White House: claims of US inaction in Syria 'offensive'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

The White House on Wednesday criticized claims that the U.S. is standing idly by as the Syrian city of Aleppo falls to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

"It's offensive to suggest that somehow the United States government and the world is not doing anything," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a terse back and forth with a reporter at the daily briefing.

"No one has put forward an alternative suggestion for what we should now be doing," he added. "Even our harshest critics cannot articulate some sort of alternative for what is happening right now."

Assad's forces have captured nearly all of eastern Aleppo during a lightning offensive that saw successive rebel defeats in parts of the city they controlled since the early days of the armed uprising in 2012. But a recently brokered deal to evacuate the remaining rebels from the area has faltered amid disagreements.

The UN has cautioned that Assad's and allied forces have likely carried out war crimes in the ongoing campaign, and Earnest strongly rebuked their "depraved tactics".

"They do cross just about every line that I can think of. And frankly, they cross lines I hadn't previously thought of," he said.

Pointing to Russia's support for Assad, he rhetorically asked, "What kind of civilized country is going to support those tactics?"

Moscow has been one of Assad's principal backers alongside Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah. In addition to a wide-ranging aerial campaign, Russia has sent its special operations forces to the country to combat what it calls "terrorists", the shorthand it and Assad use for all armed opposition groups.