Syria: Islamists gaining ground

by pat c Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:03

Full article at link.

Many fundamentalist groups seeking to oust Syrian regime

Fri, Jul 27, 2012

Many Islamists, some linked to al-Qaeda, are involved in the Syrian conflict, writes MICHAEL JANSEN in Damascus

THE GRADUAL loss of control by Damascus of expanding enclaves of territory to rebels seeking the Syrian government’s overthrow has led to growing involvement of al-Qaeda and ultra-orthodox Sunni Salafi fighters in the 16-month conflict.

Al-Qaeda made its presence known last December with twin suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44. Claims by affiliates were taken seriously by both the Syrian and US governments.

January and February suicide bombings, a hallmark of the Iraqi al-Qaeda franchise, were also sourced to al-Qaeda’s jihadis.

There were two developments in February that seem to have spurred al-Qaeda involvement – the release from prison in Aleppo of strategist Abu Musab al-Suri, and the call of the parent movement’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the jihad against Syria’s “pernicious, cancerous regime”.

His appeal was echoed in a recent video featuring the “Soldiers of the Omar Farouq Brigade in Syria,” named after an al-Qaeda figure slain in Iraq in 2006. The video targeted potential Turkish recruits and depicted the training fighters undergo in Syria. Turks were said to be among those shown.

Jihadis or mujahideen see the struggle for Syria as a battle in the long drawn-out war for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate and the cleansing of Dar al-Islam, the Muslim world, of western political control and social and cultural influences.

The New York Times quoted Iraq-based al-Qaeda operative Abu Thuha as saying: “Our big hope is to form a Syrian-Iraqi state for all Muslims, and then announce our war against Iran and Israel, and free Palestine.” ...

by Felix Quigley - 4international Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:55

The Telegraph july 28

"The Foreign Office is investigating reports that British citizens are among Islamist fighters who kidnapped a British photographer and his Dutch colleague in northern Syria.
John Cantlie and Dutchman Jeroen Oerlemans were held by the group for a week after they accidentally came across their camp while crossing the border from south east Turkey to report on the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

During their time in captivity they were threatened with death unless they converted to Islam, and both were shot and slightly wounded when they attempted to flee barefoot. They were freed on Thursday night after a group of Free Syrian Army soldiers turned up the camp and angrily demanded that they be released.

Mr Cantlie has not yet spoken of his ordeal, but Mr Oerlemans told Dutch media that some of the gang, which is reported to have been between 30 and 100 strong, had "Birmingham accents".

A source close to the incident told The Sunday Telegraph that there possibly at least six men with British-sounding voices, including one with a heavy south London accent.

"Nobody is quite sure yet how many, but these people generally travel in small groups of about half a dozen," the source said.

The camp members also reportedly included people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Chechnya, with no Syrians present. The source added that "round 40 per cent" of them apparently spoke English, although it was not clear what nationalities they were.

The possibility of British nationals or residents being present among the group will be of concern to the Government, which has done much in recent years to try to stop British-born Asians and Arabs enlisting with foreign jihadist movements.

The reports come amid growing concern that groups of Sunni extremists and al-Qaeda factions are attempting to join the rebel movement in Syria.

Speaking to Dutch media, Mr Oerlemans said that he and Mr Cantlie spent much of their time blindfolded. He told the NRC Handelsblatt newspaper: "One of the black jihadists freaked out and shouted: 'These are journalists and now they will see we are preparing an international jihad in this place.'"

The group accused them of being spies, and considered holding them for ransom, said Mr Oerlemans. He added: "As soon as Assad has fallen, these fighters want to introduce Islamic law, Sharia, in Syria."...

My thoughts on this...these two were very, very lucky they kept their heads...that is they were not separated from their shoulders.

see now why the Syrian Christians remain steadfast behind Assad.

please explain position of irish Government on Syria

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:15

..that the position of the Irish government is to find some other issue to establish high moral ground on...while facilitating the Nato resource-war PNAC agenda for full spectrum dominance.

i.e. nominal neutrality while spinelessly complying with the current expedient guaranteeing the quiet life and the accruing pension.

by pat c Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:30

Full text at link.

German Intelligence: "al-Qaeda" All Over Syria

July 24, 2012 "Asia Times" -- German intelligence estimates that "around 90" terror attacks that "can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups" were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July, as reported by the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This was revealed by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question.

In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified "by reason of national interest", Like many other Western governments, Germany expelled Syria's ambassador in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, holding the Syrian government responsible for the violence.

Meanwhile, at least three major German newspapers - Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild - have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario.

Writing in Bild, longtime German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer accused the rebels of "deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government". He described this "massacre-marketing strategy" as being "among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict". Todenhofer had recently been to Damascus, where he interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Germany's ARD public television.

Wring in Die Welt, Alfred Hackensberger noted that Taldo, the sub-district of Houla where the massacre occurred, has been under rebel control since December 2011 and is in an open plain, making it unlikely that "hundreds of soldiers and Assad supporters" could have entered the village to commit the massacre. (An abridged version of Hackenberger's report also appeared in Die Berliner Morgenpost.) Hackensberger visited Houla to conduct investigations for his report.

He also interviewed an alleged eyewitness - identified simply by the pseudonym "Jibril" - at the Saint James Monastery in Qara, Syria. In contrast to an earlier report in the FAZ, which had claimed that the victims were largely Shi'ites and Alawis, Jibril told Hackensberger that all of the victims were Sunnis "like everybody here". By his account, they were killed for refusing to support the rebellion. Jibril added that "a lot of people in Houla know what really happened" but would not say so out of fear for their lives. "Whoever says something," he explained, "can only repeat the rebels' version. Anything else is certain death." ...

by pat c Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:35

Interesting news that was overlooked by many and it also provides more proof of foreign jihadist involvement in Syria.

Lebanese terror leader Abdel Ghani Jawhar detonated himself accidentally in Syria, raising questions about the kind of company the rebels are keeping

TIME has learned that Abdel Ghani Jawhar, one of the leaders of the Sunni fundamentalist terror group Fatah al-Islam, died in the Syrian city of Qsair on Friday night. The founding cleric of Fatah al Islam, Sheikh Osama al Shihabi, confirmed Jawhar’s death to TIME with a quote from the Koran: “‘We are for God and to him we return.’ We as Mujahideen are used to being killed and if God wants to give those killed dignity he gives them martyrdom. This is the path of righteousness.”

According to a fellow fighter, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Ali, Jawhar had been preparing an explosive device to be used against the Syrian army, which had been attempting to enter the rebel-dominated town not far from Homs. As Abu Ali narrated the tale over Skype, the sound of bombs and explosions could be heard in the background. Jawhar’s bomb went off prematurely, says Abu Ali. “He was killed directly. We wanted to send his body back to Lebanon but we couldn’t because it was torn into pieces.” Instead Jawhar’s fellow fighters were forced to bury what was left of him in a neighboring garden because it was impossible to reach the graveyard during heavy fighting.

According to Abu Ali and another fellow fighter, Jawhar arrived in Qsair two weeks ago with a group of 30 Lebanese fighters. While many were members of Fatah al-Islam, they were not traveling under the terror group’s banner. Instead they called themselves mujahideen, holy warriors seeking to help fellow Muslims under attack by the Syrian regime. Jawhar, an explosives expert and a charismatic commander, sought to train fellow fighters how make bombs. In the short time he had been in Qsair, says Abu Ali, he was able to set up dozens of improvised explosive devices destined for members of the Syrian security forces. “His aim was to make a tour in all the districts of Syria to teach the fighters on how to fight a guerrilla war.”