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Oorlog is de verderzetting van de politiek maar met andere middelen - Clausewitz
Onderlinge gevechten tussen twee rebellen groepen, goed en uitgebreid geinterviewd trouwens om de verschillen en strijd bloot te leggen. De strijd tussen de salafistisch-Islamistische Jubhat an-Nosra en de Al-Farouq brigade, in provincies die vooral aan Turkije grenzen zoals Hassaka, Raqqa en Deir Ezzour:
===============================================================
In Syria, the Rebels Have Begun to Fight Among Themselves
Leden van de Al-Farouq brigade.
The day started like a regular Sunday for Mohammad al-Daher, better known as Abu Azzam, the commander of the rebel Farouq Brigades in the vast swath of eastern Syria called the Jazira, a region that stretches from the Turkish border to the Iraqi frontier and encompasses the three provinces of Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir ez-Zor. He had a series of meetings in the morning in a number of locations in the bustling town of Tal Abyad on Syria’s border with Turkey as well as in the partially destroyed former police station that is the Farouq’s headquarters. And he was going to visit his mother.
By late afternoon, however, the burly 34-year-old Raqqa native would be lying in a hospital bed — wounded by members of the ultraconservative Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra (which the U.S considers a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda). Abu Azzam’s targeting has blown open a sharp rift and long-brewing conflict between the more secular nationwide Farouq brigades and the Jabhat. The two groups are among the most effective, best organized and most well-known of the many military outfits aligned against Syrian President Bashar Assad — and the fight between them is just beginning.
(MORE: Syria’s Many Militias: Inside the Chaos of the Anti-Assad Rebellion)
Farouq has the upper hand in Tal Abyad, which lies opposite the Turkish city of Akcakale. It snatched the border crossing from Assad’s forces on Sept. 19, much to the chagrin of a number of other rebel groups — both secular units under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as well as Islamist groups operating independently. It’s not the only border post controlled by the Farouq. The gateway to Idlib province, Bab al-Hawa, near the Turkish city of Reyhanli, is also in their hands. The Jabhat, on the other hand, were at the forefront of taking Raqqa city, farther to the south, the first provincial capital to fall to any rebel force.
By mid-afternoon, Abu Azzam stopped in to see his mother, Em Mohammad, in her modest first-floor apartment a short walk from the Farouq base. The young man stooped to kiss her right hand, he put his forehead to it before kissing her cheeks and embracing her warmly. “Finally, I see you!” she told him, gently scolding her son as he sat beside her. “You know the last time I saw him he was like this,” Em Mohammad said, picking up Abu Azzam’s two cell phones, holding one to each ear and pretending to issue orders into them, interspersing the talk of weapons and requests for battle updates with “Hi, mother, how are you, how is your health?” The half a dozen men in the room all laughed. “I’m sorry,” Abu Azzam told his mother, “but what can I do?”
Turkish coffee was served in delicate, thin-handled china cups. On this day Abu Azzam wasn’t in his unit’s military uniform. He was dressed in indigo jeans, a dark green crew-neck sweater, a black leather jacket and navy boat shoes. He has a Salafi-style black beard (without a mustache) that he frequently tugs at and a smile so broad and disarming that it seems like it takes up his whole face.
He reached for his pack of Winston Silver cigarettes before turning to his mother, a feisty, friendly woman in a long black dress and powder blue headscarf whom he bore a striking resemblance to. “Just so you don’t hear it elsewhere, they planted an [improvised explosive] device in my car yesterday,” he told her. Em Mohammad put her hand up to her mouth. She had lost Abu Hussein, the second of her three sons, on Feb. 20 in the battles for Raqqa province. He was also a member of the Farouq, a father of two little girls, and now her eldest son was telling her he had been targeted. “May God protect you,” she told him.
“Nobody dies before his time,” Abu Azzam said, repeating a common Arabic phrase. In a chilling premonition of what would happen just a few hours later, he said: “I know that I am going to be killed either by the regime or by the Jabhat. There is no difference, they are both dirty.”
The device consisted of several sticks of TNT wired to the ignition of a BMW vehicle Abu Azzam often travels in. A neighbor alerted the Farouq leader to the presence of the device.
Seated on the floor, Abu Azzam rattled off a laundry list of towns and cities he said the Farouq helped clear of Assad’s forces. “What did they liberate?” he said of the Jabhat. “They are just here to try and impose their rules on us.” He held up his cigarette: “They threatened to label me a kafir [unbeliever or apostate] because of this,” he said. (Some ultraconservatives consider smoking a sin.)
Some of the men in the room who had just returned from Raqqa city, relayed details of the Jabhat’s smear campaign there against Abu Azzam and the Farouq. “They’re calling us Farouq sarouk,” one said (sarouk roughly translated in this context means thief). “Some of them say that we are nonbelievers.”
It’s not the first time Abu Azzam has clashed with conservative Islamists. Before taking Tal Abyad, he was in charge of the Bab al-Hawa crossing hundreds of kilometers away. A Syrian Islamist extremist called Abu Mohamad al-Absi, who led a group of foreign jihadis who at one point controlled one of Bab al-Hawa’s two gates, wanted to raise the black banner over the border crossing, something Abu Azzam opposed. Al-Absi was kidnapped and killed in September 2012, most likely by the Farouq, although they haven’t admitted it. The jihadis retaliated in early January, killing Abu Azzam’s successor, Abu Ali, at Bab al-Hawa. In several meetings with TIME over the past year, Abu Azzam has repeatedly said the Farouq will not allow Islamic extremists to “hijack” the revolution.
