The battle for Aleppo

There was, no doubt, an Islamic component (of some sort) in the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey a few days back.  After all, the assassin did yell Allahu akbar! (“God is most great!”).  But this cry is not uncommon at crisis points or moments of exultation.  The relief first officer of the Egyptair flight that crashed into the Atlantic back in 1999, for example, also cried Allahu akbar! just before the aircraft slammed into the sea, killing all aboard.  Some commentators in the United States concluded from that and other facts that he had deliberately brought the plane down.  However, as Egypt’s then-ambassador to Washington DC (whom I knew, by the way, and found very impressive) pointed out in response, a devout Muslim very likely would shout Allahu akbar! as his or her last words when it became clear that death was unavoidably imminent.

But the shooter in Ankara, Mevlut Mert Altintas, also shouted “Do not forget Aleppo!” after he murdered Andrey Karlov.  This suggests that he was almost certainly motivated, in whole or in part, by secular reasons.  And they’re not hard to grasp:  Russian and Syrian forces have been absolutely pounding Aleppo in a bid to drive out rebels against Bashar al-Asad’s rule.  They’ve been ruthless, killing many civilians in the process — and, notably, they’ve been concentrating their forces against President al-Asad’s more moderate opponents rather than against ISIS (which quietly retook the ancient city of Palmyra just days ago).

Take a look at these photos:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/13/middleeast/gallery/battle-for-aleppo/index.html

If you were from Aleppo, or had family there, you might be a tiny bit upset, too.