Al-Qaeda Consolidates Its Front
Groups In Syria
By Moon Of
Alabama
January 27,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Moon
Of Alabama"
- A
few days ago Al-Qaeda in Syria and the Salafist Takfiri
group Ahrar al Sham produced a show claiming they were
fighting each other. I fell for it and
wrote:
The Turkish,
Russian and Iranian governments had agreed on talks
in Astana in Kazakhstan between delegations from
"moderate" militant groups in Syria and the Syrian
government. Ahrar al Sham, which
ideologically borders between al-Qaeda and the
"moderates", was also invited. It declined
to take part in solidarity with the not invited
designated terrorist group Jaish Fateh al-Sham
(the former Nusra Front aka al-Qaeda in Syria).
Russia had
suggested the talks with the intent of separating
the "moderate" Takfiris under Turkish control from
the designated "terrorist" Takfiris. The talks had
no immediate results but still achieved their
purpose. Shortly after the talks began
al-Qaeda attacked Ahrar al Sham. After some on and
off fighting al-Qaeda started yesterday to
attack all "moderate" Takfiri groups in Idleb and
Aleppo governate.
I was wrong.
Ahrar did not fight with al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda did not
attack it. As far as one can tell they coordinated their
actions for the purpose of eliminating smaller "rebel"
groups under the disguise of Takfiri infighting. Those
smaller groups are led by local war lords and supported
by Turkey and the CIA. They all had earlier cooperated
with al-Qaeda which provided the "storm troopers" for
their attacks on Syrian government forces. They recently
took part in the Astana talks while Ahrar declined in
solidarity with al-Qaeda.
The ruse came
to light when the "reports" of Ahrar and al-Qaeda
infighting were not followed up with any reports of
casualties, neither from the sides of those groups nor
from any other account. How can there have been fighting
when no one was killed or wounded?
Ehsani
explains the situation:
Thread on
Battles in #Idlib: All battles that took place in
Naaman & Jabal Al Zawiye are imaginary battles that
were essentially prearranged
2-The main purpose of these prearranged battles is
to swap checkpoints of #Ahrar with #Nusra and vice
versa
3-Even the v public battle in village of Dana is
also imaginary as shooting that took place involved
firing in the air around Dana crossing
4-Even news of arrest of the two Nusra security
officers is untrue as both spent the time at
residence of Amr al jeldi, Emir of #Ahrar
5-This #Ahrar Emir's residence in M'araa acted as
joint operations center for both #Ahrar & #Nusra to
coordinate this entire scenario
6-Importantly, it appears that there has not been a
single casualty yet during these entire so-called
battles
That report has
since been confirmed by several other accounts and
sources on the ground.
Al-Qaeda in
Syria (aka Jaish Fateh al-Sham aka Nusra Front) did
attack several local groups, raided their headquarters
and confiscated their CIA supplied weapon and ammunition
caches. One major alliance of local groups, the Army of
Mujaheddin, was eliminated. Other local groups
took refuge by
joining
Ahrar al-Sham:
SOHR was
informed that the factions of Soqor al-Sham,
alMOjahdin Army, Eqtasim Kama Amart grouping,
al-Islam Army in Idlib and the Shamia front in
western Aleppo, joined Ahrar al-Sham Islamic faction
against Fateh al_Sham front
It seem that
the plan for now is to keep Ahrar al-Sham as a
"moderate" front group for al-Qaeda while eliminating
all other "moderate" forces on the ground. Parts of
Ahrar al-Sham take part in the Turkish "Euphrates
Shield" operation against the Islamic State while
al-Qaeda in Syria is
no longer openly supported by the Turkish state.
The ruse of the
claimed fight between Ahrar and al-Qaeda is used to
uphold a distinction between these groups even when
hardly any exists. Ahrar al-Sham was, like al-Qaeda in
Syria, founded by a senior member of al-Qaeda central
under command of the al-Qaeda's central leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
There once were
components within Ahrar that argued for a less radical
course. But other significant parts had argued for
officially joining al-Qaeda. The middle ground found now
is to cooperated with al-Qaeda as a means for absorbing
all other "rebel" groups on the ground while keeping up
good relations with Turkey.
Some (minor)
ideological differences between Ahrar and al-Qaeda in
Syria
still exist. It is expected that a fight for primacy
will indeed start between (parts of) these two groups in
the not so distant future. But that will only happen
after all weaker groups on the ground are eliminated and
after Ahrar is exposed and can no longer act as a
Turkish supported intermediary for weapons and other
supplies.
The Associated
Press still
reports fighting between Ahrar and Al-Qaeda based on
quotes of the Gulf propagandist Charles Lister. Like us
it fell for the ruse. Unlike us it will probably stick
to the fake version. The ruse will thus have worked in
deceiving the "western" public and decision makers.
The views
expressed in this article are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
Information Clearing House. |