There was a knock at the door. A cleric with a long gray beard, in a flowing white galabiya (a loose, floor-length robe) and a vest over it, entered the house. Em Mohammad and most of the men in the room were asked to sit in another room while Abu Azzam met the man. “Please wait with the chief of staff,” Abu Azzam said, laughing, referring to his mother. Other men in the Farouq jokingly call Em Mohammad “Anissa,” after Bashar Assad’s mother Anissa, a woman who some say acts as her son’s key adviser and is actually the real power behind the regime. That Em Mohammad is respected among the Farouq for her warmth, savvy and strength is without question, and those qualities would soon come to the fore in the hours ahead.
The meeting was brief and the sheikh didn’t stay for lunch, which was placed on a black plastic sheet on the floor as is customary. Store-bought kebabs, grilled tomatoes and green peppers, as well as minted yogurt were laid out. Flat Arabic bread was passed around. “This is the first thing I’ve eaten all day,” Abu Azzam said. It was almost 4:30 p.m.
The three men seated around him, Bandar, Ramadan and Badr, were all old friends from the central city of Homs who studied at the university there. The four men all lived together before the Syrian revolution. When the uprising became armed, Abu Azzam, a fourth-year Arabic-literature student living in the city, joined the Farouq as did most of his friends.
The Farouq Brigades emerged from Homs and nearby Rastan just months into the Syrian uprising, now two years old. In the period since, operating under the FSA umbrella, they have formed units across the country, from Daraa in the south near the Jordanian border to the northern region bordering Turkey. The brigades take the name Farouq from Omar bin al-Khatab, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, political architect of the caliphate and, historically, the second Caliph.
The men recalled their university days with laughter. The mood was light. “I’ve lost so much weight in this revolution,” Bandar said, laughing. “Do you remember how we used to cook in Homs?” Abu Azzam’s specialty was molokhia, green leaves that are carefully picked and turned into a viscous green soup served with chicken and plain rice.
Ramadan recounted an incident that had happened earlier in the day in Raqqa city that TIME also witnessed. He had stopped at a street-side coffee stall in his white pickup truck that has a black flag bearing the Muslim shahada (There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet) mounted on it. Three teenage girls walked past, two in hijabs, tight jeans and figure-hugging sweaters that extended to their thighs, the third in a black abaya. The third girl looked at the armed men in the truck and brazenly took off her abaya. Under it, she was dressed like her friends. “She must have thought we were Jabhat because of the flag and wanted to make a point!” Ramadan said. “So I turned up the music so she would know that we weren’t.” He continued proudly: “See, this is Raqqa, and the Jabhat thinks it’s going to control it?”
Lunch was cleared and the men said their goodbyes. Abu Mansour, Abu Azzam’s deputy who is also his cousin, walked into the room, bid his cousin farewell and told him he was going to check on his family just across the border in the Turkish town of Akcakale.
Abu Mansour walked the short distance home. His niece had just served steaming-hot Turkish coffee, but before Abu Mansour could take a sip, one of his two cell phones rang. “What! Where are you? I’m coming now!” he said into the phone before jumping up, shoving his local Alhamraa cigarettes and his phones into his leather jacket and rushing out the door. It was a little before 5 p.m. and Abu Azzam had just been shot.
Minutes earlier, on the other side of the border, Abu Azzam had also received a phone call, from one of his men. The Jabhat had set up a random checkpoint at a spot dubbed Liberation Roundabout on the main road in Tal Abyad and were detaining Farouq fighters and trying to disarm them. A few days earlier, 11 Farouq men were picked up by the Jabhat in town.
Abu Azzam grabbed a BKC machine gun and ran out the door to intercede on behalf of his men. According to Em Mohammad, he didn’t ask any of his men to come with him but two followed him anyway. He had just reached the roundabout and stepped out of his car when a member of the Jabhat reportedly tossed a hand grenade in his direction before others opened fire. The melee was over within minutes, and Abu Azzam, as well as several other wounded men, were being ferried by passersby to the border crossing into Turkey, where Abu Mansour was waiting to rush his bloodied commander in a taxi to the local hospital in Akcakale.
The hospital foyer was crowded with unarmed Farouq fighters in plain clothes, as well as others. Em Mohammad paced up and down. She was carrying a blue garbage bag containing her son’s clothes. She held up his indigo jeans. They were bloodied and there was a tear above the right knee.
Abu Azzam was shot in the left side of his abdomen, both his hands were bandaged, and he suffered shrapnel wounds to both legs, as well as above his right eye. One of the Farouq men’s phone rang. “Don’t do anything until we get men and ammunition,” he told the caller. “Calm down! Calm the men down! Here, speak to Em Mohammad and do whatever she says.”
Em Mohammad took the phone. “Please, you are all my sons. This is not the time for rash decisions. We must be smart. Calm down. We are all angry. This has become personal, but we don’t want unnecessary loss of life. Please calm the men down, I’m counting on you.”
Abu Azzam was wheeled into the nearby X-ray room. His mother leaned forward gently through the crowd to cover his naked shoulder with the pale mauve sheet. One of the two Farouq fighters was lying on a gurney in the emergency room. He looked to be about 20 years old and was dressed in military camouflage pants and an aqua T-shirt. He had a shrapnel wound to his left ankle, which was bandaged. Tears welled in his eyes. “They shot Abu Azzam!” he said, before asking one of his colleagues for water, a request denied on doctor’s orders. “Then let me go back out there and fight!” he said, crying. “Let me fight them!”
A gurney with a pale mauve sheet covering a dead man was wheeled out of the emergency room into the foyer, and toward the elevator to be taken to the morgue. The crowd in the foyer gathered around it as the sheet was lifted to reveal the man’s face. He had shoulder-length hair, and also looked to be in his early 20s. Em Mohammad and members of the Farouq didn’t recognize him, but a short man with a closely cropped, graying beard did. The dead man was a member of Jabhat al-Nusra, the short man claimed, before offering the dead man’s name. Em Mohammad started crying. “He’s so young, may God rest his soul,” she said, a generous sentiment given that the man had apparently just tried to kill her son.
