Syria Rebels Lay Siege to Qaida-Linked Jihadists in Raqa
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian rebels laid siege to jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in their northern stronghold Monday, hoping to crush the al-Qaida affiliate accused of widespread abuses.
A broad coalition of moderates and Islamists opposed to President Bashar Assad is seeking to drive ISIL -- which is accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing rival rebels and civilians -- from its stronghold in the northern city of Raqa.
The new front in Syria's increasingly complex civil war cracked open less than three weeks away from a planned peace conference, for which the United Nations has started sending out invitations, excluding Assad's ally Iran.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels in Raqa managed to free 50 Syrian prisoners held by the Sunni extremists, who are believed to be holding hundreds of prisoners, including foreign journalists.
Raqa is the only provincial capital lost by the regime since the start of the conflict, which began in March 2011 with peaceful protests demanding democratic reform but escalated into a full-blown war when Assad's forces launched a brutal crackdown on dissent.
The city later fell into the hands of ISIL, the latest incarnation of al-Qaida's Iraq affiliate, which joined the fight against Assad's regime in late spring 2013.
The rebels initially welcomed the battle-hardened jihadists, but tensions mounted as ISIL was accused of imposing a reign of terror in areas where it operates, especially Raqa.
Three powerful rebel alliances on Friday launched what activists called a second "revolution," and have advanced quickly, expelling ISIL from checkpoints and bases across Aleppo, Idlib and Hama provinces.
The Observatory said the main group besieging ISIL's Raqa headquarters is al-Nusra Front, which is also affiliated with al-Qaida but is seen as less extreme and has long competed with ISIL to represent the global terror network in Syria.
ISIL has struck back, including with a car bombing at a rebel checkpoint in Darkush, Idlib that killed an unknown number of fighters on Monday, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based group that relies on a network of sources inside the war-torn country.
A key complaint among the rebels fighting ISIL is that the self-styled Islamic state sought hegemony over areas under its control, while activists and rights groups accused it of torturing and killing its rivals, including with public executions.
On Monday, the body of a decapitated child was found near ISIL's headquarters in Kafranbel, Idlib, the Observatory said.
The war on ISIL, while welcomed by many in the opposition, threatens to distract from the battle with Assad's forces, which have continued to bombard rebel-held areas.
In rebel-held Bazaa in Aleppo province, an air raid killed 10 people including three children, the Observatory said.
The raid was the latest in a regime air campaign against Aleppo that killed some 550 people from December 15 to January 2, according to the monitoring group.
The Syrian conflict is estimated to have claimed more than 130,000 lives, and has forced millions more to flee their homes.
A security official in Damascus told Agence France Presse the fighting between the rebels and ISIL was "expected, and will become more violent."
06 January 2014, 12:35
919
A very bad week for the KSA. Qaeda is feeding on itself in Iraq and Syria while the car bombings in southern Lebanon have all been laid at the feet of KSA Qaeda in Lebanon.
06 January 2014, 12:50
919
The KSA recruited Qaeda for Syria ... Instead of fighters they got zealots trying to set up Caliphates ...
06 January 2014, 12:54
918
Indeed the origin of the cars and the identities of the suicide bombers point directly at the KSA Qaeda in Lebanon.
Be careful my friend the "purge" is afoot ...Best to lie low rather than be perceived as engaging in any fraternization with the enemy.
06 January 2014, 14:08
917
seems like the FSA finally realized that they jihadis that they embraced at first turned out to be the worst plague of the middle east.
how long will it take for m14 to realize the same? embracing them today because they think it's an ally against HA, but soon they will realize they called the devil himself and i bet they will ask HA for help against it. hopefully, before it is too late.
06 January 2014, 15:22
58
The FSA is finally making the necessary effort to put things back on track. This revolution was never about establishing an Islamic caliphate in Syria. It is supposed to be about replacing dictatorship with democracy. I hope that the FSA will succeed.
06 January 2014, 15:44
714
their only way out is to return to the syrian national framework, FSA should turn back from the foreign powers and start working constructively with the syrian regime.
turks, americans, saudis or qataris do not care about syrians, they are only playing for their own interests.
06 January 2014, 16:59
713
anonyme: maybe, maybe not, but in any case it's neither my call nor yours. syrians alone must decide. some accepted the reforms and new consitution, other chose to fight till the end. now they see where this is leading their country...
06 January 2014, 17:52
13
@Mowaten, a return of the opposition to the national framework is of course preferable to the continuation of hostilities, but a prerequisite to this is that the Assad regime is prepared to sit down and discuss with the opposition. This conflict turned violent when unarmed demonstrators were met with force. Is the Assad regime ready for painful compromises now? The opposition wants democracy and this implies an end to Baaths monopoly on power. The litmus test will be Geneva.
06 January 2014, 19:10
511
@banis, Hezbollah isn't in Syria fighting, not anymore. They are only there for logistical support for Pro government militias. Some are along the Lebanese borders aswell, and that is it. The Government in Syria have for months been advanced in Syria.
06 January 2014, 19:11
411
That these crazies are fighting each other now, just proofs how ill organized they are, and how much they want to create destruction upon not only the government, but also themselves indeed.
07 January 2014, 05:34
21
7abibi yazid, i took exact your words and said them. Aren't you supposed to praise me now as your brother?
07 January 2014, 05:44
21
@proudyazid there aren't no such thing as khalifah now, so what are you so mad about?
06 January 2014, 13:05
187
May God protect the FSA, the only legitimate armed force in Syria. All others are terrorists.
