Islamic Front: The Other Power Jihadis in Syria
The Los Angeles Times reports from Bab Salameh on the Islamic Front, the rebel coalition that is making its own push for military supremacy in Syria even as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) dominates headlines.
“In case there is any doubt about who is in charge, guards patrolling the stretch of Syria around the Turkish border crossing here wear blue T-shirts stitched with ‘Islamic Front’ patches,” it says.
“Since opposition fighters first seized border crossings in 2012, their control of these posts — and by extension, the flow of people and commerce in and out of Syria — has been a barometer for which group was preeminent. Now the Islamic Front is trying to make it official, or as official as it can be with cheaply made signs and stitched-on patches that look like a bad home-economics project.”
“The final goal is to have a united army for a united country,” Sheikh Abu Yazan, the general commander of Ahrar al-Sham, tells the paper. Al-Sham is a conservative brigade that is among the Islamic Front’s founders in Aleppo. “But we don’t want to be too idealistic. This might take years to accomplish, but we need to keep moving forward organizationally.”
Mortar Shells Kill 25 in Idlib City
The AP reports that a barrage of mortar shells hit government-held areas of Idlib city – which has been under the control of Assad forces since the beginning of the conflict – on Monday, killing 14 and injuring at least 40.
“Rebels trying to overthrow Assad’s government control the areas around the city. They have been besieging the city for more than two years, firing mortars into the government-held areas and clashing with Assad’s troops at its outskirts,” the wire says.
“Also Monday, activists reported heavy clashes between several Syrian rebel factions and an al-Qaida breakaway group fighting for control of a border crossing with Iraq in eastern Syria. The fighting in the town of Boukamal, on the border between Syria and Iraq, between rebel groups and ISIS, comes just hours after the jihadi group declared the establishment of a transnational Islamic caliphate.”
ISIS Threatens al-Qaida as Flagship Movement of Extremists
ISIS is threatening al-Qaida’s reign as the leading global terrorist power – the first time since its emergence more than two decades ago, writes Ben Hubbard of the New York Times, that Osama bin Laden’s group “finds itself facing a rival jihadist organization with the resources and influence to threaten its status as the flagship movement of violent extremism.”
Those still allied with al-Qaida think ISIS “will fall victim to the same tactics that somehow have simultaneously made it an enemy of the West and of Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of al-Qaida,” he reports.
“Although many dismissed as propaganda ISIS’s announcement on Sunday that it had established a caliphate — or global Islamic state — the group’s out-of-nowhere rise in just over one year has created a clash over ideology and tactics between partisans of the world’s two leading jihadist organizations. It also has created a generational split as ISIS has electrified a new group of radical jihadists with its emphasis on sectarian warfare and founding an Islamic state.”
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