Iraq & Syrian Civil Wars - Page 166

(Reuters) - A Syrian rebel group calling itself "Free Qalamoun" has claimed the kidnapping of 12 nuns and said it wants to trade them for a thousand female detainees held by the government, a pan-Arab newspaper reported on Friday.

Rebel spokesman Mohannad Abu al-Fidaa told Asharq al-Awsat that the nuns were safe but "will not be released until several demands have been implemented, most importantly, the release of 1,000 Syrian women held in regime prisons".

Reuters could not independently confirm the report.

An official at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus said the nuns were safe but would not comment on which group had taken them.

Syria's Christian minority have generally tried to stay on the sidelines of the sectarian conflict pitting majority Sunni Muslims against the Alawite minority. Many Christians fear the rise of hardline Islamist groups.

Islamist fighters who captured the Christian village of Maaloula north of Damascus moved the nuns from the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla to the nearby town of Yabrud on Monday, according to the Vatican envoy to Syria, Mario Zenari.

The militants took the ancient quarter of Maaloula on Monday after heavy fighting with President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the Qalamoun region near the Lebanese border.

A group of 72 preachers and religious scholars from Saudi Arabia published a petition yesterday endorsing the Islamic Front in Syria. The Islamic Front was formed on November 22 as a merger between seven major jihadist groups in Syria, signaling a continued shift among the rebels away from the pro-Western Free Syrian Army toward hardline Islamism.

The Saudi petition itself describes the Islamic Front as “mujahideen." Members of this “Salafi super-militia” collaborate extensively with al Qaeda, advocate ethnic cleansing, and reject democracy. Furthermore, Human Rights Watch raised concerns that one of its constituent groups may have executed civilians this August in Western Syria -- acts that would amount to war crimes.

Saudi Arabia provided extensive support for several founding members of the Front. In particular, Saudi Arabia had a major hand in the creation of the Army of Islam, whose leader has close ties to the Kingdom, and whose father preaches there. Also joining the Front is Suqour al-Sham, a rebel group that until recently headed another Islamist coalition backed by the Saudis according to the Washington Post.

The most prominent cleric to sign the petition was Naser al-Omar, known for his vicious sectarian rhetoric and close ties with the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The petition is brief and to the point, encouraging all factions in Syria who want to implement Shari'a law to join the Front, and refrain from fighting each other. Moreover, it calls on them to work together against two “projects” confronting the Muslim nation (Ummah): “the Zionist-American project, and the Safavid-Rejectionist [Shiite] project supported by Russia and China.”

Donors in Saudi Arabia have notoriously played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining Sunni jihadist groups over the past 30 years. But, for all the supposed determination of the United States and its allies since 9/11 to fight "the war on terror", they have showed astonishing restraint when it comes to pressuring Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies to turn off the financial tap that keeps the jihadists in business.

Compare two US pronouncements stressing the significance of these donations and basing their conclusions on the best intelligence available to the US government. The first is in the 9/11 Commission Report which found that Osama bin Laden did not fund al-Qa'ida because from 1994 he had little money of his own but relied on his ties to wealthy Saudi individuals established during the Afghan war in the 1980s. Quoting, among other sources, a CIA analytic report dated 14 November 2002, the commission concluded that "al-Qa'ida appears to have relied on a core group of financial facilitators who raised money from a variety of donors and other fund-raisers primarily in the Gulf countries and particularly in Saudi Arabia".

Seven years pass after the CIA report was written during which the US invades Iraq fighting, among others, the newly established Iraq franchise of al-Qa'ida, and becomes engaged in a bloody war in Afghanistan with the resurgent Taliban. American drones are fired at supposed al-Qa'ida-linked targets located everywhere from Waziristan in north-west Pakistan to the hill villages of Yemen. But during this time Washington can manage no more than a few gentle reproofs to Saudi Arabia on its promotion of fanatical and sectarian Sunni militancy outside its own borders.

Evidence for this is a fascinating telegram on "terrorist finance" from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to US embassies, dated 30 December 2009 and released by WikiLeaks the following year. She says firmly that "donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide". Eight years after 9/11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, Mrs Clinton reiterates in the same message that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan] and other terrorist groups". Saudi Arabia was most important in sustaining these groups, but it was not quite alone since "al-Qa'ida and other groups continue to exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point".

MANAMA, Bahrain — Iraq’s top diplomat says the “toxic” proliferation of extremist groups among Syria’s rebels raises the prospect of a jihadist-ruled territory at the heart of the region.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told attendees at a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday that the increase in radical fighters in the armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad is leading toward the creation of an ungovernable “Islamic emirate” that the world will have to deal with down the road.

Iraq is grappling with a months-long spike in bloodshed blamed largely on al-Qaeda’s local franchise, which is also playing an active role inside Syria in the fight against Assad.

Security sources reported to Agence France Presse on Sunday that a prominent Hezbollah military commander, Ali Hassan Bazzi, died in the ongoing clashes in Syria.

The source noted that Bazzi hails from the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and was residing in Haret Saida. He is married and has 3 children.

In the same context, the official website of Bint Jbeil reported the death of 2 other members from Hezbollah identified as Ali Saleh from al-Abbasiyeh and Qasem Ghamloush from Bint Jbeil.

