Russia: Us-led coalition wiped Raqqa off face of earth
said, describing it as a “carbon copy of the German constitution”.
“If you look at the rest of democracies and certainly partners in the European Union, they wouldn’t accept a decision as such to be taken by a part of the country.”
He also argued that “many” images of police violence against protesters on referendum day were fake. The government itself apologized to injured demonstrators days after the vote, as a result of which 1,066 people required medical attention, according to the Catalan health department.
Catalan nationalists regard their region as a nation and state in its own right, a definition Spain does not accept.
Spain last saw a coup attempt on 23 February 1981 when soldiers and police stormed parliament, firing guns and shouting orders.
The rebellion was suppressed but came as a startling reminder of the country’s recent military dictatorship (1939-75) under Gen Francisco Franco. President Puigdemont has described the move to impose direct rule as the worst attack on Catalonia’s institutions since Franco, when the region lost its autonomy. Russia accused the Us-led coalition in Syria on Sunday of wiping the city of Raqqa “off the face of the earth” with carpet bombing in the same way the United States and Britain had bombed Germany’s Dresden in 1945.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it looked like the West was now rushing to provide financial aid to Raqqa to cover up evidence of its own crimes, Reuters reported.
Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said in a statement that around 200,000 people had lived in Raqqa before the conflict in Syria, but that not more than 45,000 people remained.
Us-backed militias in Syria declared victory in Raqqa, the de facto capital of Daesh, last week, raising flags over the last footholds of the terror group after a four-month battle.
“Raqqa has inherited the fate of Dresden in 1945, wiped off the face of the earth by Anglo-american bombardments,” said Konashenkov.
Most of the German city was destroyed in Allied bombing raids just before the end of World War Two.
Though he said Russia welcomed Western promises of financial aid to rebuild Raqqa, Konashenkov complained that numerous Russian requests for the West to give humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians in other parts of the country had been rejected in previous years.
“What is behind the rush by Western capitals to provide targeted financial help only to Raqqa?” said Konashenkov.
“There’s only one explanation – the desire to cover up evidence of the barbaric bombardments by the US Air Force and the coalition as fast as possible and to bury the thousands of civilians ‘liberated’ from Daesh in the ruins.”
The Us-led coalition has previously denied killing civilians in airstrikes on Raqqa.