U.S.-Backed Syria Rebels Routed By Fighters Linked To Al-Qaeda
Source: Washington Post
BEIRUT — The Obama administration’s Syria strategy suffered a major setback Sunday after fighters linked to al-Qaeda routed U.S.-backed rebels from their main northern strongholds, capturing significant quantities of weaponry, triggering widespread defections and ending hopes that Washington will readily find Syrian partners in its war against the Islamic State.
Moderate rebels who had been armed and trained by the United States either surrendered or defected to the extremists as the Jabhat al-Nusra group, affiliated with al-Qaeda, swept through the towns and villages the moderates controlled in the northern province of Idlib, in what appeared to be a concerted push to vanquish the moderate Free Syrian Army, according to rebel commanders, activists and analysts.
Other moderate fighters were on the run, headed for the Turkish border as the extremists closed in, heralding a significant defeat for the rebel forces Washington had been counting on as a bulwark against the Islamic State.
Moderates still retain a strong presence in southern Syria, but the Islamic State has not been a major factor there.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-backed-syria-rebels-routed-by-fighters-linked-to-al-qaeda/2014/11/02/7a8b1351-8fb7-4f7e-a477-66ec0a0aaf34_story.html
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Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)
joshcryer
(62,269 posts)Because they in the indeterminate future would be murdered by radicals?
So confused.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)We're talking about arming and training 5,000 fighters in a conflict where there are already a hundred thousand or so armed rebels of various stripes and several hundred thousand regime forces.
And what is these "good" rebels are supposed to do? Prolong and intensify the Syrian civil war. Now, there's a winning strategy!
Instead of playing Saudi Arabia's game and trying to force Assad out, we should be working toward local and regional ceasefires aimed at an eventual political settlement in Syria. Then everyone can concentrate on the real threat.
Everyone says we need "boots on the ground" (nice euphemism) in Syria. There are plenty of boots on the ground there. They're part of the Syrian army uniform. Dare I say it? We should be working with the Syrian government like we are working with the Iraqi government to destroy ISIS.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)We're looking at a bloody insurgent group that butchers Syrian soldiers and civilians loyal to the sitting governmet, and because they don't fly a black flag we call 'em "moderates." And we arm them so they can kill many more people. of course we also know they are outnumbered and even with our "humanitarian aid," outgunned by those we consider "radicals." it is of course inevitable that pressed between the Syrian government on one side and the powerful "radicals" on the other, these guys will throw in with the "radicals' - because the government will execute them if they try to throw in to that side. Something about "treason" and "mass murder," you know.
Getting involved was bad. We have prolonged an already bloody civil war, we have given firepower and training to crazy people that has then been captured by people we regard as even crazier, and the entire nation is about to become Afghanistan circa 1990.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)triggering mass defections". Geez!!!!!
What does it take? This is just another military policy that backs a loser, again. 
bemildred
(90,061 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)KUWAIT CITY — A senior member of the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime says Canada’s time, effort and money would be better spent training ground forces to retake territory from the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, rather than on a bombing campaign.
Brig.-Gen. Hussam Alawak, who heads up intelligence for the Free Officers Movement — one arm of the Free Syrian Army — also warned in an interview with The Canadian Press that new anti-aircraft weapons threatening coalition jets come from looted stockpiles in Libya and more potent weapons may be on the way.
Alawak, who defected prior to the Arab Spring uprising, says the current U.S.-led bombing campaign will not dislodge the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham and may drive up recruitment to the group.
Operations involving Canadian fighter-bombers continued over the weekend with two CF-18s dropping bombs on ISIS targets near Fallujah, west of Baghdad, but the air force refused to provide updated details on the mission other than to say all aircraft returned safely to base.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/03/syrian-rebel-leader-warns-canada-that-isis-has-new-anti-aircraft-weapons-that-threaten-the-cf-18s/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Jihadists with the Al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Al-Nusra Front took control of several villages in Syria’s Idlib province over the weekend and reportedly seized weapons from Western-backed moderate rebel groups.
Upwards of 80 American-made TOW anti-tank missiles reportedly were captured by Al-Qaed-linked fighters in Syria after Western-supported opposition groups were overrun or defected to Al-Nusra Front
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that Al-Nusra fighters were successful with weekend advances that earned them control of the town of Khan Al-Sobol, as well as “most of the towns and villages of Al-Zaweyi Mountain in the countryside of Idlib,” citing unnamed sources described by the Observatory as reliable and trusted.
In addition to seizing the town of Khan Al-Sobol, the Al-Qaeda linked extremist group has also allegedly taken control over M’arshorin, M’sran, Dadikh, KafarBatikh and Kafruma, per the Observatory’s reporting, “where the Islamic battalions and Hazm are located.”
http://rt.com/usa/201927-nusra-seizes-weapons-syria/
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)U.S. officials are weighing whether to broaden the air campaign in Syria to strike a militant group that is a rival to the Islamic State and that is poised to take over a strategically vital corridor from Turkey.
Extremists from the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group were said Monday to be within a few miles of the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border, one of only two openings through which the moderate Free Syrian Army receives military and humanitarian supplies provided by the United States and other backers.
Over the weekend, rebels said Jabhat al-Nusra forces swept through towns and villages controlled by the Free Syrian Army in Idlib province, west of Aleppo. Rebel groups associated with the Free Syrian Army were routed from their main strongholds, with scores of fighters fleeing toward Turkey or defecting to join the militants, according to opposition activists.
Apart from one attack by Tomahawk missiles against an al-Qaeda cell within Jabhat al-Nusra in late September,when the Syrian airstrikes began, U.S. and Arab warplanes have been targeting the Islamic State, a separate group that the administration has made clear is its primary target in Iraq and Syria.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-officials-consider-striking-another-militant-group-in-syria-jabhat-al-nusra/2014/11/03/86a19bac-6382-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html
bemildred
(90,061 posts)President Barack Obama announced airstikes against the Islamist militant group which calls itself the Islamic State, or ISIS, in September. But before ISIS gained ground in Syria, there was another enemy there: the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Since early 2012, the U.S. and its allies armed militia forces fighting to overthrow his oppressive regime. U.S. airstrikes against ISIS appear to have set off an unfortunate chain of events that leave Syrian militias caught between a rock and a hard place — that is, the Assad regime and another Islamist militant group. As the balance of power shifts, no one knows what will come next for the everyday Syrians who are caught in the crosshairs of this multi-pronged fight.
Jabhah al-Nusra militants, who are affiliated with al-Qaeda, massed beside a major border crossing on the Syria-Turkey border on Monday. Then on Saturday, al-Nusra took control of the last swath of land in Syria’s Idlib province held by Western-backed forces in the Free Syrian Army (FSA), according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“I (want to) clarify why we pulled out of the villages of Jabal al-Zawiya [in Idlib] so that we preserve civilian blood because this group does not hesitate to kill civilians,” Jamal Maarouf, the head a group in the loosely-organized FSA said in a video statement.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/11/04/3588215/idlib-syria-fsa/
candelista
(1,986 posts)This strategy isn't going to work? Just like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya? I'm gobsmacked! 