Rebel fighters have controlled today (Sunday) the ground floor of the old building in Al Kindi hospital in Aleppo city, after fighting with Al Assad forces in the area which resulted in several deaths, according to "Aleepo Today" channel. The same source pointed out that airplanes have bombed the surrounding of the hospital today afternoon, together with heavy artillery shelling. And on the same context commander Abu Suleiman, Amir of "Al Islam brigade" who belongs to Ahrar Al sham movement have been killed, during the fights which toke place around Al Kindi hospital in Aleppo.

Hardly a day goes by without another Saudi arriving to Syria to join jihadist groups and fight in their ranks. Although the jihadists in Syria hail from various nations, Saudis are the source of jihadist leadership and a reservoir of suicide bombers, distinguishing them from the others.

While we may know that the most recent Saudi to arrive in Syria was 17-year-old Mouaz al-Maataq, we will never know the identity of the first Saudi to go to Syria to join the fighting, or the exact date of his arrival.

According to the available data, Abdul Aziz al-Othman was among the first Saudis to go to Syria to fight with jihadists. He arrived in early 2012, according to the most precise estimates. Othman was a prominent leader of Jabhat al-Nusra and some stories on his death in al-Shaddadi, in the al-Hasakeh governorate, even said that he was in the same car with Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, and Abu Maraya al-Qahtani, Nusra's chief legal adviser. This indicates that he was a close and reliable associate of the two. Omar al-Mouhaisini, another Saudi, was also killed in the same accident.

Yet, this does not mean that Saudis did not arrive to Syria before that date. It is likely that the influx of Saudi jihadists into Syria began with the start of the crisis there. Yet, at that time, traveling to Syria was not taking place through a “general mobilization,” but rather through the summoning of some former al-Qaeda leaders and veterans from the first generation of Afghan Arabs who individually traveled to Syria to explore the best ways to work there. This certainly meant establishing primary cells that represent the foundation of jihadist groups.

According to exclusive information As-Safir obtained from a source in the Ahrar al-Sham movement, a figure far removed from the spotlight has played a prominent role in the formation of the first armed Islamic-oriented battalion and, from the beginning, has sought to cooperate and consult with prominent al-Qaeda figures regarding the best methods of jihadist work in Syria. This man is Abu Khalid as-Souri, an important figure in Jihadist history, to which Abu Musab al-as-Souri dedicated his book titled A Call to Global Jihad. He worked with Atiyatallah al-Libi, another al-Qaeda leader, which indicated the importance and centrality of Souri. This importance will grow bigger once we learn that Souri is also the one who was recently chosen by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to referee disputes between Golani and the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. So, he is a reliable man and clearly has a leading position in al-Qaeda.

According to the source, a number of “migrants,” including Saudis, were in Syria as the Ahrar al-Sham movement was emerging, i.e., since May 2011. Souri is a founder and senior leader in this movement. The majority of these “migrants” had secretly joined Ahrar al-Sham, since it was a faction recommended by al-Qaeda leaders. Yet, the majority of these “migrants” moved to Jabhat al-Nusra, when the latter was established. As for Souri, he remained with Ahrar al-Sham, in a move that may have been intended to strengthen the “al-Qaeda movement” in Ahrar al-Sham, to be used at the right time.

That al-Qaeda leaders and figures from the first generation of Afghan Arabs were able to easily travel from Saudi Arabia to Syrian territory raises questions about the role of Saudi security forces in monitoring and tracing them. Does this move represent an indicator that the Saudi intelligence services are turning a blind eye, or is it a greater issue?

On December 11 2013 04:04 HeartOfTheSwarm wrote:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/12/understanding-syria-from-pre-civil-war-to-post-assad/281989/?

A very good article explaining history of Syria and current situation. Recommended.

US suspends non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels
The United States has suspended all non-lethal assistance into northern Syria after Islamic Front forces seized headquarters and warehouses belonging to the opposition's Supreme Military Council (SMC), a US embassy spokesman in Ankara has said.

Fighters from the Islamic Front, a union of six major rebel groups, took control of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) bases at the Bab al-Hawa crossing on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey late on Friday, prompting the US announcement, which was made on the following Wednesday.

Turkey has also shut its side of the border crossing, in Hatay province, due to a reported increase in clashes on the Syrian side, customs sources told Reuters news agency, although there was no immediate confirmation from Turkish officials.

Infighting among rebels: ISIL attacks Islamic Front town
Radical Islamic group state of Iraq and The Levant took control of the town of Maskenh near Aleppo city after fierce clashes with Ahrar al-Sham movement, activists said.

The Islamic movement is mobilizing its units to retaliate the ISIL offensive and retake the city, sources revealed.
Reports said an intensive mediation by other Islamic groups to avoid bloodshed between the Slafist movement and al-Qaeda affiliated group.
Ahrar al-Sham merged recently with several Syrian rebel groups into the Islamic Front (IF) on November 22, in one of the war's most important developments. Although the political and military opposition has long been fragmented, the new umbrella organization brings seven groups and their combined force of 45,000-60,000 fighters under one command, Mideast experts said.

On December 11 2013 16:49 frontliner2 wrote:
I'm sorry but from all I've seen I fully support the SAA side winning this war. Sure people need freedom of expression but that isn't going to be established through jihad and implementing Sharia by wahabi's and sunni extremism. Therefore I support SAA.