In an image taken from a video posted in February 2012 to Youtube, a group of heavily armed militants claim allegiance to the Free Syrian Army.
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Youtube
(CBS News) LONDON - Concern has mounted for months that Islamic extremists are joining the fight against Syrian President Bahsar Assad's dictatorship, and now a New York Times report says there's increasing evidence that al Qaeda militants are trying to commandeer the fight for their own cause.
The focus has been on claims that al Qaeda fighters from Iraq's Sunni heartland are coming across the border to fight their long-running sectarian battle against Shiite Muslims on new territory - with the apparent goal, once Assad is ousted, of being able to carve out a Sunni homeland under strict Islamic law.
Syria's prominent opposition groups flatly reject the notion that Islamic extremists are a significant force within the anti-Assad fight. They know it would not help their cause as they seek further support from the U.S. and other sympathetic nations.
But senior Iraqi officials have warned that militants - including al Qaeda in Iraq fighters - are crossing the border.
An aide to the Iraqi prime minister is quoted in the Times Wednesday as saying that his nation was "100 percent sure from security coordination with Syrian authorities that the wanted names that we have are the same wanted names that the Syrian authorities have, especially within the last three months."
"Al Qaeda that is operating in Iraq is the same as that which is operating in Syria," Izzat al-Shahbandar, the Iraqi leader's aide, said Tuesday.
Iraq, a majority Shiite nation, has good reason to fear an al Qaeda presence on its doorstep.
A geographical region which spans the border between the two nations, known as the Levant, is firm Sunni territory - from which al Qaeda in Iraq drew many of its fighters for the battle against the post-Saddam, Shiite-led government. (That battle continues today, long after the withdrawal of the last U.S forces from Iraq.)
Syria is a majority Sunni nation, but has been ruled by the Assad family - from the minority Alawite sect - for four decades.
It is worth noting that not all Sunni Islamist militants are created equal. Several Sunni tribal sheiks in western Iraq told The Telegraph in March they were sending men to join the rebels in Syria - but they spoke of al Qaeda as an enemy. The sheiks were, in some cases, the same men who led the Sunni "awakening" groups which helped U.S. forces quash al Qaeda's hold on Western Iraq.
"Al Qaeda are no way sending people to Syria to fight the regime," Sheik Hamid al-Hayis, one of the local tribal leaders told the paper, while acknowledging that the global terror franchise does tend to "seek out unstable areas."
Another sheik, Ashour Juru al-Bu Mahal, even went so far as to say his fighters would be able to "hold off al Qaeda" in Syria if the group did try to claim territory there. "We have experience," he said. "We have fought against them before. We know how to do it."
Tangible evidence that al Qaeda - the terror network led by Ayman al-Zawahiri and based along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border - is involved at an operational level in the Syria violence is minimal, but that may be less important than the trends highlighted by the Times article, which show an increase in al Qaeda-esque tactics.
Videos showing Islamic militants who superficially look and sound like al Qaeda, carrying messages claiming affiliation with and even allegiance to, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), have surfaced. In one video cited by the Times, rocket launcher-wielding men in face masks say they are defected Syrian Army troops who have now joined the FSA, as they announce the creation of a suicide "martyr's brigade."
Suicide bombing is a preferred tactic of al Qaeda and its franchises around the world. According to a study cited by the Times, there have been 10 suicide bombings in Syria since December. Four of them have been claimed by the al Nusra Front for the People of the Levant.
The Times article reports military and intelligence officials believe al Nusra and two other groups, Abdullah Azzam Brigades and Al Baraa ibn Malik Martyrdom Brigade, are linked to al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda, however, has yet to espouse any of the groups in Syria as an affiliate or franchise - along the lines of al Qaeda in Iraq, or North Africa's al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb. The closest to that syndication for Syria has been a remark from al Zawahiri in the winter, praising Syrian opposition fighters as the "lions of the Levant" and urging Syrians to join their ranks - but asserting no support beyond that.
And, in spite of the similar language and attire seen and heard in their videos, none of the Sunni militant groups fighting Assad in Syria is known to have claimed a link to al Qaeda.
