organization:al-nusra

A no-fly zone for Aleppo risks a war that could engulf us all | Jonathan Steele
▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/12/no-fly-zone-aleppo-war-russia-syria

There are only three sensible ways to save Aleppo’s people. One is the voluntary departure of the jihadis who, in the words of UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, are holding civilians hostage. One could go further and say they are keeping eastern Aleppo’s civilians as human shields. Why, for example, have most people not left already, given the intensity of Russian bombing: is it that the jihadis are blocking people’s escape? Syria is also mired in a propaganda war, and in the heart-rending images that the rebels put out on social media about life and death in Aleppo, the seamier side of the armed groups’ control is suppressed.

Hundreds of civilians recently left the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya after the rebels gave in, with no reprisals from Assad forces. Gunmen were even allowed to keep their weapons and were taken by buses to rebel-held areas in the north.

The second option is for Syrian government forces to retake the whole city, just as Iraqi forces retook jihadi-held Ramadi and Falluja in recent months. Iraqi barrel bombs and US airstrikes had left three-quarters of those cities in ruins, but civilians got the chance to rebuild their lives.

The concept of an Assad victory will stick in the throats of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have lost so much in the fight against him. But if the secular multicultural tolerance of pre-war Syria is to be restored, it is better to deny victory to the Sunni extremists who pose the main opposition to Assad, whether it is Islamic State, the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra or similar groups.

The third option is a ceasefire. Last month’s Russian-US agreement provided for the superpowers to separate the al-Nusra fighters from those Syrian Islamists prepared to negotiate with Assad’s representatives in Geneva for a coalition government.

The ceasefire never took hold because the Islamists refused to split. Al-Nusra understandably did not want to be isolated and left vulnerable to a joint US-Russian air campaign. So they used their dominance among the Aleppo fighters to press the other groups to stick with them. For their part, the non-Nusra fighters feared an alliance between the Americans, the Russians and Assad’s army.

#ASL et #Israel
▻http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-curious-case-of-israels-syrian-patients

How did Faris get to Israel? After he was injured, he said, “the guys came and brought me to the border crossing. The Israeli army was waiting there for me and took me to the hospital.”

“The guys? Which guys?” this reporter asked.

Faris paused for a few seconds. “The Free Syrian Army brought me to the border,” he said.

Mount Hermon battles highlight divide among Druze communities | Al Akhbar English
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/mount-hermon-battles-highlight-divide-among-druze-communities

According to Syrian military forces, al-Nusra Front is attempting to link the borders with the occupied Golan Heights to Damascus’ western countryside and Khan al-Sheikh, in order to circumvent the Damascus-Quneitra road after failing to take Qatna and Saasaa. According to security sources, “the militants have brought reinforcement for this purpose from Jubata al-Khashab through Beit Jinn, but the army foiled them in collaboration with the Popular Committees and the NDF.”

While anger and sorrow have been the predominant reaction of the Druze community in Syria, the repercussions of what happened will no doubt leave a deep mark on nearby Lebanese and Palestinian villages. The events in Mount Hermon served to cement the positions of the rival Druze parties in Lebanon who are at odds over the Syrian crisis, and highlighted the sharp disparity in the Druze street on this issue.

Khaleej Times - 21 August, 2014

A Kuwaiti, Hajjaj bin Fahd Al-Ajmi, considered a financier of Al-Nusra Front, a Syrian rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda, was arrested yesterday on his return from a visit to Qatar, activists said.

They said on Twitter that Ajmi, 26, was arrested at Kuwait airport.

The UN Security Council last Friday placed Ajmi and five other Islamists on an Al-Qaeda sanctions list, imposing a travel ban and assets freeze. They are accused of providing money, fighters and weapons to extremist groups.

In early August, the United States also imposed sanctions on Ajmi and two other Kuwaitis for allegedly raising money for Al-Nusra Front.

