Rania Khalek On Aleppo And Western Media’s Whitewashing Of Rebels

Rania Khalek breaks down media coverage, especially how Western media outlets no longer report the rebel groups in Aleppo are al Qaida-style groups the West has backed.

Kevin Gosztola
By Kevin Gosztola
A Free Syrian Army fighter holds his weapon as he prepares himself for advance, close to a military base, near Azaz, Syria, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. The gains by rebel forces came as the European Union denounced the Syrian conflict, which activists said had killed more than 40,000 people. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

Published in partnership with Shadowproof. The following is from this week’s “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast. One of the show’s hosts, Rania Khalek, recently returned from a trip to Lebanon. She traveled to Syria twice and spent time producing journalism on the crisis and war in Syria. In response to events in Aleppo over the past days, Khalek

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Militants In Aleppo ‘Make A Fortune’ Selling Humanitarian Aid To Locals

According to an embedded journalist, the UN and its human right agencies failed to maintain humanitarian aid supplies to Aleppo residents.

Sputnik News
By Sputnik News
A Syrian boy displaced with his family from eastern Aleppo holds a sandwich and bread bag in the village of Jibreen south of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Military correspondent Kamel Saker told Sputnik Arabic about the humanitarian situation in liberated Aleppo and efforts by the Syrian Army to help people. "I’ve been in Aleppo for several days and I’ve seen how the military, political and humanitarian situation in the city evolved. Yesterday, I visited four districts freed of terrorists. The

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Syrians Celebrate Near Total Liberation Of Aleppo

“The total liberation of the city of Aleppo may soon happen,” an army source said.

teleSUR
By teleSUR
ASyrian soldier carries a wounded woman in eastern Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Syria's military said Monday it has regained control of 98 percent of eastern Aleppo, as government forces close in the last remaining sliver of a rebel enclave packed with fighters as well as tens of thousands of civilians. (SANA via AP)

The Syrian army said it has liberated 99 percent of the eastern half of the city of Aleppo, causing residents to fill the streets in celebration. The Syrian army and its allies are in the "last moments before declaring victory" in Aleppo, a Syrian military source said, after rebel defenses collapsed Monday, leaving insurgents in a tiny, heavily

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Syria Halts East Aleppo Offensive To Evacuate Civilians

The US and other Western nations have been demanding an unconditional ceasefire for days, with an eye toward preventing the rebels’ outright loss.

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz
In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2016 photo, a Syrian girl pushes a cart loaded with cooking gas canisters, in Aleppo, Syria. A rebel defeat in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial center, is likely to reverberate across the war-torn country, where opposition forces continue to hold out in smaller, more disconnected areas. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced the suspension of Syrian military operations in eastern Aleppo, saying that the focus is being shifted to a major evacuation operation to get civilians out of the remaining combat areas. Lavrov said they expect about 8,000 civilians to keep going through a designated evacuation area, while an

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Assad Pardons Nearly 500 Militants As The Liberation Of Aleppo Nears

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad chose to turn the other cheek by pardoning 484 local militants who recently surrendered.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Residents fleeing rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo into the Sheikh Maqsoud area, Syria. (The Rumaf via AP)

Aleppo, once Syria’s most populous city, has been at the center of the Syrian conflict for months as Syrian government forces, with Russian support, have fought to reclaim the city from US-backed militants as well as Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. After months of heavy fighting on both sides, and international repercussions for some involved

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In Aleppo, US and Saudi-Backed Rebels Targeted ‘Every Syrian’

‘We were living in security and peace. These areas are being targeted, they want to force us to leave. Every Syrian is being targeted,’ one Syrian religious leader told a delegation of reporters who visited Aleppo earlier this month.

Eva Bartlett
By Eva Bartlett
On Oct. 20 and again on Nov. 4, the Syrian government and Russia opened eight humanitarian corridors established for civilians and militants who wished to flee terrorist-held areas of eastern Aleppo, including militants who wished to surrender their weapons under amnesty. However, no one left on Nov. 4. Many residents within eastern Aleppo have said they are being held hostage and used as human shields by terrorists who shoot upon people attempting to leave through the humanitarian corridors. [Photo by Eva Bartlett, Nov. 4, 2016]

ALEPPO, Syria -- In early November, Fares Shehabi, a member of the Syrian parliament from Aleppo, organized a trip to Aleppo for 13 Western journalists, including myself, with security provided by forces in the Syrian Arab Army. While I had traveled to Aleppo independently as recently as July and August, for many others in the delegation, it was

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