PHOTO: Opposition leader Anas al-Abdah: “Trump can reassert American leadership”

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All sides in Syria’s conflict responded on Wednesday to the surprise election of Donald Trump as US President, with both Russia and the Syrian opposition looking for opportunities.

Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton had said that she would take a firmer line against Russia and the Assad regime over their attacks on Syrian civilians, pursuing the possibility of protected zones. However, the President-elect echoed Moscow’s line that such action could bring “World War 3”.

Soon after Trump’s election was confirmed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Russia is ready and wants to restore full-format relations with the United States.”

The Kremlin expressed hope that Washington will quickly lift sanctions on Moscow.

Despite Trump’s response to Clinton’s position, the opposition Syrian National Coalition maintained that the President-elect could bring a new effort to end the Syrian conflict.

Coalition President Anas al-Abdah said congratulations had been sent and the opposition was in touch with a Trump advisor about a revised American approach: “The new President-elect has the will and the leadership to reassert American leadership in the area and in Syria.”

Once the incoming Trump administration got engaged, it would also be important for Europe to present a unified view, he said.

Abdah said this could be a contrast with the Obama Administration’s approach which had allowed Russia to act without restraint.

Rebel factions were far more cautious.

“I think things will become difficult because of Trump’s statements and his relationship with Putin and Russia. I imagine this is not good for the Syrian issue,” said Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastiqim faction.

An Opposition Approach to Europe

After meetings in Germany, Abdah linked the hopes for a new American policy to a unified view with European powers

He said Coalition officials discussed a range of steps with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, including limited military strikes and imposition of limited sanctions against Russian companies and banks that are aiding Assad.

Al-Abdah said Steinmeier had promised to do all he could to end the targeting of Syrian civilians, and told the opposition officials he would convene a meeting in coming days of European Union officials.

The EU failed to agree on any steps last month, with Italy and other countries blocking any prospect of sanctions on Russian officials over Moscow’s military alliance with the Assad regime and its attacks on civilians.

Russian FM Lavrov: We Have Always Minimized Civilian Casualties

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has insisted that Moscow has tried to minimize civilian deaths and damage to civilian sites in its thousands of airstrikes in Syria since September 2015.

Lavrov declared on Thursday:

We have invariably stated, and our Defense Ministry did so, too, that in carrying out strikes the necessary precautions are always taken to minimize — ideally to prevent — harm to civilian facilities, let alone civilian population.

The Violations Documentation Center has established 2,154 civilian deaths from Russian airstrikes. Numerous reports, including by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, have documented Russian attacks on hospitals, schools, markets, water and electricity plants, fuel depots, and other civilian facilities.

But Lavrov maintained:

In many cases, when this or that country or non-governmental organization claimed that our strikes destroyed this or that facility, school or a childcare center, the Defense Ministry repeatedly presented documentary evidence showing the charges had nothing to do with the reality….

Of course, we will be prepared to investigate any concrete facts, but nobody has been able to present such concrete facts to this day.

The Russian Defense Ministry has used a variety of explanations to deny any responsibility, including that hospitals do not exist, that the US-led coalition has carried out the attacks, and even that targets — such as a UN aid convoy attacked on September 19, breaking a brief ceasefire in and near Aleppo — have spontaneously combusted.

Residents: US-Led Airstrikes and Kurdish-Led Force Kill 23 on Tuesday Night

Residents in northwestern Raqqa Province say US-led airstrikes and artillery fire by the US-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces killled 23 civilians on Tuesday night.

An SDF spokeswoman insisted that the claims were “Islamic State propaganda”.

The attacks came days into an SDF offensive looking to close on ISIS’s central position, the city of Raqqa. Homes were struck in the village of Heesha.

Abu Moaz, a civilian journalist, said, “As many as 25 people were killed.”

Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a group of media activists, counted at least 23 civilian fatalities. The opposition-run Local Coordination Committees in Syria said nine people had been killed by shelling.

A Kurdish journalist embedded with the SDF, Sardar Hajji Mohammad, rejected the reports:

I’m very close right now to Heesha and the news isn’t true. We have reliable information that IS is using civilians there as human shields, according to people who have fled the village.

News of the attacks came just before the US Central Command acknowledged the killing of 119 civilians in Iraq and Syria by US-led operations since August 2014.

US: We Killed 119 Civilians in Syria and Iraq Since August 2014

The US has killed 119 civilians in Iraq and Syria since it began military operations against the Islamic State in summer 2014, military officials said Wednesday.

The officials said that the American military followed the proper procedures and did not violate laws of armed conflict in each case.

“Significant precautions were taken, despite the unfortunate outcome,” claimed Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for United States Central Command:

In most every case, when we determined there may have been civilian casualties from one of our airstrikes, we are choosing to list the largest number of possible civilian casualties. In cases where we just don’t have the investigative resources or evidence to determine precisely how many people may have died, we went with the worst-case number to ensure a full accounting.

Local sources and human rights activists say the toll is far higher. They cited, for example, US-led attacks that killed scores of civilians near Tabqa in Raqqa Province this summer.

US Central Command, which had not acknowledged significant civilian casaulties, said it put in place a new process for examining allegations.

Officials said the military investigated 257 allegations of civilian casualties and deemed 31 of them credible.

Wednesday’s information said there were at least 24 airstrikes in the past year that caused civilian casualties. In June, there were six.

Colonel Thomas said:

It’s a key tenet of the counter-ISIL air campaign that we do not want to add to the tragedy of the situation by inflicting addition suffering. Sometimes, civilians bear the brunt of military action, but we do all we can to minimize those occurrences even at the cost of sometimes missing the chance to strike valid targets in real time.