Infighting Among Syrian Rebels As Al-Qaeda-Backed Opposition Battles Moderates Near Iraqi Border

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

BEIRUT — Al-Qaida-affiliated rebels battled more moderate Syrian opposition fighters in a town along the Iraqi border on Saturday, killing at least five people in the latest outbreak of infighting among the forces opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime.

Clashes between rebel groups, particularly pitting al-Qaida-linked extremist factions against more moderate units, have grown increasingly common in recent months, undermining the opposition's primary goal of overthrowing Assad.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday's fighting took place in the town of al-Boukamal between the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant against more mainstream rebel groups.

Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said the more moderate rebels used mosque loudspeakers Friday to demand the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant leave Boukamal. When it was clear Saturday the ISIL had no plans to decamp, the mainstream groups attacked, Abdul-Rahman said. Three mainstream rebels and two ISIL fighters were killed in the clashes, he said.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/14/syrian-rebels-infighting_n_3926850.html

[Wolf Frankula]

1. And These are the Good Guys.

These are the people that those who want us to attack Syria want us to help. Fuck them. There is nothing in Syria worth the bones of a single healthy Kansas infantryman. You want regime change, go there and make it yourself. Or else, STFU.

Wolf

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Think ho much better things would be if we had American troops in there between the 2 sides--

or, actually, 3 sides--or is it 5?

[riderinthestorm]

12. Try about 1200 different groups at last count...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023667218

As recently as late July, at a security conference in Aspen, Colorado, the deputy director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, David Shedd, estimated that there were at least 1,200 different Syrian rebel groups and that Islamic extremists, notably the Nusra Front, were well-placed to expand their influence.

"Left unchecked, I'm very concerned that the most radical elements will take over larger segments" of the opposition groups, Shedd said. He added that the conflict could drag on anywhere "from many, many months to multiple years" and that a prolonged stalemate could leave open parts of Syria to potential control by radical fighters.

U.S. and allied intelligence sources said that such assessments have not changed.

A spokeswoman at the State Department said Kerry's remarks reflect the department's position, adding that the opposition had "taken steps over the past months to coalesce, including electing leaders."

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3870782

[daleo]

3. Hard to say which of the multiple rebel groups are"mainstream", whatever that means

I suspect religious extremists are more common than liberal democrats, though. Much more common.

[Alamuti Lotus]

6. The "moderate"/"mainstream" fighter groups accept CIA/Saudi money and patronage

The "extremists" just do their own thing and are wary to accept foreign funding and control.

The "moderates" kidnap people and pass them around to the highest bidder, and the "mainstream" fighters occasionally consume the organs of aforementioned hostages (yes, that guy was a mainstream "Free Syrian Army" brigade commander that American politicians are so enamored with, and not one of those bad ol' extremists). The "extremists" apparently have some puritanical code of conduct for such matters (based on the accounts of a number of escaped/ransomed hostages over the last couple years), or just behead them on principle and move on.

The "moderates" do horrible things and, when reporters are around, blame them on the "extremists" to keep their narrative pure and easier for the usual sources to bandy about in their war propaganda blitz. The "extremists" openly and honestly brag about atrocities on web/chat forums and YouTube; and that's just awkward! Their frank expression makes for ineffective pro-war propaganda, and it's always sad when the PR blitz is made difficult by reality and other unsanitized concepts.

The "moderates" often collaborate with the "extremists" when it suits their opportunistic agenda. Witness the recent assault on the Aramaic Christian enclave of Ma`lula. On a few certain forums I haunt, the Free Syrian Army fanboys were openly bragging about taking the fight to the "crusaders" and spinning yarns about the many conversions they made in the process. The takfiri/al-Qai'dah types were actually more circumspect about the affair. Surreal stuff, wish I saved some of that. Not to be found in the pages of the New York Times or other propaganda sheets so desperately pushing the pro-war/pro-rebel narratives.

But overall, the "mainstream" insurrectionists are factions that the US/Saudi/Israeli regimes can do business with (read: more or less entirely unprincipled opportunists who worship the dollar {or riyal} like any good capitalist stooge). Therefore, they get the good press and the care packages and the impassioned--if rambling, incoherent, and vapid--speeches by the new$ org$ and the politician$.

[jakeXT]

9. I know the extremists attract disgruntled fighters, who think others are corrupt.

But they can't live and fight on air alone.

