Did Russia warn the people of besieged East Aleppo that "If you do not leave these areas urgently, you will be annihilated"?

Question

Stephen O'Brien, head of the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) claimed that leaflets are being dropped on eastern Aleppo by Syrian and Russian aircraft, warning residents:

“This is your last hope. Save yourselves. If you do not leave these areas urgently, you will be annihilated. You know that everyone has given up on you. They left you alone to face your doom and nobody will give you any help.”

Newsweek claims:

The leaflets fell from the sky over Aleppo, offering dire warnings. “If you don’t leave these areas quickly,” they admonished civilians, “you will be annihilated. Save yourselves.… Everyone has left you alone to face your doom.…”

A similar claim is made by Charles Lister, in the following tweet.

Link to tweet

Did Russia warn the people of besieged East Aleppo that "If you do not leave these areas urgently, you will be annihilated"?

During WWII, similar leaflets were dropped over Japan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#/media/File%3AFirebombing_leaflet.jpg — Andrew Grimm, Nov 07 '16 at 02:37
As Andrew Grimm stated, this is not new, if it did happen. Warning a populace about an impending invasion/assault on an area in an attempt to get civilians to leave and not become casualties, is a tried and true method of at least covering your butt in case you accidentally drop a bomb on a hospital......too soon? You can always point to the leaflets. — NZKshatriya, Dec 13 '16 at 07:40

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

8

The Syrian and Russian air force dropped the following leaflet shown below which according to BBC reporter James Longman states:

Read & repeat. If you don't leave, you'll be bombed. Save yourselves. You've been left to your own fate.

Before that, the following type of leaflets were dropped showing two options; A green bus or a dead body. FT.com

http://www.enabbaladi.net/archives/110027

Although the exact word annihilated is not used, the leaflets indicate as such.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

Community

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answered Nov 05 '16 at 13:11

Sakib Arifin

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This is very similar to the leaflets the US distributed in Fallujah before Operation Phantom Fury in 2004. – Moo Dec 10 '16 at 19:28
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Or similar leaflets dropped over Monte Cassino in WW2.... – NZKshatriya Dec 13 '16 at 07:40
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Many people are aware of this, but Arabic and related languages read right to left, so they'd see the green bus before the dead body. – Andrew Grimm Dec 14 '16 at 21:51

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 05 '16 at 09:06

Krishnan Guru-Murthy's report on Channel 4 News (UK) on 3 November 2016 seems fairly convincing.

He shows footage of the leaflets being dropped (4:12):

Before the bombs came war-time confetti, in elegant circles. Messages to East Aleppo. And those are the leaflets that are just being dropped by the air-force that they hope will land on East Aleppo telling them a stark warning that this is there last chance they've got to get out.

He holds a leaflet in his hand (0:24) and explains:

The Syrian and Russian air-force dropped these leaflets over East Aleppo telling people that from 9am tomorrow morning until 7pm, that is their last window to leave Aleppo. The threat is of all-out war.

Did Russia warn the people of besieged East Aleppo that "If you do not leave these areas urgently, you will be annihilated"?

2 Answers2