By
Mark Curtis
June 07, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- The Telegraph reports that London
attacker Rachid Redouane fought in the 2011
British/NATO war against Qadafi – as did
Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber – and
joined a militia which went on to send
jihadist fighters to Syria. In Libya, he is
believed to have fought with the Liwa al
Ummah unit.[1]
The Liwa al Ummah was formed by a deputy of
Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the former emir of the
al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting
Group. In 2012, the Liwa al Ummah in Syria
merged with the Free Syrian Army (FSA)[2],
which was formed in August 2011 by army
deserters based in Turkey[3] whose aim was
to bring down Assad.
In Syria, the Liwa al Ummah was often
referred to as an ‘FSA unit’[4] and
sometimes teamed up with al-Nusra, al
Qaeda’s official branch in Syria. [5]
The UK has been reported as covertly
supporting al-Nusra in Syria.[6] Moreover,
the UK backed and supplied the FSA. In
February 2012 Britain pledged to send
advanced communications equipment to the FSA
to help coordinate its forces.[7] In August
2012, it was reported that British
authorities “know about and approve 100%”
intelligence from their Cyprus military
bases being passed through Turkey to the
rebel troops of the FSA.[8] In August 2013,
the UK announced £1m support to the FSA in
form of communication and other
equipment.[9]
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The FSA has been covertly armed by the US and Gulf states[10] and trained by Turkey[11] – all as part of the UK-backed covert operation to oust Assad which began in 2011.
There is evidence to suggest that the anti-Qadafi fighters who fought on Britain’s side to oust Qadafi in 2011 – for which the British authorities allowed an ‘open door’ for them to travel from the UK to Libya – then simply moved on to Syria. In December 2011, it was reported that “with explicit consent from Transitional National Council (TNC) chairman” (supported by the UK and NATO) “600 highly motivated troops fresh from toppling the Gaddafi regime” were shipped to Syria to fight alongside the FSA. “The trigger-happy Libyans have access to a wealth of weapons plundered from the Gaddafi’s regimes military depots or gently ‘donated’ by NATO and Qatar”.[12]
Mark Curtis is an author and consultant. He is a former Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales, Paris and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Auswartige Politik, Bonn. http://markcurtis.info/
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/06/london-attacker-rachid-redouane-refused-uk-asylum-2009/
[2] http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/03/al_nusrah_front_free_1.php
[3] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24403003
[4] http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/03/al_nusrah_front_free_1.php
[5] http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/03/al_nusrah_front_free_1.php
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/01/trial-swedish-man-accused-terrorism-offences-collapse-bherlin-gildo
[7] http://syrianfreedomls.tumblr.com/post/17225970100/well-help-rebels-overthrow-syrian-murderers
[8] https://uk.news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-aided-british-intelligence-041638306.html
[9] https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201415/ldhansrd/text/141127w0001.htm#14112778000328
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Syrian_Army#Arms_deliveries_from_U.S..2C_Turkey.2C_Qatar.2C_Saudi_Arabia.2C_others
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
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