Expert: Jihadists Joining With Syrian Rebels

Source: www.voanews.com

14 August 2012

LONDON — As fighting continues in Syria between government and opposition forces, there are growing concerns that Islamist fighters, including some foreigners linked to terror groups like al-Qaida, are joining up with the Free Syria Army. At least one expert says there’s ample online and video evidence that the Syrian uprising is being exploited by Jihadist groups.

Free Syria Army fighters on the outskirts of Aleppo earlier this month. As Western and Gulf powers step up their aid for the Syrian opposition, concerns are growing that Islamist militant groups are infiltrating the conflict.

Shiraz Maher of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization, at Kings College, London, specializes in monitoring extremist groups. He took VOA through some of the videos and websites he’d tracked down online. This one purports to show bombing operations carried out by al Qaida in Syria.

“Certainly groups that are Islamist in orientation, whether they’re affiliated with al-Qaida or not, are now operating on the ground there. Videos like this, of course are very difficult to independently verify but we can cross reference them with other things that we’re seeing. These videos are now surfacing through known al-Qaida web forums that we’ve been following for the best part of a decade now,” he said.

Iconography associated with Islamist militant groups is becoming increasingly common in videos purportedly shot in Syria.

“They say it’s al-Qaida, it’s certainly Islamist fighters within Syria. You can tell that from the flags that they’re carrying and also from some of the iconography put onto the video. What they’re doing is that they’re transporting rugs here and blankets into a rebel-held area. This is typical of the way that Islamist groups in the region operate, in order to win over support from local populations,” he said.

In recent weeks, there have been several reports in the Arab press of foreign fighters going to join the Free Syria Army. Maher says it is impossible to know for sure the numbers of foreigners among the FSA ranks, but they are certainly present.

“Saudis for example going, Egyptians, Libyans, Jordanians. And of course that would tend to make sense. These are, particularly in the Gulf states, regimes that have expressed opposition to Bashar al Assad. Many of the clerics in those countries have declared Bashar al Assad an apostate,” he said.

Maher says that extremist groups were slow to react to the Syrian uprising, but in recent months, there are increasing signs that militant Islamist networks are looking to exploit the conflict.

Syria rebels warn they will turn to Qaeda if West fails them

By AFP

Published: 16 August 2012

ALEPPO: With the West still refusing to arm Syria’s opposition in the bloody fight against the regime, rebels in the flashpoint northern city of Aleppo warn that they could turn to al Qaeda for help.

“We don’t want al Qaeda here, but if nobody else helps us, we will make an alliance with them,” said Abu Ammar, a rebel commander in the central Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo, scene of raging battles for almost a month.

“And you can bet if al Qaeda comes here, they will brainwash the people,” he said. “If al Qaeda enters Aleppo, the city will become their base within three months.”

Syria’s opposition has frequently called on a divided and deadlocked international community to act to halt President Bashar al-Assad’s campaign of repression against a peaceful uprising that is now an armed insurgency.

The number of al Qaeda fighters in Syria was believed to be small, State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, Daniel Benjamin, said.

“But there is a larger group of foreign fighters, many of whom are not directly affiliated with AQ, who are either in or headed to Syria. And clearly, this is a matter of concern for all who fear greater violence in Syria and for regional stability.”

An AFP journalist in Aleppo said last month he saw foreign fighters who claimed to hail from countries as varied as Algeria, Chechnya, France and Sweden come to join Syrian rebel group, the Tawhid Brigade.

Another reporter said he saw fighters from a number of Arab countries including Saudi Arabia at a border crossing between Turkey and northern Syria.

Rebels Reject Jihad

Are Reports of al-Qaida in Syria Exaggerated?

Source: www.spiegel.de

15 August 2012

Intelligence reports claim that members of the al-Qaida terrorist network are streaming into Syria to join the rebel ranks. But the rebels deny the allegations and say that jihadists are not welcome. In any case, it is the Assad regime that has long had ties to al-Qaida.

Some rebel checkpoints in Syria are currently flying the black flag of al-Qaida. One of the flags is attached to a stick stuck into a tire weighed down with rocks in front of a checkpoint manned by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Aleppo, the country’s largest city. The Islamic creed, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God,” is written in Arabic on the flag.

Western intelligence agencies report that the al-Qaida network, founded by Osama bin Laden, has “up to 1,500 combatants” participating in the Syrian civil war. In response to an inquiry from the German parliament, the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, stated that, in the first half of 2012, it had counted about 90 attacks “that can be attributed to organizations or jihadist groups affiliated with al-Qaida.” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is apparently referring to similar analyses when he says that the presence of the terrorist organization in the region has created “very serious problems.”

However, these assessments are based on a small number of sources that are sometimes murky. According to the Washington Post, the CIA didn’t have a single agent in Syria by the end of July but, rather, “only a handful stationed at key border posts.”

Commenting on the Jihadist infiltration of Syria, Ribal Al-Assad, Director of the ODFS, said:

“I condemn the Jihadist infiltration of Syria, which I have been warning about for many months as it has the potential to ignite an all out civil war. Whether it is al-Qaida, or non al-Qaida affiliated Salafi Wahabi groups – the fact is that they are all Islamist Jihadist groups who are radicalising and militarising the conflict further, which will have grave consequences.

“Therefore I call upon the external backers of these Jihadist groups to stop supporting them and to stop inciting sectarian violence through radical clerics on their T.V channels because they will drag Syria and the region into a sectarian war.

“I call on all sides to end the violence, to stop arming the opposition and for the Syrian opposition to unite and work towards a diplomatic solution based on the Annan plan, which brings a peaceful inclusive and democratic transition. The alternative is a greater loss of life and physical destruction where everyone will lose out.”