ISIS Fighters Gain in Syria After Takeover in Iraq

The New York Times reports from Gaziantep on rebel fighters’ reaction to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s takeover of the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit, and its subsequent opening of the border between Iraq and the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor.

“The fighters with the Free Syrian Army were expecting an attack any day from the jihadists besieging the city of Minbej in war-torn Syria, fortifying their base, once a carpet factory, with concrete bomb-blast barriers,” writes Thanassis Cambanis. “But they did not suspect the teenagers pushing a broken-down sedan past the front gate. Then a boy who looked no older than 14 blew up the car and himself, unleashing an assault that killed or wounded nearly 30 rebel fighters and ultimately put all of Minbej under the control of the most extremist jihadi group in the Syrian conflict.”

“They call us godless,” Sheikh Hassan, the leader of the FSA brigade that came under attack, tells the paper. “They attack us from the front, they attack us from the back.”

That battle, Cambanis says, was a snapshot of the rise of ISIS, a militant Sunni group that aims to create a caliphate spanning the Sunni-dominated sections of Syria and its neighboring countries.

Separately, the paper’s site has an interactive map detailing where exactly the group has come to power.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post writes that radical splinter groups like ISIS are now a bigger concern for the U.S. than its original foe, al-Qaida.

“The splinter groups have become a bigger problem than what remains of the old core al-Qaida, and one that is in many ways harder to address or contain,” the paper reports. “The loss of Mosul to ISIS, U.S. officials and experts acknowledged, is a powerful demonstration of the extremists’ growing effectiveness and reach.”

How ISIS Seized Power in Eastern Syria and Iraq

In the National, Hassan Hassan examines how ISIS came to dominate the stretch between eastern Syria and Mosul.

“The group’s remarkable successes defy basic military instincts. Consider the type of adversaries ISIL has fought since December,” he writes. “It fought the Iraqi army, backed by battle-hardened Shiite militias as well as Sunni tribal forces, and it unsuccessfully fought the militia in Anbar. In Syria, secular, Islamist and al-Qaida-affiliated rebels fought ISIL in Aleppo, Idlib and Deir Ezzor, with little success except in Idlib. And yet, the group is still as strong as ever.”

Now, ISIS “is quietly expanding its following in the villages and towns dotting the Iraqi-Syrian border mostly because of the perceived reality of an Islamic state. In recent interviews with ISIL associates or their family members, it is clear that the group’s rigid yet clear ideology appeals to an increasing number of young people. These fighters currently travel to hotspots to fight with ISIS, and are not necessarily busy imposing its ideology in their hometowns.”

Assad Says, With Confidence, That the West is Changing its Position on Syria

AFP reports that Bashar al-Assad has said that Western countries who back the Syrian opposition are shifting their position on the war because of the danger posed to them by extremist rebels.

“The United States and the West have started to send signs of change,” he said, according to a pro-regime Lebanese newspaper. “Terrorism is now on their soil. An American blew himself up on Syrian soil, while a Frenchman (of Algerian origin) killed Jews … in Brussels.”

The wire also quotes Assad, via Al-Akhbar, as saying that “current and former U.S. officials are trying to get in touch with us, but they do not dare to because of the powerful lobbies that are pressuring them.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian government said Wednesday that it would be willing to aid the Iraqi government in its fight against “terrorism,” after ISIS militants captured the city of Mosul. “The foreign-backed terrorism that our brothers in Iraq are facing is the same that is targeting Syria,” said a foreign ministry statement. Syria is “ready to cooperate with Iraq to face terrorism, our common enemy.”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team

AFP: Syria Says Ready to Help Iraq Fight Jihadist ‘Terror’

Daily Star: Syrian Rebels Appeal for Help in Fight Against Jihadists

Guardian: A Thirty Years War in Iraq and Syria