Soon after, another dead man was also wheeled out, also identified by the short man as a member of Jabhat al-Nusra. “They have eyes and ears everywhere,” Em Mohammad said, referring to the short man. There were other characters in the foyer, men who were identified to TIME as Turkish intelligence agents. By 6 p.m., four policemen were guarding the entrance of the hospital and using a handheld metal detector to check everyone coming through the doors.
Abu Azzam was to be transferred to a bigger hospital in Sanliurfa some 53 km away. He let out a cry of pain as he was wheeled into a waiting ambulance. A thin stream of fresh blood escaped from under the large bandage over his right eye. (As of Tuesday, the Farouq commander was still in the hospital, under Turkish guard, in stable condition.)
Later on Sunday night, Abu Azzam’s sister and other female relatives crossed into Turkey in the dark, along with their children. They were taken to Abu Mansour’s home. Two Farouq men sat outside the front door, guarding it although they were both unarmed. One, a man in a black-and-gray tracksuit, sat on the stairs. With deep sadness, he said the day’s events had made him want to forget about the revolution. “If this is what it has come to — to us fighting each other — then I want to sit at home and support Bashar,” he said. His view was not shared by most of the Farouq who were itching for a fight.
By Monday, no fewer than five Farouq liwas (or brigades although the term doesn’t strictly correlate to a brigade in the modern military sense) were on their way to Tal Abyad from the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. There have been clashes in Tal Abyad between the two groups although by Monday afternoon the border crossing was reopened.
Abu Mansour, Abu Azzam’s deputy, said the Jabhat approached him and requested that the matter between the two groups be resolved in a Shari‘a court. As a goodwill gesture, Jabhat released 11 Farouq fighters as well as 22 others they had picked up earlier. They were also forced to retreat out of the various positions they occupied in Tal Abyad to their main base in the town. “The problem is that they have forgotten that we are all fighting Bashar,” Abu Mansour said of the Jabhat. “They want an Islamic emirate. They say that they are Islamists and we are apostates, but we will not accept that they have any sway or authority over us or others. May God heal Abu Azzam, that is the main thing, but in every province now, we will fight them.”
http://world.time.com/201(...)elves/#ixzz2Ohn4LpYR
===============================================================
In Syria, the Rebels Have Begun to Fight Among Themselves
Leden van de Al-Farouq brigade.
The day started like a regular Sunday for Mohammad al-Daher, better known as Abu Azzam, the commander of the rebel Farouq Brigades in the vast swath of eastern Syria called the Jazira, a region that stretches from the Turkish border to the Iraqi frontier and encompasses the three provinces of Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir ez-Zor. He had a series of meetings in the morning in a number of locations in the bustling town of Tal Abyad on Syria’s border with Turkey as well as in the partially destroyed former police station that is the Farouq’s headquarters. And he was going to visit his mother.
By late afternoon, however, the burly 34-year-old Raqqa native would be lying in a hospital bed — wounded by members of the ultraconservative Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra (which the U.S considers a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda). Abu Azzam’s targeting has blown open a sharp rift and long-brewing conflict between the more secular nationwide Farouq brigades and the Jabhat. The two groups are among the most effective, best organized and most well-known of the many military outfits aligned against Syrian President Bashar Assad — and the fight between them is just beginning.
(MORE: Syria’s Many Militias: Inside the Chaos of the Anti-Assad Rebellion)
Farouq has the upper hand in Tal Abyad, which lies opposite the Turkish city of Akcakale. It snatched the border crossing from Assad’s forces on Sept. 19, much to the chagrin of a number of other rebel groups — both secular units under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as well as Islamist groups operating independently. It’s not the only border post controlled by the Farouq. The gateway to Idlib province, Bab al-Hawa, near the Turkish city of Reyhanli, is also in their hands. The Jabhat, on the other hand, were at the forefront of taking Raqqa city, farther to the south, the first provincial capital to fall to any rebel force.
By mid-afternoon, Abu Azzam stopped in to see his mother, Em Mohammad, in her modest first-floor apartment a short walk from the Farouq base. The young man stooped to kiss her right hand, he put his forehead to it before kissing her cheeks and embracing her warmly. “Finally, I see you!” she told him, gently scolding her son as he sat beside her. “You know the last time I saw him he was like this,” Em Mohammad said, picking up Abu Azzam’s two cell phones, holding one to each ear and pretending to issue orders into them, interspersing the talk of weapons and requests for battle updates with “Hi, mother, how are you, how is your health?” The half a dozen men in the room all laughed. “I’m sorry,” Abu Azzam told his mother, “but what can I do?”
Turkish coffee was served in delicate, thin-handled china cups. On this day Abu Azzam wasn’t in his unit’s military uniform. He was dressed in indigo jeans, a dark green crew-neck sweater, a black leather jacket and navy boat shoes. He has a Salafi-style black beard (without a mustache) that he frequently tugs at and a smile so broad and disarming that it seems like it takes up his whole face.
He reached for his pack of Winston Silver cigarettes before turning to his mother, a feisty, friendly woman in a long black dress and powder blue headscarf whom he bore a striking resemblance to. “Just so you don’t hear it elsewhere, they planted an [improvised explosive] device in my car yesterday,” he told her. Em Mohammad put her hand up to her mouth. She had lost Abu Hussein, the second of her three sons, on Feb. 20 in the battles for Raqqa province. He was also a member of the Farouq, a father of two little girls, and now her eldest son was telling her he had been targeted. “May God protect you,” she told him.
“Nobody dies before his time,” Abu Azzam said, repeating a common Arabic phrase. In a chilling premonition of what would happen just a few hours later, he said: “I know that I am going to be killed either by the regime or by the Jabhat. There is no difference, they are both dirty.”
