The failed US policy to remove Assad from power by armed rebellion was doomed from the beginning. At his point in May 2013, the US should have known better and called a halt to the military solution and push with Russia for diplomacy. USA’s exceptionalism stood in the way to “succomb” to any idea of failure. As the bodies count mounted, the jihadist groups were not only fighting Assad but also against the rising might of Al Qaeda from Iraq, born out of the 2003 invasion. More deaths and sectarian fighting from a quagmire created by the White House under George Bush with approval of US Congress.
The might of the Saudi Kingdom fueled by its wealth from oil resources has helped extend the misery by funding and aising the Sunni militants of Anbar province as it has done with the Mujihadeen In Afghanistan together with the CIA and in Chechnya with what the US called “freedom fighters.” A monster created under the Bzrezinski doctrine to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan. The most stupid era of US foreign policy anyone could have been witness to throughout its history.
What triggered this diary is the news items of Putin’s bombardments of terror groups throughout Syria have been more effective than a year’s “pin-point” bombing of the Islamic State by the “60-nation” coalition against ISIS. NATO partner The Netherlands has a minister of defense who proudly announced during exercisies in Poland: “we’re ready for the Russians.” A few days ago the same minister Hennis, just honored as Dutch Woman of the Year, announced the Dutch AF won’t join the ISIS coalition with Dutch F-16s bombing in Syria. When real bullets and bombs are flying over Syria, Dutch politicians get wet feet.
○ Al-Nusra hurting after Russian attacks, wants revenge by more terror in Latakia
Insight: Syria’s Nusra Front eclipsed by Iraq-based al Qaeda | Reuters |
The most feared and effective rebel group battling President Bashar al-Assad, the Islamist Nusra Front, is being eclipsed by a more radical jihadi force whose aims go far beyond overthrowing the Syrian leader.
Al Qaeda’s Iraq-based wing, which nurtured Nusra in the early stages of the rebellion against Assad, has moved in and sidelined the organization, Nusra sources and other rebels say.
Al Qaeda in Iraq includes thousands of foreign fighters whose ultimate goal is not toppling Assad but the anti-Western jihad of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri – a shift which could extend Syria’s conflict well beyond any political accord between Assad and his foes. The fighting has already cost 90,000 lives.
The break-up of an important part of Syria’s opposition, already splintered into hundreds of armed groups, worsens the dilemma faced by the West as it debates whether intervention to support the rebels will result in arms being placed in the hands of hostile Islamist militants. And if the West were to intervene, it may now be under pressure to attack al Qaeda opposition forces rather than Assad.
Jabhat al-Nusra, IS compete for foreign fighters | Al Monitor |
Jabhat al-Nusra did not deny the authenticity of the audio recording attributed to its leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani, in which he announced that he is seeking to establish an Islamic emirate in the areas where his militants are deployed. However, a statement issued on July 12 by the Manara al-Bayda, Jabhat al-Nusra’s media channel, implicitly affirmed the authenticity of the recording and announced clearly that Jabhat al-Nusra is “seeking to establish an Islamic emirate,” adding, “We have yet to declare its establishment.”
According to the Aleppo Media Center, Jabhat al-Nusra’s leadership and militants held a high-profile meeting to discuss the restructuring of the organization. During the meeting, the attendants were surprised to see Golani unveil his face and promise his soldiers that they would establish an Islamic emirate.
Jabhat al-Nusra is trying to pull the rug from under the feet of its jihadist rival, the Islamic State (IS, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham), especially following the great losses inflicted upon Jabhat al-Nusra in the last battles of Deir ez-Zor. Jabhat al-Nusra wants to attract “migrants” — or foreign militants who came to Syria for jihad — and put them to work under its leadership. IS’ striking announcement of the establishment of an Islamic caliphate led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on June 30 has galvanized foreign fighters and led them to join IS, which concerns Jabhat al-Nusra.
Jabhat al-Nusra does not want to clash with the other opposition factions with which it shares control over the liberated areas in Syria, especially because it is only a single faction that doesn’t seem to be the strongest among the scores of groups in Syria, such as the Islamic Front (KSA), the Mujahideen Army (CIA) and Ajnad al-Sham. In addition, there are the large number of factions affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, such as the Hazzm Movement (Qatar/CIA), Syrian Revolutionaries Front (KSA; defection to al-Nusra terror) and others. These are deployed along with Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo, north of Idlib, Daraa and south of the Rif Damascus governorate.