But while the link between Syria's Sunni militant groups and al Qaeda-central may be limited to a shared ideology, the reality on the ground may be no less disconcerting.
CBS News analysis of opposition videos from Syria over the past months suggests there are not three, but myriad Islamist factions which have taken up arms against the Assad regime - many of them claiming allegiance to the FSA, and many using language and suggesting tactics commonly associated with al Qaeda.
These groups - contrary to their claims of membership in the FSA - appear to be as factitious and regionalized as the Syrian opposition movement itself. They are essentially local Sunni militias.
The fear, then, that al-Zawahiri and his cadres will try and set up a new headquarters in Damascus if and when President Assad falls, may be less well-founded than a fear over the complete chaos he would likely leave in his wake, and what that chaos might facilitate.
An array of well-armed Sunni militant groups vying for a cut of the post-Assad power, in a nation with stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and a shared border with Israel, is worrying enough.
If al Qaeda isn't in Syria now, its leaders will almost certainly have their fingers on the doorbell if and when Assad does fall.
YES, IT DOES MATTER WHAT TAKES PLACE IN OTHER PARTS OF OUR WORLD [SPECIFICALLY WITH REGARD TO IRAN AND ITS SYRIAN ALLY]
Why do some people refuse to accept the fact that what happens in one, sometimes remote part of the world, can and likely WILL affect us sooner or later?
This writer and many others feel remorse for knowing that violence, torture, destruction, killing, wars and murder continue, often on 'grand scales'. However others celebrate and are joyful to see such horrible events, and even deliberately expend their energies and resources to incite more pain, suffering, torture, murder, etc. Are they doing so to satisfy their primitive needs of hate, punishment, revenge, and to see more blood spilled?
More importantly, should we dismiss these issues of violence, torture, wars and other horrors, as 'foreign internal matters', and permit all sorts of ominous 'overseas' developments to continue simply as none of our business?
In summary, we better make sure that we know what is happening, and what are the ramifications of developments beyond our borders, lest we permit another growing, and potentially world-consuming fascist movement to ultimately encroach upon us.
The following statement can be made with great certainty: The current Iranian Islamofascist regime and its quest for Nuclear Weapons capability, as well as its agenda to impose strict Islamic Sharia Law onto the entire world must be stopped, before the price that the Western Free World will be made to pay in the not-too-distant future, will increase exponentially.
The al Qaeda is an invention of the U.S. Government who had to find a new threat to control the populace and move toward controlling the world. When communism could no longer be used as that threat, terrorism took its place to keep the military industrial complex alive and thriving for the few domestic tyrants thriving upon war and manipulating the national economy and all citizens.
Yes...just an invention and all those people that were killed in the last 20 years by the "invention" are really alive as they were invented too !
As a matter of fact Hitler and Stalin were really cartoon characters invented,
Expat.....try a hand at critical thinking before inventing things instead of buying this c rap you learned in school because your head was empty and you never questioned THEIR BS.
Critical thinking should be the result of investigation, which you seem to have done none.
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US . . ." -- Pierre-Henri Bunel
"Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet". A very common and widespread use of the word "Al-Qaeda" in different Arab countries in the public language is for the toilet bowl. This name comes from the Arabic verb "Qa'ada" which mean "to sit", pertinently, on the "Toilet Bowl". In most Arabs homes there are two kinds of toilets: "Al-Qaeda" also called the "Hamam Franji" or foreign toilet, and "Hamam Arabi" or "Arab toilet" which is a hole in the ground. Lest we forget it, the potty used by small children is called "Ma Qa'adia" or "Little Qaeda".
So, if you were forming a terrorist group, would you call yourself, "The Toilet"?
American citizens are only now beginning to realize that Obama and Hillary's 'foreign policy' gimmick has back-fired. In their haste to instill 'regime changes' in the Mid East, they have supported al-quaeda hooligans, not only in Syria, but also in Libya and Egypt.
....soon, we'll be sending shiploads of troops and spend trillions of our tax money fighting the same hooligans that we are helping now.
