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<td class="arttitle" id="textFontSize1" dir="ltr"
valign="top"><big><b>Al Nusra Front Implements Its Model in the
“Liberated” Areas of Syria
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<p>Yusuf Fernandez</p>
<p><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=77016&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=20&s1=1">http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=77016&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=20&s1=1</a></small></p>
<p>An increasing number of international media outlets are
currently describing a series of awful and scary developments in the
militant-controlled areas of Aleppo and other Syrian towns or villages.
Reports speak of numerous crimes committed by the armed groups in those
zones and of protests by the local population against these militants,
many of whom are foreigners.</p>
<p>Fadi Salem, a Syrian academic based in the Gulf region who
visited Aleppo recently, wrote that even those in Aleppo who had
previously supported the rebellion changed their mind when violence
came with the flow of armed rebels to the city. “The population was not
ready for this. The armed rebels are mostly not from the city itself.
They do not have organic popular support”, he said.<br>
While Western media keeps on insisting that these groups support the
creation of a “healthy democracy” and a “rule of law” in Syria, the
reality appears to be a bit different. One of them, the Revolutionary
Committee of Aleppo, has recently installed a Taliban-style “Islamic
Emirate” in the three areas that still controls in the city, as it
previously happened in the quartier of Baba Amr (Homs) before its
recapture by the Army.</p>
<p>The “herectis”, according to its extremist views –Sunnis,
Sufis, Shiites, Alaouites and Ismaelites-, and the “infidels”
-Christians- have been expelled of these areas and their belongings
have been confiscated. The new “revolutionary” authorities also set up
a “Committee to Command Good and Prohibit Impious Acts”, a Saudi-style
religious police, to punish those people who do not follow their
particular interpretation of the religion.</p>
<p>German journalist Daniel Etter recently wrote a report in the
leading German newspaper Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about his
visit to rebel-controlled towns near Aleppo. In the article, he
suggests that all rebels there are members of extremist groups. Etter´s
report also provides evidence that rebel authorities subject civilians
to arbitrary arrests and torture and summarily execute captured members
of the regular Syrian Army. In the town of Maraa, north of Aleppo,
Etter saw some 120 prisoners, apparently civilians, “herded into a
large classroom” in what had previously been a school. “Many of the
prisoners showed signs of abuse,” he said. Rebel groups are also making
it clear that they have the intention to continue targeting supporters
of the Syrian regime.</p>
<p>What Etter describe in his article are clearly war crimes and
crimes against humanity. But in what refers to the crimes and
atrocities committed by the Syrian and foreign militants, the West´s
alleged moral sensibilities become dull.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>The Nusra
Front´s role</strong></span></p>
<p>On the other hand, around 80% of armed groups, including the
powerful Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), have created a
command center near the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. All
members of this command have recognized Sheikh Adnan al-Arour as their
spiritual leader. Meanwhile, those commanders who disagreed with this
extremist line have been killed and only Salafists or Wahhabis remain.</p>
<p>David Ignatius, a Washington Post foreign policy columnist,
has written that the Nusra Front now has as many as 10,000 fighters on
the ground in Syria and constitutes “the most aggressive and successful
arm of the rebel force.” In the war fronts across the country, the
Nusra Front and other similar groups are now doing the heaviest work.</p>
<p>According to the New York Times, the group is “a direct
offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq”, Iraqi officials and former Iraqi
insurgents say, “which has contributed with veteran fighters and
weapons” to the rebellion in Syria. “This is just a simple way of
returning the favor to our Syrian brothers that fought with us on the
lands of Iraq,” said a veteran of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who said he helped
the Nusra Front´s efforts in Syria, to the Times.</p>
<p>The newspaper adds that the group “killed numerous American
troops in Iraq and sowed widespread sectarian strife with suicide
bombings against Shiites and other religious and ideological opponents.
