Jihadists, weapons 'moving from Iraq to Syria'

[FarCenter]

Jihadists are moving from Iraq to Syria, as are weapons being sent to opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Iraq's deputy interior minister told AFP on Saturday.

Assad has been carrying out a bloody crackdown on an uprising against his rule since March 2011, in which over 6,000 people have been killed.

"We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria," Adnan al-Assadi said in an interview with AFP, adding that "weapons smuggling is still ongoing" from Iraq to Syria. "The weapons are transported from Baghdad to Nineveh (province), and the prices of weapons in Mosul (the province's capital) are higher now because they are being sent to the opposition in Syria," Assadi said.

He said that the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has risen from between $100 and $200 to between $1000 and $1500.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120211-jihadists-weapons-moving-iraq-syria

[NutmegYankee]

1. *Sniff Sniff* I smell a proxy war starting! nt

[riderinthestorm]

4. "Starting"? Unfortunately this civil war was hijacked quite a while ago.... nt

Edited to add a K&R for information - not that I like it but because its important to know.

[tabatha]

2. And Russia has just delivered two shipments to Syria via Syria's ports.

Btw, I believe that Iraq is supporting Syria, so I don't see how they could be arming the opponents.

[FarCenter]

5. It would be the Sunni and Kurd factions in Iraq arming the opponents

Probably Sunni tribes in the west cooperating with the Kurds. And the Kurds have been cooperating with US and Israeli forces for years, so that is likely continuing. Jordan is probably in the mix as a logistics center for UK aid.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Iran's openly working with the Assad family now.

Do you think the openness with which this is now all getting reported bodes well or ill? That the sectarian lines are becoming so starkly drawn in full view?

OF course the proxy nature of the US and Russia (and China) posturing behind the scenes is troublesome but the relative quietude of the regional players has had me worried. Israel's deathly quiet scares the crap out of me.... It almost felt like the Arab Leagues completely ineffectual bumbling was covering up behind-the-scenes movements by regional players. Your OP seems to confirm that.

I'm worried.

[FarCenter]

7. There is no doubt that this will end up in sectarian slaughter in a civil war

Asad's father killed about 20,000 of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood at Hama in 1982. This is just a blink in time ago in a part of the world where the half-life of grudge decay is measured in centuries.

It wouldn't surprise me to see casualties similar in proportion to the US Civil War, or about 400,000 killed given Syria's smaller population compared with the US' in 1860. Say about 100,000 on each side in the actual fighting and another 200.000 Alawites, Christians, Druze, and other non-Sunni minorities in the ensuing reprisals.

[tabatha]

8. It was about 38,000 Sunnis killed according to one who was in charge.

I read the quote on AJE, but there are so many posts on that blog it is impossible to find anything from even a day ago.

DisQus is disqusting.

EDIT

The Alawites are being protected by regime forces who are majority Alawite, and Hezbollah.

[FarCenter]

10. Various estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000 for Hama

So far, casualties this time are smaller. But it is early days.

[riderinthestorm]

9. The sectarian violence has spread to Lebanon.

http://news.ph.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5872590

Syria uprising intensifies, spills into Lebanon


snip
"In Lebanon, a 17-year-old girl was among three people killed and 23 were wounded in clashes between Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria's regime and Alawites who support it, a security official said.

Ten of the wounded were Lebanese soldiers, including a sergeant in critical condition.

The rival factions in Tripoli fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since June, when six people died in the wake of demonstrations against Syria's government.

In recent years Tripoli has been rocked by intense clashes between members of its Sunni-majority community and Alawites -- the community from which hails the Syrian president."

[killbotfactory]

3. This is what happens when you make peaceful change impossible

I have no idea how this will end, but it looks like things are just going to get uglier.