06 January 2014, 13:43
45
At the beginning, the FSA under the SNC received a lot of sympathy worldwide, maybe the weapons did not come as wished, call it a mortal error or not from the West but all the same, one big point has been confirmed well beyond doubt: that all the Jihadist Takfiri groupings have absolutely nothing to do with the Syrian revolution. The FSA thought that it could join its forces with the Takfiris, but now realize they lost the war because of their totally mad and insane ways. maybe now the best option for all Syrians is Geneva. Syrians have proven that they don't have sectarian sickness in them, but the various Takfiris groupings.
06 January 2014, 14:04
144
I don't know what it is with these people...it's like they think we are as gullible as they are, or that they can re-use the Al-Manar tactics that they themselves have been brainwashed by?
Listen here you stupid M8'er, no matter how much you repeat it and try to convince yourself, there is absolutely no proof that M14 and Saudi ever funded AQ in Syria, other than the lies propagated by your Farsi masters.
06 January 2014, 15:49
515
"proudm14" you heard about al manar's new branch? it's called "the independent" and they're invading the UK. wilayat el faqih is spreading!! hahahha
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/mass-murder-in-the-middle-east-is-funded-by-our-friends-the-saudis-8990736.html
07 January 2014, 02:36
22
An opinion piece of The Independent...hahahaha.
Stick to Mayadeen habibi.
06 January 2014, 13:57
156
yep KSA and M14 totally got whooped...beirut lies in ruins...riyadh has been utterly destroyed...
ah no wait...i was thinking of alleppo and idlib. pardon me :)
06 January 2014, 16:20
154
the_roar,
with all due respect you have no clue what you are talking about.
the regime has gone in 3 years from iron-fist rule over the entirety of syria to a tenuous grasp on a few key cities in the west of syria. This represents a loss. They did not "whoop" M14 or KSA, if anything, we whooped them, without even having had an actual presence in the combat in syria.
06 January 2014, 16:41
164
You can barely type properly the_roar, and you are calling me mad?
I'm not mad at all. 3 years ago if you told me there would be an uprising in Syria I would have laughed it off as wishful thinking. Now that it has actually happened, and the Alawite terrorist president has had his nation burned in front of his eyes, I could not be happier.
06 January 2014, 17:21
135
sagh the non-Lebanese,
Hamra, Achrafieh and the Balad make Beirut what it is. Guess what the dominating political parties are in these areas?
In any case do not expect me to respond to any more of your posts. As a Syrian Ba'athist you are fit for only two things: a jail cell or something else I will not specify since I am too civil to sink to your level.
06 January 2014, 13:59
135
the alawite roar if you really think that thousands upon thousands of dead SAA and most syrian cities lying in ruins and half of Syria in the control of rebels is somehow a defeat for either M14 or Saudi, you are seriously not the brightest bulb in the box.
06 January 2014, 15:37
144
leb_roar: This is the first I learn that you are a Christian! Good for you....WOW! I honestly thought you were a secular Shia.
06 January 2014, 16:09
144
nah you are the expert on the conditions for winning and losing a war.
lemme guess:
Bashar Assad running to Russian embassy in his pajama's = glorious victory?
06 January 2014, 14:06
411
Today, the best way forward for all Syrians is to understand one thing and one thing only, that each side must put some water into its wine, and accept that no one can win this war, neither outright nor in the long run. The country is literally destroyed, a scary proportion of its people is now refugee, and the economy is all but down. Syrians must understand, that they are in first place to learn from Lebanon's civil war, that in civil wars, everyone wants to exploit it for every reason other than its people's. Let the Syrians start talking to each other, surely now is better than later. Now they still can decide their own fate, later on foreigners will do it for them. Obviously, for Syria, now the only way out is to compromise.
06 January 2014, 17:43
39
100% right @City, sometimes the truth is late in coming, but better late than never.
06 January 2014, 16:29
313
FSA-Al Qaeda jihadist terrorists fighting each other? Good stuff.
06 January 2014, 17:14
124
no doubt some gulf countries may also be implied but M8ers want to make this war very simple to justify their support to a butcher:
-you have the victim: bashar and the evil: saudis and M14 ...
but as their minds is too simple they cannot not even see the complexity and that bashar also is playing and manipulating islamists....
06 January 2014, 19:35
122
I see a handful of geniuses on here who called the FSA, Nusra, and ISIL as the same entity with different names for 3 years. All of sudden acknowledging the FSA is not one of them for various moronic reasons. I suggest you geniuses do something to get banned so your comments will be erased. Otherwise, you will be seeing the link to this article used against you in the future as you will undoubtedly will go back to that same stupid argument.
06 January 2014, 21:25
92
oh look who got insulted and decide to reply! glad you felt the need to defend yourself from being an aloof hypocrite. BTW genius, this is not a "so called rebellion". By the very definition, this is a rebellion. Anyway, you lucked out with your immature insults that caused your accounts to be deleted multiple times and that is the only thing keeping everyone from seeing that you called them terrorists from day one stating they are the same as AQ. now your being a hypocrite and claiming it started out legitimately and it was hijacked. out of curiosity? how old are you in reality? you claim you are a family man who lived through the civil war but continuously act like a spoiled 13 year old girl.
06 January 2014, 21:45
84
they werent the same, just u trying to demonize every syrian opposing bashar...
06 January 2014, 23:29
82
by pointing out the obvious I am flattering myself? on the contrary my aloof hypocrite friend, it is you who is flattering himself with an assumption that she has something of value to educate another with. you need to educate yourself first before you can take on such a task. Just a piece of friendly advise from the one you call Lebanonlast. take it as you may.
06 January 2014, 21:44
85
very easy to market ft, did u forget when maliki was complaining about bashar training and sendinf takfiris to iraq ? i'm sure u didn't...
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=258714
http://pjmedia.com/blog/iraq-confronts-syria-over-terrorism-as-u-s-dithers/
http://www.gloria-center.org/2009/09/neutrality-on-iraq/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/sep/09/iraq-syria-bloody-wednesday