The device consisted of several sticks of TNT wired to the ignition of a BMW vehicle Abu Azzam often travels in. A neighbor alerted the Farouq leader to the presence of the device.
Seated on the floor, Abu Azzam rattled off a laundry list of towns and cities he said the Farouq helped clear of Assad’s forces. “What did they liberate?” he said of the Jabhat. “They are just here to try and impose their rules on us.” He held up his cigarette: “They threatened to label me a kafir [unbeliever or apostate] because of this,” he said. (Some ultraconservatives consider smoking a sin.)
Some of the men in the room who had just returned from Raqqa city, relayed details of the Jabhat’s smear campaign there against Abu Azzam and the Farouq. “They’re calling us Farouq sarouk,” one said (sarouk roughly translated in this context means thief). “Some of them say that we are nonbelievers.”
It’s not the first time Abu Azzam has clashed with conservative Islamists. Before taking Tal Abyad, he was in charge of the Bab al-Hawa crossing hundreds of kilometers away. A Syrian Islamist extremist called Abu Mohamad al-Absi, who led a group of foreign jihadis who at one point controlled one of Bab al-Hawa’s two gates, wanted to raise the black banner over the border crossing, something Abu Azzam opposed. Al-Absi was kidnapped and killed in September 2012, most likely by the Farouq, although they haven’t admitted it. The jihadis retaliated in early January, killing Abu Azzam’s successor, Abu Ali, at Bab al-Hawa. In several meetings with TIME over the past year, Abu Azzam has repeatedly said the Farouq will not allow Islamic extremists to “hijack” the revolution.
There was a knock at the door. A cleric with a long gray beard, in a flowing white galabiya (a loose, floor-length robe) and a vest over it, entered the house. Em Mohammad and most of the men in the room were asked to sit in another room while Abu Azzam met the man. “Please wait with the chief of staff,” Abu Azzam said, laughing, referring to his mother. Other men in the Farouq jokingly call Em Mohammad “Anissa,” after Bashar Assad’s mother Anissa, a woman who some say acts as her son’s key adviser and is actually the real power behind the regime. That Em Mohammad is respected among the Farouq for her warmth, savvy and strength is without question, and those qualities would soon come to the fore in the hours ahead.
The meeting was brief and the sheikh didn’t stay for lunch, which was placed on a black plastic sheet on the floor as is customary. Store-bought kebabs, grilled tomatoes and green peppers, as well as minted yogurt were laid out. Flat Arabic bread was passed around. “This is the first thing I’ve eaten all day,” Abu Azzam said. It was almost 4:30 p.m.
The three men seated around him, Bandar, Ramadan and Badr, were all old friends from the central city of Homs who studied at the university there. The four men all lived together before the Syrian revolution. When the uprising became armed, Abu Azzam, a fourth-year Arabic-literature student living in the city, joined the Farouq as did most of his friends.
The Farouq Brigades emerged from Homs and nearby Rastan just months into the Syrian uprising, now two years old. In the period since, operating under the FSA umbrella, they have formed units across the country, from Daraa in the south near the Jordanian border to the northern region bordering Turkey. The brigades take the name Farouq from Omar bin al-Khatab, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, political architect of the caliphate and, historically, the second Caliph.
The men recalled their university days with laughter. The mood was light. “I’ve lost so much weight in this revolution,” Bandar said, laughing. “Do you remember how we used to cook in Homs?” Abu Azzam’s specialty was molokhia, green leaves that are carefully picked and turned into a viscous green soup served with chicken and plain rice.
Ramadan recounted an incident that had happened earlier in the day in Raqqa city that TIME also witnessed. He had stopped at a street-side coffee stall in his white pickup truck that has a black flag bearing the Muslim shahada (There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet) mounted on it. Three teenage girls walked past, two in hijabs, tight jeans and figure-hugging sweaters that extended to their thighs, the third in a black abaya. The third girl looked at the armed men in the truck and brazenly took off her abaya. Under it, she was dressed like her friends. “She must have thought we were Jabhat because of the flag and wanted to make a point!” Ramadan said. “So I turned up the music so she would know that we weren’t.” He continued proudly: “See, this is Raqqa, and the Jabhat thinks it’s going to control it?”
Lunch was cleared and the men said their goodbyes. Abu Mansour, Abu Azzam’s deputy who is also his cousin, walked into the room, bid his cousin farewell and told him he was going to check on his family just across the border in the Turkish town of Akcakale.
Abu Mansour walked the short distance home. His niece had just served steaming-hot Turkish coffee, but before Abu Mansour could take a sip, one of his two cell phones rang. “What! Where are you? I’m coming now!” he said into the phone before jumping up, shoving his local Alhamraa cigarettes and his phones into his leather jacket and rushing out the door. It was a little before 5 p.m. and Abu Azzam had just been shot.
Minutes earlier, on the other side of the border, Abu Azzam had also received a phone call, from one of his men. The Jabhat had set up a random checkpoint at a spot dubbed Liberation Roundabout on the main road in Tal Abyad and were detaining Farouq fighters and trying to disarm them. A few days earlier, 11 Farouq men were picked up by the Jabhat in town.
Abu Azzam grabbed a BKC machine gun and ran out the door to intercede on behalf of his men. According to Em Mohammad, he didn’t ask any of his men to come with him but two followed him anyway. He had just reached the roundabout and stepped out of his car when a member of the Jabhat reportedly tossed a hand grenade in his direction before others opened fire. The melee was over within minutes, and Abu Azzam, as well as several other wounded men, were being ferried by passersby to the border crossing into Turkey, where Abu Mansour was waiting to rush his bloodied commander in a taxi to the local hospital in Akcakale.
