Jihadists supplied with arms and funds

Jihadist killing of captives widens the split among rebel fighters in Syria

A video showing the shooting of regime troops after they had been taken prisoner angered rebels who say foreign Islamists are being favoured with arms and funds

the Guardian

3 November, 2012

Rebel groups are accusing Syria's military council of infighting and nepotism and a failure to lead in the wake of a video that shows an opposition unit killing around two dozen captured regime soldiers.

Armed opposition units across the Aleppo hinterland say the western-backed council is failing in its bid to create a co-ordinated opposition army, partly because of its refusal to deal with Islamist-leaning Syrian groups.

The groups say the military council's favouritism towards some units means other militias are unwilling to act with discipline or to be held accountable. The disturbing scenes of the captured regime troops being killed, shortly after their post near Damascus was overrun, have angered rebel units in the north.

"We have to show we are different from the regime," said Sheik Omar Othman from the Islamist-leaning Liwat al-Tawheed unit in Aleppo. "Because they do it, it means that we don't."

Syrian Islamist groups have been at the vanguard of the fighting in Aleppo for the past three months, but are not able to match the better-armed and funded global jihadist units, who are increasingly taking centre stage in the war for the north of the country.

"This will soon mean that Jabhat al-Nusraf (an al-Qaida-aligned group) will be the only group capable of mounting the lethal operations on bases and security headquarters," said a leader of Liwat al-Tawheed, which has been a key player in the fighting in Aleppo. "It already means that we can't win without them."

Islamist groups in Aleppo say that they aim to do no more than oust the Assad regime. Most of their clerics and leaders reject the ideology of the jihadists, who openly view the battle in Syria as a vital phase of a global sectarian war.

With Aleppo effectively locked in stalemate since mid-August, commanders from Liwat al-Tawheed and other units in and around Syria's second city have been travelling to near the Turkish border to meet military council leaders. "They say, 'join us, or we won't give you anything'," said Othman. "We are not opposed to doing that if it means that we get a share of the weapons that they are distributing.

"But their aim is to keep everything away from us. That's a problem when we're doing the fighting."

The military council is comprised of defected senior officers who have until recently remained in exile in a refugee camp in southern Turkey. They have access to weapons, sourced primarily from Qatar, and to funds from across the Sunni Arab world.

Under pressure from the Obama administration, some military council officers have since established a small base just across the Turkish border and are attempting to form a centralised command and control structure to unite the deeply fragmented rebel groups.

One of the council's senior officers, Brigadier Mustafa Sheikh, travels frequently to Idlib province, warning communities against supporting Islamists. Another officer regularly offers the same warning near Azaz in Aleppo province.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton last week also reiterated a warning to rebel groups to be careful from whom they accept help.

The pleas appear to be falling on deaf ears. "Tell the Americans 'thanks for the binoculars'," said an Aleppo rebel leader, Haji Tal-Rifat.

Islamist and non-Islamist rebel leaders here say that they are being forced to accept the help of the highly motivated jihadist groups, the predominantly Syrian Jabhat al-Nusraf, and the foreigner group known as al-Muhajirin, because no other assistance is coming their way.

Foreign fighters who embrace the al-Qaida worldview are increasingly travelling to Aleppo province, where they are forming training camps and leadership groups and are readily joining the front lines. The foreigners are also taking increasingly prominent fighting positions in non-jihadist units, which claim to be continually low on weapons and ammunition.

Rebel officers interviewed by the Observer over the past week say that few recent large attacks against the Syrian military or regime targets have taken place without the presence of several al-Muhajirin members.

"They are fighting here and they are dying here," said one rebel officer. "Sometimes we don't even know their names when we bury them, because they give us an alias when they arrive.

"I know we are playing with fire," he said. "But tell me, what would you do if you were in my position?"

Another Liwat al-Tawheed commander said enough ammunition was arriving from Turkey to keep the battle going, but not enough to win it.

"Compare what we have to what al-Nusraf are getting. They are not getting weapons from outside, but they are buying them in Syria with large amounts of cash. They are very well supplied and they are not saying where they are getting the money from."