FRIA SYRISKA ARMEN VÄDJAR:: Give us guns, not airstrikes, to finish off Islamic State | The Times THETIMES.CO.UK BYLINE: Hussam Al Marie Last week I was on the front line in northern Aleppo, where fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are holding back the forces of Islamic State (formerly Isis). These battles have cost the lives of many brave soldiers but it would be foolish to think that the fight can be conducted from the air, as some in the United States believe. Because Islamic State forces deliberately operate from civilian buildings, airstrikes will inflict terrible collateral damage, fuelling their recruitment drive. They can be fought only on the ground by Syrians who know the terrain and infrastructure - we know which buildings to hit, where and when. Moderate Syrians have achieved victory against these terrorists from the ground before and we can do it again. The cancer of Islamic State in Syria cannot be eradicated without greater support for moderates. We have fighters ready and committed, who are already trying to push back this monster from our land. Since Islamic State has been advancing in Aleppo, we have seen the ranks of moderates swell through the effort to unify our forces. In the past few months 800 Islamist fighters have defected and returned to the moderate FSA realising that we are best placed to fight both Islamic State and the Assad regime. But we are paying for this fight with our blood and we are losing our souls to stand for the values that we and the free world hold dear. We are the alternative to the brutality of Islamic State and the regime. We are part of the solution and are already acting as the Wests counterterrorism partner. Our interest is intertwined with yours. We are fighting to save our children from terrorism just as you would. So we ask you to embrace us as your partner in this fight. Stand for those values that the West holds dear, which we are paying such a great price to achieve in Syria today. You rightly oppose the use of western ground troops in the Middle East. We have never asked for this. But just as your government is helping to ship eastern European arms to the Kurdish Peshmerga to help the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, so the FSA need arms. This, more than airstrikes, would help us in a quest that is of mortal importance for our people, and is clearly in the national security interests of the UK: the absolute destruction of Islamic State. We are fighting to save our children from terrorism as you would Hussam Al Marie is the Free Syrian Army spokesman for northern Syria
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:31:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015