The hospital foyer was crowded with unarmed Farouq fighters in plain clothes, as well as others. Em Mohammad paced up and down. She was carrying a blue garbage bag containing her son’s clothes. She held up his indigo jeans. They were bloodied and there was a tear above the right knee.
Abu Azzam was shot in the left side of his abdomen, both his hands were bandaged, and he suffered shrapnel wounds to both legs, as well as above his right eye. One of the Farouq men’s phone rang. “Don’t do anything until we get men and ammunition,” he told the caller. “Calm down! Calm the men down! Here, speak to Em Mohammad and do whatever she says.”
Em Mohammad took the phone. “Please, you are all my sons. This is not the time for rash decisions. We must be smart. Calm down. We are all angry. This has become personal, but we don’t want unnecessary loss of life. Please calm the men down, I’m counting on you.”
Abu Azzam was wheeled into the nearby X-ray room. His mother leaned forward gently through the crowd to cover his naked shoulder with the pale mauve sheet. One of the two Farouq fighters was lying on a gurney in the emergency room. He looked to be about 20 years old and was dressed in military camouflage pants and an aqua T-shirt. He had a shrapnel wound to his left ankle, which was bandaged. Tears welled in his eyes. “They shot Abu Azzam!” he said, before asking one of his colleagues for water, a request denied on doctor’s orders. “Then let me go back out there and fight!” he said, crying. “Let me fight them!”
A gurney with a pale mauve sheet covering a dead man was wheeled out of the emergency room into the foyer, and toward the elevator to be taken to the morgue. The crowd in the foyer gathered around it as the sheet was lifted to reveal the man’s face. He had shoulder-length hair, and also looked to be in his early 20s. Em Mohammad and members of the Farouq didn’t recognize him, but a short man with a closely cropped, graying beard did. The dead man was a member of Jabhat al-Nusra, the short man claimed, before offering the dead man’s name. Em Mohammad started crying. “He’s so young, may God rest his soul,” she said, a generous sentiment given that the man had apparently just tried to kill her son.
Soon after, another dead man was also wheeled out, also identified by the short man as a member of Jabhat al-Nusra. “They have eyes and ears everywhere,” Em Mohammad said, referring to the short man. There were other characters in the foyer, men who were identified to TIME as Turkish intelligence agents. By 6 p.m., four policemen were guarding the entrance of the hospital and using a handheld metal detector to check everyone coming through the doors.
Abu Azzam was to be transferred to a bigger hospital in Sanliurfa some 53 km away. He let out a cry of pain as he was wheeled into a waiting ambulance. A thin stream of fresh blood escaped from under the large bandage over his right eye. (As of Tuesday, the Farouq commander was still in the hospital, under Turkish guard, in stable condition.)
Later on Sunday night, Abu Azzam’s sister and other female relatives crossed into Turkey in the dark, along with their children. They were taken to Abu Mansour’s home. Two Farouq men sat outside the front door, guarding it although they were both unarmed. One, a man in a black-and-gray tracksuit, sat on the stairs. With deep sadness, he said the day’s events had made him want to forget about the revolution. “If this is what it has come to — to us fighting each other — then I want to sit at home and support Bashar,” he said. His view was not shared by most of the Farouq who were itching for a fight.
By Monday, no fewer than five Farouq liwas (or brigades although the term doesn’t strictly correlate to a brigade in the modern military sense) were on their way to Tal Abyad from the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. There have been clashes in Tal Abyad between the two groups although by Monday afternoon the border crossing was reopened.
Abu Mansour, Abu Azzam’s deputy, said the Jabhat approached him and requested that the matter between the two groups be resolved in a Shari‘a court. As a goodwill gesture, Jabhat released 11 Farouq fighters as well as 22 others they had picked up earlier. They were also forced to retreat out of the various positions they occupied in Tal Abyad to their main base in the town. “The problem is that they have forgotten that we are all fighting Bashar,” Abu Mansour said of the Jabhat. “They want an Islamic emirate. They say that they are Islamists and we are apostates, but we will not accept that they have any sway or authority over us or others. May God heal Abu Azzam, that is the main thing, but in every province now, we will fight them.”
http://world.time.com/201(...)elves/#ixzz2Ohn4LpYR
Oorlog is de verderzetting van de politiek maar met andere middelen - Clausewitz
Ik snap niet dat wij nu een hulpactie gaan opzetten om deze "opstandelingen" (voornamelijk Jihadisten en Al Qaida) te steunen!
Ik denk ook niet dat die hulpactie bedoelt is om die Jihadisten en Al Qaida te steunen.quote:Op woensdag 27 maart 2013 12:25 schreef _The_General_ het volgende:
Ik snap niet dat wij nu een hulpactie gaan opzetten om deze "opstandelingen" (voornamelijk Jihadisten en Al Qaida) te steunen!
Rusland windt zich op over het gegeven dat de Arabisch Liga de 'stoel' van de Syrische vertegenwoordiger heeft weggegeven aan Imam Al-Khatib, de scheidende marionet van de 'Opstandelingen' (uit Nederland en 20 andere landen) die in Syrië tegen de wettig gekozen regering strijden. Ik zou zeggen: Weest blij! Je wil toch niet, als democratisch gekozen regering, tussen die obscure dictators zitten?! Die plek is geknipt voor de in Qatar op het pluche gehesen 'vertegenwoordiging' uit de VS en Europa die al dromen van zo'n glimmende Jumbo met van die gouden kranen. 
"Niets doet meer kwaad in een staat dan dat men list voor wijsheid houdt." (Francis Bacon)
Die hulpactie is ook om voedsel enz syrie in te krijgen, aangezien de situatie daar steeds erger wordt. Voor wie dan ook, opstandelingen, jihadist of de neutrale bevolking.