This is from PRI: The situation in Syria is as grave as ever, with rebel forces moving into the nation's most populous city, Aleppo, and Syria moving air power, heavy artillery and armor to respond.
Since the rebels moved in, there have been reports of Syrian helicopters and even attack fighters bombing areas of the historic city. Residents told The New York Times that the violent conflicts aren't just between rebel forces and the government, but also between groups of rebels.
What I notice is that the terrorists do what terrorists always do. They infiltrated and hid in the city to cause the government to fire on them in such a way as to cause us much destruction and civilian casualties as possible. It also shows to me that this revolution was not supported by mainstream Syrian citizens.
It's a good thing Bush/Cheney, McCain/Palin, or Romney aren't president. They would be spending 3 trillion to kill another 5000 US troops, permanently disable another 32,500 US troops, while getting hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians killed. All with nothing to show for it when it was over - 10 years or more from now.
Indeed, considering that in Afghanistan we still have 87000 troops plus roughly 100000 mercenaries (contractors) fighting according to Pentagon "about 50 Al Qaeda members" and we all see how that is going for us.. maybe its time for Chuck Norris and Rambo to be called, less expensive and better result ;)
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[SPECIFICALLY WITH REGARD TO IRAN AND ITS SYRIAN ALLY]
Why do some people refuse to accept the fact that what happens in one, sometimes remote part of the world,
can and likely WILL affect us sooner or later?
This writer and many others feel remorse for knowing that violence, torture, destruction, killing, wars and murder continue, often on 'grand scales'. However others celebrate and are joyful to see such horrible events, and even deliberately expend their energies and resources to incite more pain, suffering, torture, murder, etc. Are they doing so to satisfy their primitive needs of hate, punishment, revenge, and to see more blood spilled?
More importantly, should we dismiss these issues of violence, torture, wars and other horrors, as 'foreign internal matters', and permit all sorts of ominous 'overseas' developments to continue simply as none of our business?
In summary, we better make sure that we know what is happening, and what are the ramifications of developments beyond our borders, lest we permit another growing, and potentially world-consuming fascist movement to ultimately encroach upon us.
The following statement can be made with great certainty:
The current Iranian Islamofascist regime and its quest for Nuclear Weapons capability, as well as its agenda to impose strict Islamic Sharia Law onto the entire world must be stopped, before the price that the Western Free World will be made to pay in the not-too-distant future, will increase exponentially.
As a matter of fact Hitler and Stalin were really cartoon characters invented,
Expat.....try a hand at critical thinking before inventing things instead of buying this c rap you learned in school because your head was empty and you never questioned THEIR BS.
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US . . ." -- Pierre-Henri Bunel
"Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet". A very common and widespread use of the word "Al-Qaeda" in different Arab countries in the public language is for the toilet bowl. This name comes from the Arabic verb "Qa'ada" which mean "to sit", pertinently, on the "Toilet Bowl". In most Arabs homes there are two kinds of toilets: "Al-Qaeda" also called the "Hamam Franji" or foreign toilet, and "Hamam Arabi" or "Arab toilet" which is a hole in the ground. Lest we forget it, the potty used by small children is called "Ma Qa'adia" or "Little Qaeda".
So, if you were forming a terrorist group, would you call yourself, "The Toilet"?
....soon, we'll be sending shiploads of troops and spend trillions of our tax money fighting the same hooligans that we are helping now.
Very short-sighted!
The situation in Syria is as grave as ever, with rebel forces moving
into the nation's most populous city, Aleppo, and Syria moving air
power, heavy artillery and armor to respond.
Since the rebels moved in, there have been reports of Syrian
helicopters and even attack
fighters bombing areas of the historic city.
Residents told The New York Times that the violent conflicts aren't just between rebel forces and the government, but also between groups of rebels.
What I notice is that the terrorists do what terrorists always do. They infiltrated and hid in the city to cause the government to fire on them in such a way as to cause us much destruction and civilian casualties as possible. It also shows to me that this revolution was not supported by mainstream Syrian citizens.
You people are idiots, both sides.