Will the ’Emirate of the Levant’ be announced on Eid al-Fitr?
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/will-emirate-levant-be-announced-eid-al-fitr

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/348057-01-08.jpg

Fighters from the Islamist rebel group #Al-Nusra_Front allegedly dig a tunnel under a military site of the Syrian government forces in the northern Syrian city of #Aleppo on July 17, 2014. (Photo: AFP-Ahmed Deeb) Fighters from the Islamist rebel group al-Nusra Front allegedly dig a tunnel under a military site of the Syrian government forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on July 17, 2014. (Photo: AFP-Ahmed Deeb)

Preparations are underway by al-Nusra Front on the ground and in terms of sharia (Islamic law) to announce the Emirate of al-Sham [Greater #syria], which a jihadi source expects would be on the first day of Eid al-Fitr [the holiday at the end of Ramadan]. The Nusra waged new battles in #Idlib's countryside, (...)

#Mideast_&_North_Africa #Abu_Mohammed_al-Joulani #al-Qaeda #Articles #Ayman_Zawahiri #Emirate_of_the_Levant #ISIS #Islamic_Front

’Thank God for the Saudis’: ISIS, Iraq, and the Lessons of Blowback - Steve Clemons
▻http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-saudi-arabia-iraq-syria-bandar/373181

Qatar’s military and economic largesse has made its way to Jabhat al-Nusra, to the point that a senior Qatari official told me he can identify al-Nusra commanders by the blocks they control in various Syrian cities. But ISIS is another matter. As one senior Qatari official stated, “ISIS has been a Saudi project.”

ISIS, in fact, may have been a major part of Bandar’s covert-ops strategy in Syria. The Saudi government, for its part, has denied allegations, including claims made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that it has directly supported ISIS. But there are also signs that the kingdom recently shifted its assistance—whether direct or indirect—away from extremist factions in Syria and toward more moderate opposition groups.

Jihadists shoot dead Syrian boy in eastern #Lebanon
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/jihadists-shoot-dead-syrian-boy-eastern-lebanon

Syrian jihadists executed a 14-year-old Syrian boy in a Lebanese border town, state media and reports said. The National News Agency said that members of #Al-Nusra_Front, al-Qaeda’s official proxy in #syria, killed Khaled Mustafa in the eastern town of Wadi Hamid, near #Ersal. Private news agency Elnashra said the victim had got into a verbal argument Wednesday night with his killers at a gas station where he worked. After the altercation, the gunmen kidnapped Mustafa and shot him in the head, Elnashra said. read more

#Bekaa

Pendant que le Monde et l’AFP t’expliquent de concert que les salafistes en Syrie, c’est déjà bientôt fini, le Guardian te raconte exactement le contraire (dans un article bassement factuel, que veux-tu) : Syria’s al-Nusra Front – ruthless, organised and taking control
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/10/syria-al-nusra-front-jihadi

What changed his mind was the chaos and corruption of the FSA. He had fought four battles with the FSA, he said, and seen how they argued over the spoils in the middle of the fighting.

“Religious leaders explained to me that we should not fight blindly, that the flag of the FSA is the flag of infidel secularism and that America is our enemy, whether we declare it or not. Americans will always fight us and will never be satisfied,” he said.

“We can’t topple Bashar and hand it to the FSA to establish the same apostate secularist state. We are not fighting against Bashar only; we are fighting the system.”

The tactics with which al-Nusra is waging its war are no less brutal than those of its al-Qaida-affiliated counterparts in other areas of the Middle East. A few weeks before our visit, after a feud with a local tribe over oil, al-Nusra fighters had surrounded the village of Albu Saray and taken the whole male population of the village prisoner. A few of them were accused of killing an al-Nusra commander, and were executed, and many of the houses in the village were flattened. “Do you know why the Americans and Israelis are winning and we Arabs always lose?” asked the emir. “Because we Arabs are emotional.”

Al-Nusra, by contrast, was an international organisation, and was “not built on emotions”. Its members should be ready to kill their brothers or cousins if they were proved to have to committed apostasy.

“Hitting Albu Saray was a pre-emptive strike,” he said. “They were weak. They had a bad reputation. Kill them, and you teach more powerful tribes a lesson. They will start fearing.”