The Iraqi group played an active role in founding the Nusra Front and
provides it with money, expertise and fighters, said Maj. Faisal
al-Issawi, an Iraqi security official who tracks Al Qaeda´s activities
in Iraq´s Anbar Province”.</p>
<p>The Nusra Front and other similar groups have also publicly
rejected the authority of the National Coalition of Syrian
Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which has been recognized by the
US, some European countries and Gulf Arab monarchies as the “legitimate
representative” for both the Syrian exterior and interior opposition.
The militants have called the creation of this coalition a “Western-led
plot”.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Washington
discovers terrorism in Syria</strong></span></p>
<p>The rejection of the Nusra Front and other groups fighting on
the ground to US-supported National Coalition has irritated Washington,
which made a notorious effort in order to create it in the hope it may
become a future puppet government in Syria. This fact makes it clear
that the coalition does not have real support inside Syria.</p>
<p>The coalition was set up under the direction of the US State
Department and US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, at a five-star
hotel in Doha in November. Its leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, who is
being described as a “moderate” in Western media, is known by making
inflammatory sectarian speeches against non-Sunni religious groups. His
main qualification for leadership appears to be his long and close
relationship with the Shell Oil corporation.</p>
<p>On December 13, the US Departament of State formally
designated the Nusra Front as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”. In a
teleconference with a select group of journalists, a senior State
Department official justified the designation by accusing the
organization of launching “hundreds of attacks, nearly 600, in major
city centers across Syria in which numerous innocent Syrians have been
injured and killed.”</p>
<p>This statement was rapidly condemned by the most extremist
groups, which accused the US of carrying out an open interference in
the Syrian conflict, but also by the US-supported Free Syrian Army,
which publicly defended its vital ally.</p>
<p>With this decision, Washington pretended to have discovered
that the Syrian terrorists are committing atrocities in the country. In
the past, the US administration had dismissed as a “diversion” claims
by the Syrian government that it was under attack by international
terrorist groups.</p>
<p>This is another evidence of Washington´s hypocrisy. In 2003,
the US Administration justified the war and invasion of Iraq not only
with allegations about non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,
but also with another false clain: the links between the former Iraqi
regime and Al Qaeda. However, while the allegation of an Al Qaeda
connection with Iraq was a complete fabrication, it has become clear
that Al Qaeda-linked groups and foreign fighters are playing a decisive
role in the Syrian conflict. However, the Obama administration keeps
silence about it.</p>
<p>This silence can be explained because the terrorist groups
inside Syria are actually acting as US proxies in the war for
regime-change in Syria. They have been armed and funded by two US
allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and have launched a brutal sectarian
civil war aimed at destroying Syria and creating the conditions for the
imposition of a US puppet regime in the country. Washington is
supporting extremist Takfiri forces in several nations of the Middle
East because they promote a sectarian conflict directed at weakening
the influence of Shiite-majority Iran.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, US support for such forces could led to a
“blowback” as it happened in Libya where the US consulate and secret
CIA facility in Benghazi were assaulted last September by Al
Qaeda-linked elements. There is no doubt that some experts in
Washington see a similar threat in Syria. Joseph Holliday, an analyst
from the Institute for the Study of War, has warned that “the emergence
of Al Qaeda-linked terrorist cells working against the Syrian regime
poses risks to the United States and a challenge to those calling for
material support of the armed opposition.”</p>
<p>US neocons reject this view and claim that the US should arm
the Al Qaeda militias in order to overthrow Assad. In the neocon Weekly
Standard, a recent article by Lee Smith harshly criticized Barack Obama
and his administration because they have not acted forcefully against
Syria.</p>
<p><strong><span style="color: maroon; font-size: 7.5pt;">Disclaimer:</span></strong><br>
<strong><span style="color: maroon; font-size: 7.5pt;">Al-Manar
is not responsible for the content of the comments. All opinions
expressed are those of the posters not Al-Manar’s or its staff. </span></strong></p>
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