When I get sad, I stop being sad and just be awesome instead.
SANA tv zendt tegenwoordig ook in het NLs uit zo te zien?quote:
...Je wil toch niet, als democratisch gekozen regering, tussen die obscure dictators zitten?!...
Oorlog is de verderzetting van de politiek maar met andere middelen - Clausewitz
SANA tv? Sinds begin 2012 is er een nieuwe grondwet. Met ruime meerderheid aangenomen. Beperkte duur van de termijn voor de president. En meer democratie. Terwijl die marionetten uit Texas (de premier) en de directiekamer van de Shell (de president) van dat zooitje ongeregeld, dat afkomstig is uit meer dan twintig landen, en zich 'opstandeling' noemt, in het dictatoriaal geregeerde Qatar op het pluche werd gehesen, samen met een zak geld.quote:
SANA tv zendt tegenwoordig ook in het NLs uit zo te zien?
Ik ben geen fan van Assad. Nooit geweest ook. Maar dit theater is zo 'doorgestoken kaart', dat je niet eens meer toe kan met oogkleppen als je niet wilt zien hoe de vork in de steel zit. Olie. Olie. Olie en nog eens olie.
"Niets doet meer kwaad in een staat dan dat men list voor wijsheid houdt." (Francis Bacon)
Nederland gaat geen Syrische vluchtelingen opvangen
Het kabinet wil geen Syrische vluchtelingen opvangen in Nederland. ‘Wij zijn van oordeel dat de vluchtelingen in de regio moeten worden geholpen,’ zei minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Frans Timmermans (PvdA) woensdag.
Duitsland kondigde onlangs aan dit jaar minstens vijfduizend Syrische vluchtelingen op te zullen nemen. De eerste drieduizend komen in juni, de rest volgt in de herfst.
GroenLinks-leider Bram van Ojik wilde weten of het kabinet deze strategie ook gaat volgen. Timmermans meent dat landen in de regio meer moeten doen voor de vluchtelingen. Volgens hem beloven de landen in de Arabische regio veel, maar komen ze ‘heel slecht over de brug’.
http://www.elsevier.nl/Po(...)n-opvangen-1213334W/
Het kabinet wil geen Syrische vluchtelingen opvangen in Nederland. ‘Wij zijn van oordeel dat de vluchtelingen in de regio moeten worden geholpen,’ zei minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Frans Timmermans (PvdA) woensdag.
Duitsland kondigde onlangs aan dit jaar minstens vijfduizend Syrische vluchtelingen op te zullen nemen. De eerste drieduizend komen in juni, de rest volgt in de herfst.
GroenLinks-leider Bram van Ojik wilde weten of het kabinet deze strategie ook gaat volgen. Timmermans meent dat landen in de regio meer moeten doen voor de vluchtelingen. Volgens hem beloven de landen in de Arabische regio veel, maar komen ze ‘heel slecht over de brug’.
http://www.elsevier.nl/Po(...)n-opvangen-1213334W/
Steun het Kiva Fok! team!
http://www.kiva.org/team/fok
http://www.kiva.org/team/fok
Maar gelukkig voor de Syrier stuurt Nederland wel militairen 
Steun het Kiva Fok! team!
http://www.kiva.org/team/fok
http://www.kiva.org/team/fok
Dat ben je wel, geen probleem. Maar kom ervoor uit. Assad's Syrie is net zo democratisch als de Democratische Volksrepubliek Korea (DPRK). Een debiel die gaat verkondigen dat het daar een democratie is steunt ook dat Kimmetje dat daar aan de macht is nu en alle misdaden die hij pleegt tegen zijn bevolking.quote:
Oorlog is de verderzetting van de politiek maar met andere middelen - Clausewitz
Democratisch gekozen.quote:
Rusland windt zich op over het gegeven dat de Arabisch Liga de 'stoel' van de Syrische vertegenwoordiger heeft weggegeven aan Imam Al-Khatib, de scheidende marionet van de 'Opstandelingen' (uit Nederland en 20 andere landen) die in Syrië tegen de wettig gekozen regering strijden. Ik zou zeggen: Weest blij! Je wil toch niet, als democratisch gekozen regering, tussen die obscure dictators zitten?! Die plek is geknipt voor de in Qatar op het pluche gehesen 'vertegenwoordiging' uit de VS en Europa die al dromen van zo'n glimmende Jumbo met van die gouden kranen.
99.9% van de stemmen toch? Of was het realistisch dit keer en bleef het op 60% haken?
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers. ~François Fénelon
Ja, maar die treden in juli toe tot de EU, dus dan zullen ook zij de hulp (wapenhandel) aan de Syrische oppositie moeten staken.quote:
Jesus hates you.
EU kan de centen goed gebruiken en de war-economy gaat op volle toeren daar. De wapen-kraan gaat heus niet dicht.quote:Op donderdag 28 maart 2013 01:55 schreef Hondenbrokken het volgende:
[..]
Ja, maar die treden in juli toe tot de EU, dus dan zullen ook zij de hulp (wapenhandel) aan de Syrische oppositie moeten staken.
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers. ~François Fénelon
Die wapen-kraan is zelfs al dicht en wat Duitsland betreft blijft die ook dicht.quote:
[..]
EU kan de centen goed gebruiken en de war-economy gaat op volle toeren daar. De wapen-kraan gaat heus niet dicht.
Jesus hates you.
