform be reversible? Does a baby pig squeal? Alas.

    1. There would be massive resistance to reform, as there is now against any kind of progressive reform or ideology seen as ‘Western’.

      Without a Deneel, the process would take centuries.

  6. I still think that going on about this every time is playing into ISIS’s dirty hands.

    Oh, I stubbed my toe this morning. The phone rang just afterwards and it was ISIS, claiming responsibility.

    1. I can sort of agree with you in that yes, ISIS wants a holy war…

      However, at the same time, sweeping it under the rug, pretending that Islam is *not* a problem, also aids Jihadis, when we shame people into accepting millions of undocumented migrants who will and do bring violence to the West.

    2. @John O’Neall, you might be onto something, there, with the stubbed toe example.

      If users of Faceb**k and Twi**er started filling their message spots with those sorts of ludicrously minimal physical traumas, blaming each on ISIS and making these go viral, these are what would come up, when ISIS googles itself. Imagine how ISIS would feel: belittled, frustrated, angry, and even suddenly outdated!

      I like it!

        1. I’m not involved in either, but hopefully others, here, will read this and make the idea go viral. Let’s just swamp ISIS in ridicule!

  7. I thought NATO was an organization established to protect Europe against people like Erdogan, not one that embraced them as allies.

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