The rebranding of the Nusra Front| Al Jazeera – June 2015 |
From the very beginning, the armed rebel movement included those who wanted to build a post-Assad, non-sectarian democracy. Yet, as long ago as 2012, a secret report by Pentagon officials [pdf] acknowledged that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) was one of the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria”.
Today, the Nusra Front, an offshoot of AQI which announced its presence in Syria at the start of 2012 and took responsibility for a succession of suicide bombings in 2011, is at the vanguard of rebel-led clashes with both pro-Assad security forces and the fanatics of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
See my diaries on this topic …
○ Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft and the Land of the Two Rivers | Aug. 23, 2014 |
○ Leading Fighters in Syria are Al-Qaeda Linked Al-Nusra Front | Jan. 9, 2013 |
○ Condi’s Fairy Tale – Neocons and A Democratic Syria | July 27, 2012 |Rebranding Nusra
Having been officially designated as a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the US state department back in December 2012, due to it being “an alias for al-Qaeda in Iraq”, in recent months there have been several reports suggesting the Nusra Front is trying to “rebrand” and present itself to the Syrian people, not to mention pro-opposition outside powers such as the US, as a more moderate, “purely Syrian force not linked to al-Qaeda”.
Should we take this rebranding exercise seriously?
Some analysts do seem to believe the Nusra Front could be a useful partner in the struggle against both Assad and ISIL.
“The West currently sees the Nusra Front as a threat,” wrote Carnegie’s Lina Khatib in March.
“But Nusra’s pragmatism and ongoing evolution mean that it could become an ally in the fight against [ISIL].”
Syrian journalist Ahmad Zaidan, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Pakistan bureau chief, believes “the international community must respond to the realities on the ground” and “the verdict on Nusra is not out yet”.
Plenty of human rights groups and counterterrorism experts, however, disagree. Consider the evidence amassed by Human Rights Watch, in a lengthy report on Syria earlier this year.
The Nusra Front, concluded HRW, was “responsible for systematic and widespread violations including targeting civilians, kidnappings, and executions”.
Jabhat al-Nusra is ready to establish its very own Islamic caliphate in Syria after Assad …
In al-Nusra Front’s Syria, no room for religious minorities | Times of Israel |
Ahead of his rare interview on al-Jazeera, Arab newspapers were speculating that Abu Mohammed al-Golani, head of al-Nusra Front, would publicly annul his allegiance to al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
That did not happen. In fact, the 50-minute interview— aired on a program ironically named “Without Borders” — revealed just how ideologically close Golani and Zawahiri are. The Al-Nusra jihadist group continues to receive its strategic directives from Zawahiri, Golani acknowledged, specifically in the organization’s focus on toppling Assad rather than launching attacks against Western targets.
Created in January 2012, Al-Nusra refused to be co-opted by the more radical Islamic State, composed primarily of foreign fighters. In April 2013, Golani defiantly pledged his allegiance to al-Qaeda and Zawahiri, rebuffing the merger declared by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Al-Nusra’s treatment of Syria’s religious minorities took center stage in the interview. In order to receive protection in the future Islamic regime, Assad’s Alawite brethren — who adhere to a syncretistic offshoot of Shia Islam and comprise some 10% of the country’s population — will not only have to disavow the president and drop their arms, Golani said, but also to “correct their doctrinal mistakes and embrace Islam.”
“By doing so they will become our brothers and we shall protect them as we protect ourselves,” asserted soft-spoken Golani, filmed from behind with a thick black cloth covering his head and a Nusra Front flag adorning the coffee table before him. “We believe they are mistaken.”
But it is not only the Alawites — whom Golani referred to using the Islamist pejorative Nusayris — who are being religiously targeted by al-Nusra operatives. Muslim proselytizers have been sent by the group to Druze villages to “inform them of the doctrinal pitfalls they have fallen into.” Visiting saints’ graves is considered polytheism by Islam, and the Druze were accordingly prohibited from doing so, Golani added.
- ○ SOHR: Spinning the body count in Syria
○ Terror Group Al-Qaeda Is Spelled K-h-o-r-a-s-a-n In Syria
