Why Are Syrian Pilots Bombing Civilian Targets

A Syrian Air Force Pilot Explains Why He Bombed Civilians -- Max Fisher, L.A. Times

Since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces began massacring civilians more than a year ago, a baffling question has hung over the conflict: How do they bring themselves to do it? There is probably no single answer. Some observers have suggested that members of Assad’s Alawite minority sect fear a mass revenge if they lose, for example. But one possibility may be that some rank-and-file Syrians don’t believe they’re killing civilians at all.

Syrian Air Force Capt. Roni Ibrahim’s MiG went down just outside the rebel-held northern Syrian town of al-Bab, where he’d released his bombs over the already-battered civilian neighborhoods as ordered. Rebels captured him and later brought him, black-eyed and terrified, to Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, who asked the obvious question in the video embedded above: Why did you do it?

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My Comment: The Syrian rebels are probably right .... this Syrian pilot knew what he was doing, and his claims of just following orders sound hollow.