Crisis in Syri� #21: Waar rebellen zich nu ook tegen elkaar keren

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On the Jabhat an-Nusra vs. Kata’ib al-Farouq fitna”

Kata’ib al-Farouq, one of the largest, GCC-leaning opposition battalions in Syria is in the news again. Since last week, they have been busy battling jihadists from Jabhat an-Nusra in Tal Abayadd, a town in ar-Raqqa governorate, near the Turkish border. The details of the why and how are murky, but clashes continued at least till 24 March, 2013, when Jabhat an-Nusra was seen gaining ground near the Ali bin-Abi Talib Mosque in the city. A report from Rania Abouzeid (@Raniaab) of TIME mentions only the Farouq side of the story, which of course, doesn’t give a complete picture of what happened.
But from the facts that cannot be denied is this: Turkish intelligence maintains a strong influence over Farouq leaders, specially over the Northern Farouq ones. Back in July 2012, a coalition of rebel brigades captured Bab al-Hawa border crossing. Among the coalition were jihadists from the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), which though not part of Jabhat an-Nusra (JN), is under “Jabhat an-Nusra’s umbrella organizationally” (to borrow a phrase used by JN to highlight relations between them and MSC).
The Turkish intelligence panicked as soon as they realized the jihadists’ presence. They would rather have another brigade involved in freeing Bab al-Hawa, a local chapter of the Farouq Brigade, than jihadists at their borders. It is not clear what happened,and again we only have Farouq’s side of the story (courtesy @Raniaab again), but hostilities between the MSC leader in Bab al-Hawa, Firas al-Absi, and the local Farouq deputy leader, Tha’ir al-Waqqas,increased to a point where al-Absi was kidnapped, tortured and executed by Tha’ir’s men. Though this caused a lot of anger among other rebels, most saw it wise to not create further intra-rebel strife. Even Jabhat an-Nusra kept their mouth shut, instead of coming forward to defend a group under umbrella, fearing broader backlash. al-Waqqas and his now Tal Abaydd based Farouq commander even went on to boast about this killing to media outlets, painting it in the more media-friendly narrative of moderate rebels dislodging fanatical jihadists. But revenge was coming.
By early January 2013, al-Waqqas was shot dead, allegedly by a Tunisian jihadi, in Sarmada. al-Absi’s brother, who was a commander in Homs, had pledged vengeance for his brother. And so he delivered. The blood debt was paid. Neither Farouq high command (always had tenuous control of Northern Farouq) nor MSC, nor their jihadist allies, escalated the strife. JN issued a denial of involvement and called for peaceful redressal of differences.
If you see how Farouq presents the story to English language media, it would seem it’s a plain black and white case of local, moderate fighters clashing with rabid, fanatical global jihadists, purely because Farouq wants a moderate Syria. All fine and dandy, but the truth, as always, is much more complex.
You see, Farouq Brigades, “are a bunch of thieves”, as one of my sources described them. Northern Farouq is notorious for its extensive smuggling businesses of diesel, cement, and even hashish. They carry out extortion on their checkpoints. They charge exorbitant taxes for goods passing through their checkpoints, and this greed is shared by their Homs based colleagues, who, in the last week of December 2012, were busy taxing weapons to other rebels, instead of co-operating with them to fight the regime forces, and the result was al-Assad forces carried out the Deir al-Balba massacre on Dec 29,2012. Death toll was above 100, though exact figures are disputed.
Not ashamed by this massacre, in March 2013 itself, some rebels managed to cut off al-Assad forces’ pipelines to Homs from the North. Farouq leaders actually tried to convince these rebels to not cause problems to these pipelines! Apparently they get some kickbacks from al-Assad forces for keeping the lines running.
Locals in Bab al-Hawa and surrounding don’t like Northern Farouq’s control over Bab al-Hawa. These Farouq leaders are considered outsiders, but local civilians and rebels in Bab al-Hawa as well as Tal Abaydd keep their mouth shut (for now) because they don’t want Farouq’s wrath. Farouq has almost zero public outreach, no humanitarian programmes or aid efforts; there is almost zero contact with the the civilian Syrian population, in stark contrast to jihadists from JN or the much larger Syrian Islamic Front (SIF).
Northern Farouq has also been blamed for looting of private and public property in the liberated zones, like some other rag-tag FSA factions. This was one of the crucial reasons for the jihadists now controlling ar-Raqqa city to not allow FSA factions inside the city, the ones that played no role in freeing it.
It is still not clear who started the fight first in Tal Abayyd recently, whether JN or Farouq. But this needs to be seen in recent JN efforts of influencing small, but locally-influential battalions under its umbrella, across Syria. Recently, around 15 battalions involved in the seize of Kweires Aiport pledged to support JN against “US threats”. This is what JN is trying to do. This is their second ring of defense, local allies across Syria who are much deeply rooted than big names like Harakat Ahrar as-Sham, Kata’ib Farouq, Liwa Tawheed etc. By attacking Farouq, they are signalling to local FSA battlions that they would no longer have to live under the mafia-like extortion of Farouq, if they team up with JN instead. Also watch how quickly, even after capturing territory, JN backtracked and called for peaceful redressal of disputes.
Given JN’s success in actually injuring the Farouq commander in Tal Abaydd, and ability to seize Farouq territory, this little battle should be seen as a presentation from JN to locals: see how effective we are. They most probably had no intention to totally kill off Farouq influence, but this 2-step forward, 1-step back approach is very convenient for JN.
Farouq is up against some seasoned minds who have survived,and are now recovering from the Sahwa debacle in Iraq. If Farouq wants lesser public wrath, they would have to change their ways. Or else, local battalions always have an option.