O ja. Op die fiets. Zoals iemand die iets positiefs zegt over de VS een 'fascist' is, zeg maar. Syrië was tot 2012 een dictatuur. De vader van Assad was een meedogenloze tiran, die ijskoud duizenden mensen die tegen zijn bewind in opstand kwamen, liet vermoorden. En junior martelde voor de Amerikanen. Alleen al dat laatste gegeven zou je wakker hebben kunnen schudden. Maar je leeft blijkbaar in een ideologische reageerbuis, waarin jouw kijk op de wereld de enige goede is.quote:
Dat ben je wel, geen probleem. Maar kom ervoor uit. Assad's Syrie is net zo democratisch als de Democratische Volksrepubliek Korea (DPRK). Een debiel die gaat verkondigen dat het daar een democratie is steunt ook dat Kimmetje dat daar aan de macht is nu en alle misdaden die hij pleegt tegen zijn bevolking.
Zoals ik schreef, is er in Syrië sprake van een BROZE democratie. Die nu aan gort wordt geschoten door een religieuze alliantie van VS, Saoedi Arabië, Israël en hun vrienden, waarvan velen volstrekt dictatoriaal en abject worden geregeerd. Dat die nep-regering van die topman van Shell, en die IT-manager uit Texas, die in en door Qatar op het pluche zijn gehesen, erkend zijn door die andere dictaturen in het Midden-Oosten, onderstreept nog eens hoe geweldig FOUT dit militaire avontuur is.
"Niets doet meer kwaad in een staat dan dat men list voor wijsheid houdt." (Francis Bacon)
Dus Amerika laat in Syrië illegaal martelen, en verpest die mogelijkheid door een in 2012 uit de lucht gevallen democratie (bestaande uit een 40 jaar oud martelend regime) lastig te vallen met 1000en buitenlandse terroristen die Syrische militairen dwingen over te lopen?
[ Bericht 0% gewijzigd door Papierversnipperaar op 28-03-2013 09:38:10 ]
[ Bericht 0% gewijzigd door Papierversnipperaar op 28-03-2013 09:38:10 ]
Free Assange! Hack the Planet
[b]Op dinsdag 6 januari 2009 19:59 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:[/b]
De gevolgen van de argumenten van de anti-rook maffia
[b]Op dinsdag 6 januari 2009 19:59 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:[/b]
De gevolgen van de argumenten van de anti-rook maffia
Ah, we gaan nu met termen spelen. "Broze" democratie. Je erkent wel dat Bashar al-Assad in de vele jaren na de overname van zijn pa geen enige vorm van serieuze hervorming heeft gebracht. Maar na de revolutie, opeens...werden er transparante verkiezingen gehouden. Niemand mocht meekijken, maar al-Assad noemt ze zelf transparant. En wij geloven de beste man op zijn blauw ogen.....quote:
Zoals ik schreef, is er in Syrië sprake van een BROZE democratie...
De realiteit en wereld werkt toch iets anders. Je zit hier tegen jezelf te liegen als je serieus bent. Kap daar eens mee.
Oorlog is de verderzetting van de politiek maar met andere middelen - Clausewitz
Hier een artikel uit februari 2011, dat verscheen in Vogue.
Zowel Vogue, als de journaliste, die dit lovende verhaal over het gezin Assad schreef, zijn diep door het stof gegaan, omdat ze de pogingen om van Syrië een Wahabistisch-gecontroleerde heilstaat te maken frustreerden. Maar de citaten geven ondubbelzinnig aan dat Assad al vóór de VS, Israël en Saoedi Arabië hun plannetjes konden effectueren het voornemen had om Syrië te moderniseren in de richting van een democratische rechtsstaat. Het artikel zelf, dat keurig in druk is verschenen, en dus op geen enkele manier meer valt tegen te spreken, is in de 'Westerse' wereld nagenoeg overal van het internet gehaald.
Het is intrigerend dat hetzelfde beeld zichtbaar was in Libië, waar Gadaffi na decennia als despoot te hebben geregeerd, een mes in zijn anus kreeg zodra hij tekenen vertoonde van 'zwakte', in die zin dat hij een 'dialoog' in Libië toeliet over de toekomst van het bestuurlijke systeem, onder aanvoering van zijn academisch gevormde kinderen. Dat MI6 al in de jaren negentig twee ton doneerde aan Osama Bin Laden in ruil voor het 'hoofd' van Gadaffi, en dat 'het Westen' bij de recente 'opstand' exact dezelfde Salafisten steunde die Bin Laden destijds op zijn beurt benaderde voor het klaren van die moordopdracht, zou iedereen in ons deel van de wereld de koude rillingen moeten bezorgen.
Dit hele akkefietje, van 'Irak', via 'Libië' en 'Syrië' is gestoeld op de gedachte dat je met verdeel-en-heers die 'inboorlingen' en 'heethoofden' in dat Midden-Oosten makkelijk een poot uit kunt draaien, door lokaal een wreed opperhoofd, zoals het Saoedische vorstenhuis, een Jumo-jet met gouden kranen te geven, in ruil waarvoor hij zijn onderdanen met de Sharia in de hand de kop afhakt als ze zelfs maar durven vragen of het misschien een onsje meer mag zijn.
Zonder enige twijfel bevinden zich tussen de 'opstandelingen', afkomstig uit meer dan twintig landen buiten Syrië, tal van naïeve religieuze utopisten die zichzelf opofferen voor een wolk maagden in het Hiernamaals. Zeker het voetvolk kunnen we niet beschuldigen van cynisch opportunisme, in de meeste gevallen. Dat zijn uiteindelijk gewone stumpers die met zich laten sollen. Of 'goudzoekers' die in ruil voor een salaris dat hen wordt uitbetaald door het Saoedisch vorstenhuis en een stel in weelde badende sheiks uit de Golfstaten, met wat oorlogsbuit, in de strijd storten. Maar de 'puppetmasters' zitten in Houston, Washington, Tel Aviv, Londen en Parijs. Olie, wapens en banken.
