WHY?
THE REBELS ARE BEING USED BY AL QAEDA AND BY OTHER TERRORIST FACTIONS.
HOW IT THAT POSSIBLE?
THESE TERRORIST GROUPS GO IN AS CHARITY AND HELP FOR THE REBELS, HELPING THEM FIND REFUGE, HELPING THEM TO BE WELL FED, HELPING THEM WITH WEAPONS AND SO FORTH. THIS IS HOW TERRORISTS GATHER RECRUITS AND HOW THEY GATHER LAND AND PROPERTY.
HERE ARE SOME SOURCES THE MY SOURCE GAVE ME REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
REMEMBER, THE U.S. IS NOW GETTING INVOLVED WITH THE REBELS, THROUGH TURKEY, PROVIDING WEAPONS. THE U.S. IS NOT CURRENTLY (ACCORDING TO WHAT HAS BEEN RELEASE, WHICH YOU CANNOT ALWAYS TRUST) PUTTING BOOTS ON THE GROUND
Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda
In this Jan. 11, 2013 file citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra waving their brigade flag on the top of a Syrian air force helicopter, at Taftanaz air base that was captured by the rebels, in Idlib province, northern Syria.
BEIRUT — A Syrian rebel group's April pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well.
Lebanese Sheik Omar Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time.
"They provided them early on with technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria," Bakri says. "There will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups."
The United States, which supports the overthrow of Assad, designated al Nusra a terrorist entity in December. The Obama administration has said it wants to support only those insurgent groups that are not terrorist organizations.
Al Nusra and groups like it have seen some of the most significant victories against Syrian government forces in the course of the 2-year-old uprising in which Assad's forces have killed about 80,000 people. Rebels not affiliated with al-Qaeda have pressed Washington for months to send weaponry that will allow them to match the heavy weapons of the Syrian army. They've urged the West to mount an air campaign against Assad's mechanized forces.
President Obama refuses to provide any direct military aid. Foreign radical Islamists streaming into the fight from the Middle East and Europe are making headway with the Syrian population by providing services and gaining ground in battles.
Tamer Mouhieddine, spokesman for the Syrian Free Army, a force made up of Syrian soldiers who have defected, said the recent announcements would not change his group's attitude toward al Nusra.
"The rebels in Syria have one common enemy — Bashar Assad — and they will collaborate with any faction allowing them to topple his regime," he said.
He confirmed that al Nusra is generating loyalty in Aleppo, a region battling for months with Assad, by providing financial support as well as setting up charities.
Aaron Zelin at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington says al Nusra's ability to provide security and basic needs such as bread and fuel to Syrian civilians, as well as to reopen shops and restart bus services, has won gratitude from people who would not usually adhere to its strict ideology.
Zelin says some Syrian people have criticized al Nusra for banning alcohol, forcing women to wear a full veil and whipping men who are seen with women in public.
READ MORE AT USA TODAY.COM
Syrian rebels execute teenage boy for ‘heresy’ - report (GRAPHIC PHOTO)
Published time: June 10, 2013 12:05
Edited time: June 11, 2013 08:11
An al-Qaeda-affiliated opposition group has allegedly executed a teenage boy in Syria in front of his family, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports. The boy was shot by the group for supposedly blaspheming.
15-year-old Mohammad Qataa was taken hostage by the extremist group and was then summarily executed in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday night. Pro-opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released a photo of the boy with bullet wounds in both his face and neck.
The SOHR said witnesses claim Qataa got into an argument at a coffee stand where he worked in the Sh’ar neighborhood of Aleppo. He was overheard saying: "Even if the Prophet Mohammad comes down (from heaven), I will not become a believer."
His words caught the attention of members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who kidnapped Qatta. They then brought him back to the stall late on Sunday night with whiplash marks on his body.
According to the report published by the SOHR, one of the members of the group addressed the crowd and said:“Generous citizens of Aleppo, disbelieving in God is polytheism and cursing the prophet is polytheism. Whoever curses even once will be punished like this.”
"He then fired two bullets from an automatic rifle in view of the crowd and in front of the boy's mother and father, and got into a car and left," the report said. It added that the SOHR demands the killers be brought to justice. Qatta’s mother allegedly pleaded with the killers, whose accented Arabic suggested they were not from Syria.
The group expressed concern that the Sharia court of Aleppo had done nothing to stop the execution of the 15-year-old.
"The Observatory cannot ignore these crimes, which only serve the enemies of the revolution and the enemies of humanity," said the group's leader Rami Abdulrahman. The Observatory also released a photo of the boy participating in pro-democracy protests in Aleppo.
There have been a number of reports of opposition brutality in Syria in recent months. A video disseminated over the internet in May, purported to show an opposition member taking a bite out of a soldier’s heart, and drew widespread condemnation from the international community.
Abu Sakkar, the leader of a group called the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade, an offshoot of the Free Syrian Army, says in the video "I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog". Sakkar expressed no remorse for the “eye-for-an-eye” attack and pledged to carry out more such acts.
read more at RT
read more at RT
Syria rebel group's dangerous tie to al Qaeda
updated 12:57 PM EDT, Wed April 10, 2013
Peter Bergen says the most effective fighting force against the Syrian regime is now allying itself with al Qaeda
Editor's note: Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad" and a director at the New America Foundation. Jennifer Rowland is a program associate at the New America Foundation.
(CNN) -- On Tuesday, al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq announced that it had merged with the Syrian opposition group Jabhat al-Nusra to form the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."
The announcement came in the form of an audio message from the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that was distributed to key jihadist websites.
The merger was first reported by SITE, a Washington-based group that tracks jihadist material online. The authors were able to confirm the announcement by monitoring the jihadist site, Ansar al Mujahideen, which frequently posts material from al Qaeda, including Tuesday's news of the merger of the Syrian and Iraqi wings of al Qaeda. Complicating matters, on Wednesday al Nusra claimed it wasn't merging with al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, but instead was pledging its allegiance to al Qaeda's overall leadership.
The news that there is some kind of connection between al Qaeda in Iraq and the Syrian Jabhat al-Nusra (in English "the Victory Front") is not entirely surprising. U.S. officials have long suspected that al-Nusra was really, in part, a front for Iraqi jihadists who had crossed the Syrian border to join the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The State Department added Jabhat al-Nusrato its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations in December.
The fact that al-Nusra has publicly aligned itself with central al Qaeda is worrisome. A long-term safe haven for this group in Syria could be the prelude for the formation of an organization with the wherewithal to attack the West, just as al Qaeda's sojourn in Afghanistan when it was controlled by the Taliban prepared the group for the 9/11 attacks.
Second, al-Nusra is widely regarded as the most effective fighting force in Syria, and its thousands of fighters are the most disciplinedof the forces opposing Assad.
read more at CNN
read more at CNN
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