[daleo]

14. Interesting explanations

Agreed that "moderate" means, "cooperates with western intelligence, at least for the moment".

In this game, everyone plays everyone else and taxpayers pick up the tab.

[Sand Wind]

4. it's on Ahrar Souriya ldr Ahfad Afash's official page :

it's on Ahrar Souriya ldr Ahfad Afash's official page : some unidentified gunmen attacked them, trying to sow infighting. They denied infighting with ISIS.

[Lasher]

5. We always seem to back the wrong side.

It's hard to imagine a positive scenario if the rebels would actually win.

[another_liberal]

7. "Mainstream" rebels my butt.

Most of the really effective fighters against Assad are Islamist fundamentalists. What we choose to call "Mainstream" factions are but a small minority. We call them "Mainstream" only because they are acceptable to us and receive our aid. They are actually a minor factor in the fighting and have minimal support from the Syrian population.

[pampango]

8. "Most Syrian oppositionists support a move of the country to free and fair parliamentary elections."

Putin is correct that a US missile attack on Syria could have unpredictable effects.

He then says that there are few champions of democracy in Syria, depicting the struggle as one between the ‘government’ and al-Qaeda extremists. He does not characterize the ‘government’ but surely it should have been termed a one-party dictatorship with a brutal and vicious secret police. Given that Putin sided with Boris Yeltsin against the Communists in the early 1990s, you would think he’d be a little more sympathetic to Syrians desiring the end of their own police state. The ways in which Putin himself has cracked down on press freedom and moved away from democracy make one suspicious about his inability to see Syrian democrats. He doesn’t seem able to see Russian ones either.

Putin is wrong that there are no democrats involved in the struggle. Most Syrian oppositionists support a move of the country to free and fair parliamentary elections. It is true that Jabhat al-Nusra and a few other extremist organizations favor Muslim theocratic dictatorship, and they have had the big victories on the battlefield. But that doesn’t make them representative of the opposition. They just have more battle experience (many fought US troops in Iraq). By erasing the democratic opposition, Putin has done away with perhaps a majority of Syrians, and made it easy for his readers to side with a brutal secular government against a brutal set of al-Qaeda affiliates. It is a false choice.

http://www.juancole.com/2013/09/arguing-president-putin.html

Some 60% of Syrians are Sunni Arabs, i.e., adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam who speak Arabic as their mother tongue. Sunni Arabs also predominate in Jordan and Egypt. Large numbers of Syrian Sunnis are secularists, either nationalists or leftists, and not very observant. Many Syrian Sunnis still follow the tolerant, mystical Sufi form of Islam. Others have come under Saudi influence and are known as Salafis, but this is just a euphemism for Wahhabis, members of the intolerant and rigid form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. A very small number of Sunnis have affiliated with al-Qaeda, but they have had the important battlefield victories in the north.

http://www.juancole.com/2013/09/americans-theyre-threaten.html

We tend to focus on the fighters from all sides - good guys, bad guys. How do you tell them apart? Let's not forget the non-fighters, the civilians who mostly want the same things that we want.

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. The people who want democracy are side-lined by the guys with guns.

[pampango]

13. Tends to happen in all revolutions. The longer they go on the more the violent factions

increase in influence.

The tolerant, democratic elements are still there but, you're right, their influence fades as a revolution goes on and on. It's tempting (and makes life simpler) to just write them off as a nonfactor since the "guys with the guns" on both sides seem to be the ones who will decide who wins.

If there's a hope for a good life for Syrians, it will involve the tolerant, democratic elements not the guys with the guns on either side.

[MADem]

11. But..... but...... but......!!!

A self-anointed expert told me that AQ was running the show in a coordinated and unified way! That this civil war in Syria was all about al-Assad (murdering basstid painted as the "good guy&quot against "The Forces of Evil as Represented by AQ."

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you, that differing groups of Syrians might have their own ideas about the future of their country... and not all of them are evil, fundy, or mendacious ...

I disagree w/the use of the term "infighting" in the headline, frankly. It's a bit lazy and suggestive. You've got different organizations in Syria that all have their reasons for disliking Bashir. In many cases, that is their ONLY point of agreement. They might cooperate in a loose way for a single purpose, but they aren't "unified" or even supportive of one another in even a general way.

They certainly aren't in agreement at all when it comes to their vision of a future Syria.