Zowel Vogue, als de journaliste, die dit lovende verhaal over het gezin Assad schreef, zijn diep door het stof gegaan, omdat ze de pogingen om van Syrië een Wahabistisch-gecontroleerde heilstaat te maken frustreerden. Maar de citaten geven ondubbelzinnig aan dat Assad al vóór de VS, Israël en Saoedi Arabië hun plannetjes konden effectueren het voornemen had om Syrië te moderniseren in de richting van een democratische rechtsstaat. Het artikel zelf, dat keurig in druk is verschenen, en dus op geen enkele manier meer valt tegen te spreken, is in de 'Westerse' wereld nagenoeg overal van het internet gehaald.
Het is intrigerend dat hetzelfde beeld zichtbaar was in Libië, waar Gadaffi na decennia als despoot te hebben geregeerd, een mes in zijn anus kreeg zodra hij tekenen vertoonde van 'zwakte', in die zin dat hij een 'dialoog' in Libië toeliet over de toekomst van het bestuurlijke systeem, onder aanvoering van zijn academisch gevormde kinderen. Dat MI6 al in de jaren negentig twee ton doneerde aan Osama Bin Laden in ruil voor het 'hoofd' van Gadaffi, en dat 'het Westen' bij de recente 'opstand' exact dezelfde Salafisten steunde die Bin Laden destijds op zijn beurt benaderde voor het klaren van die moordopdracht, zou iedereen in ons deel van de wereld de koude rillingen moeten bezorgen.
Dit hele akkefietje, van 'Irak', via 'Libië' en 'Syrië' is gestoeld op de gedachte dat je met verdeel-en-heers die 'inboorlingen' en 'heethoofden' in dat Midden-Oosten makkelijk een poot uit kunt draaien, door lokaal een wreed opperhoofd, zoals het Saoedische vorstenhuis, een Jumo-jet met gouden kranen te geven, in ruil waarvoor hij zijn onderdanen met de Sharia in de hand de kop afhakt als ze zelfs maar durven vragen of het misschien een onsje meer mag zijn.
Zonder enige twijfel bevinden zich tussen de 'opstandelingen', afkomstig uit meer dan twintig landen buiten Syrië, tal van naïeve religieuze utopisten die zichzelf opofferen voor een wolk maagden in het Hiernamaals. Zeker het voetvolk kunnen we niet beschuldigen van cynisch opportunisme, in de meeste gevallen. Dat zijn uiteindelijk gewone stumpers die met zich laten sollen. Of 'goudzoekers' die in ruil voor een salaris dat hen wordt uitbetaald door het Saoedisch vorstenhuis en een stel in weelde badende sheiks uit de Golfstaten, met wat oorlogsbuit, in de strijd storten. Maar de 'puppetmasters' zitten in Houston, Washington, Tel Aviv, Londen en Parijs. Olie, wapens en banken.
"Niets doet meer kwaad in een staat dan dat men list voor wijsheid houdt." (Francis Bacon)
Goed stom, wapens worden toch wel geleverd. Dan is het slimmer om gewoon mee te profiteren.quote:
[..]
Die wapen-kraan is zelfs al dicht en wat Duitsland betreft blijft die ook dicht.
Ceterum censeo Turciam delendam esse.
Om écht te profiteren, kun je beter die sancties tegen Iran opheffen.quote:
Goed stom, wapens worden toch wel geleverd. Dan is het slimmer om gewoon mee te profiteren.
"Niets doet meer kwaad in een staat dan dat men list voor wijsheid houdt." (Francis Bacon)
Oud nieuws. Overigens moet je er voor uitkijken om in propaganda te trappen als jou toevallig mooi uitkomt. Een dictator die een journalist verteld hoe democratisch hij wel niet is, kom nou.quote:
Hier een artikel uit februari 2011, dat verscheen in Vogue.
Free Assange! Hack the Planet
[b]Op dinsdag 6 januari 2009 19:59 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:[/b]
De gevolgen van de argumenten van de anti-rook maffia
[b]Op dinsdag 6 januari 2009 19:59 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:[/b]
De gevolgen van de argumenten van de anti-rook maffia
Dat het een oud bericht is, is juist de essentie. Had je dat niet begrepen? Als hij NU zou zeggen dat hij voor modernisering van de maatschappij staat, en meer democratisering, had je gelijk dat het een PR-stunt zou kunnen zijn. Maar juist omdat hij dat deed vóór de vlam daar in de pan sloeg, is het belangrijk. Dusdanig belangrijk, dat de betreffende journaliste kort daarna de zak kreeg, en werd gedwongen om zich in allerlei bochten te wringen om te zeggen dat ze het niet zo had bedoeld. Anders kon ze verder haar leven borden wassen in een bejaardenhuis.quote:Op donderdag 28 maart 2013 14:17 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Oud nieuws. Overigens moet je er voor uitkijken om in propaganda te trappen als jou toevallig mooi uitkomt. Een dictator die een journalist verteld hoe democratisch hij wel niet is, kom nou.
"Niets doet meer kwaad in een staat dan dat men list voor wijsheid houdt." (Francis Bacon)
Er was een opkomst van 51% en ik meen, maar ik kan het nergens terug vinden, dat ruim 80% voor Assad stemde.quote:
[..]
Democratisch gekozen.
De oppositie had opgeroepen om niet te stemmen, dus het zullen vooral Assad aanhangers geweest zijn die gingen stemmen. Er zullen echter ook Assad aanhangers geweest zijn die niet in staat waren om welke reden dan ook om te gaan stemmen. Veel mensen zullen ook niet zijn gaan stemmen omdat ze bang waren voor aanslagen.
Dus om te roepen dat Assad totaal geen steun in het land heeft is onzin...
Het zou me niet verbazen als hij nog steeds een ruime meerderheid van de bevolking achter zich heeft..
Maar Rakotto en Aloulou zijn Syriërs met inside informatie denk ik dan maar.....
