Conflict in the Middle East

Jordan Frets Rise of Syria’s Islamist Rebels Across Border

Efforts to Back 'Secular' Rebels Not Paying Off

Jordan’s eagerness to jump on the rebel bandwagon in Syria came with an explanation that they were really concerned about the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels and figured the logical thing to do was openly back the more secular rebel factions in the hope they would somehow even out. Needless to say, that’s not working out so well.

Now, Jordan is finding itself with a whole bunch of rebel-controlled territory right on its border with Syria, which is according to plan. What’s not according to plan is that the territory is dominated by the very Islamists they were supposed to be countering, and having been publicly disavowed by Jordan, they’re not just an inconvenience but an overt long-term threat.

It was always pretty apparent that an Islamist win in Syria would be disastrous for Jordan, in that they have a pretty sizable number of Islamists in Jordan who would love to piggyback on the Syrian rebellion to oust the Hashemite king in favor of a more clergy-based society. Hosting US trainers and spearheading the rebel arms program was aimed at giving them some say over who the powerbrokers in the rebellion are.

In the end though, the rebellion is so nebulous that arms are readily passed back and forth, and backing the “secular rebels” is still backing the rebels. Direct aid may focus on only some of them, but apart from some incidents of intra-rebel fighting the rebels are mostly allies, so there’s no reason to have expected anything else.

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/05/01/jordan-frets-rise-of-syrias-islamist-rebels-across-border/

Boots on the Ground: First US Troops Arrive for Mali War

Troops Won't Engage in Combat, Pentagon Insists

Middle East Online,

2 May, 2013

From the moment France invaded Mali in January, the US has expressed “support,” but in a limited, troop transporting sort of way, while insisting that “boots on the ground” were never even being considered.

Today marked the arrival of those first “boots,” in the form of US ground troops assigned to “liaison support” for French and African troops. 

Officials say so far there are only “about 10″ troops involved, but the number could grow as the war drags on.

Now instead of insisting the US won’t send ground troops, the Pentagon is simply claiming that those troops aren’t going to engage in direct combat, though exactly what they’re doing remains something of a mystery, with Socom commander Admiral McRaven refusing to provide specifics.

These sort of support missions, of course, have historically been a shoe-horn to much larger, open-ended military commitments, with the deployment of small numbers of military advisers setting the stage for decades of US involvement in Vietnam involving enormous military commitment. Though the US is still envisioning the Mali mission as small, France has already made it clear their forces are never leaving, and that this is an open-ended sort of war.

Jihadists turn Tunisia border

with Algeria into open

battlefield

Tunisian security forces clash with group of around 50 armed jihadists in remote Mount Chaambi region, near Algerian border

Middle East Online,

2 May, 2013

Tunisian security forces clashed on Wednesday with a group of around 50 armed jihadists in the remote Mount Chaambi region, a security source at the scene said.

"The group consists of more than 50 Salafi jihadists" the source said, adding that they were well armed.

A journalist nearby reported hearing an exchange of gunfire in the area, which is close to Tunisia's border with Algeria.

A land mine suspected of being planted by the hardline Islamists wounded six Tunisian police officers on Tuesday as they pursued them near the Algerian border.

It was the third mine blast in Tunisia in two days, prompting Prime Minister Ali Larayedh to hold an emergency meeting with his defence and interior ministers....