https://pietervanostaeyen(...)na-by-shami-witness/

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Op zondag 31 maart 2013 13:15 schreef Djibril het volgende:
Dat vind ik het gevaarlijke, de islamisten zoals Jabnut Al-Nusra zorgen beter voor de gewonnen gebieden dan andere brigades zoals die van Farouk. Ik lees veel dat er wordt geplunderd en dan veel Syrische burgers eigenlijk de revolutie helemaal niet meer willen als met ziet wat hen wordt aangedaan. Ze zijn hen bezittingen niet zeker.

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Op zondag 31 maart 2013 13:15 schreef Djibril het volgende:
Goed voorbeeld is bijvoorbeeld dat filmpje van de Tunesisch televisie die je plaatste, waar aan die man wordt gevraagd hoe hij zijn terugticket had betaald. Zijn antwoord: plunderingen, gewoon door gestolen goederen te verkopen. Tja als Syrische burger zou ik ook ontzettend pissig worden als dit me zou gebeuren.
Wat misschien ook bij jou artikel past is het programma van inside Syria van Al Jazeera, waar wordt gesproken over interne oorlogen in de top van de SNC.

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Op zondag 31 maart 2013 13:15 schreef Djibril het volgende:
Er is weer een rel uitgebroken rond een vluchtelingenkamp, eerder in de week was het in Turkije raak en nu in Jordanie. Mensen worden niet toegelaten terug te keren naar Syrie.
http://www.lasvegassun.co(...)dan-syrian-refugees/

In Jordanie schijnen de condities in vluchtelingenkampen echt verschrikkelijk te zijn. Prostitutie, verkrachting, afpersing, dwangarbeid, je kan het zo gek niet bedenken hoe die mensen daar worden misbruikt. Geen wonder dat ze terug willen keren naar Syrie.

كلمة قويةلأحد مجاهدين جبهة النصرة فوق جثة قائد اللواء38

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Here’s the translation of the video (by A.N. to whom I am very grateful)

The Nusra fighter starts by quoting Surat At-Tawbah [14-15]:
"Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people. And remove the fury in the believers’ hearts. And Allah turns in forgiveness to whom He wills; and Allah is Knowing and Wise." (Sahih international translation)

O’ Tyrants of the world, our Arab world especially. This is the fate of every arrogant, unjust, spoiled and damned tyrant [as he points to the beheaded body]

This is the fate of the ruling generals of the Arab world, in armies and in what is falsely and fraudulently labeled “security systems”, when in reality its a system of torture, injustice and tyranny

This is their fate; They get their heads chopped off and stepped on along with their titles and rank.

Al Moushir, Al Fariq, al Liwaa, al Amid, al Akid, al Moukadam, al Raed and all the ranks are under our feet. Thanks to Allah

[i]This is the fate of every tyrant, oppressor criminal, every enemy of Allah, every enemy of Islam and Muslims and every enemy of jihad and the mujaheddin.

This is their fate; They get their heads chopped off and stepped on along with their ranks, medals, ribbons, looks and pictures, if Allah wills it [inshallah]

This is their punishment, humiliations and disgrace and it will be more disgraceful in the afterlife and they won’t be saved, if Allah wills it.

This is the fate of all the tyrants and all tyrannical idol worshiper, ignorant, infidel, polytheistic, criminal, corruptor governments, rulers and regimes.

This is your fate, to the end, to the disgraceful death in life and to the fires of hell in the afterlife Damn their fate. All of them, the generals and officers in the armies and security systems of the tyrants, as well as their governments and if Allah wills it, to their Presidents, Kings and Emirs, if Allah wills it….

Soon, they will be defeated, they will be defeated, they will be defeated. And glory to Allah and his prophets and the believers. And glory to the mujaheddin in the name Allah and glory to Islam and Muslims

And shame and disgrace on the ignorant worshipers of idols, the criminals, the unjust and the corruptors. The disgrace and shame and disappointment and the fire of hell in the afterlife, if Allah wills it, the fire of hell to all of them. Their ranks and their salaries won’t help them there, nor will their medals or ribbons or looks or pictures and nor all the commands and guards and bodyguards. No one will help them and nothing if Allah wills it. Your God is on the lookout, and the Soldiers of Allah everywhere are on the lookout for every unjust criminal tyrant, if Allah wills it.

And they will receive the fate as this unjust criminal corruptor [points at body], the damned Amid Mahmoud Darwish, if Allah wills it, and if Allah wills it, it will happen to all the unjust generals in the Arab armies and its security systems, the criminals and corruptors. This is their fate and to hell with them….

المدعو معاذ الخطيب يفاجأ الجزيرة مباشر بكشفه لحقائق

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On the subject of terrorism: Oh brothers, we are against every group, every idea, and every weapon that wants to destroy the social fabric of Syria. We are against every Takfiri idea, to be frank. We are against any idea that calls for blood, and that carries its ideas to the people with steel and fire, by using terrorism and compulsion. The holy Quran states “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” We are an open and tolerant society, and these ideas cannot exist among us.

However, we will not allow the exploitation of the issue over and over again, as was done with the ploy of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which destroyed Iraq. We will not allow nor accept the presence of extremist groups in Syria to be used as a ploy to destroy Syria. The blood of the Syrian people is more precious than all foreign statements, and the decision the Syrian people make will be made by the Syrian people alone.

In regards to those groups that carry alien and extremist views, we say to those states that support them with hundreds of millions of dollars rather than supporting our people, withdraw your groups, there will be no terrorists amongst our people.

The blood of people is more precious than anything. There are youth as young as flowers that are being pushed to our country so that their country can get rid of them. I’m speaking frankly now. There are innocent, devout and pure people who are severely dedicated, who put their souls in their palms for the sake of defending this great, oppressed people. There are states that spend hundreds of millions of dollars in order to send these people to Syria for the purpose of getting rid of them, not for the love of Syria nor for the love of Jihad.