While ISI is busy tearing down FSA flags in northern Syria, here comes a nasty surprise. The chief of the global Al Qaeda rules against the merger of the Iraqi and Syrian departments. This strengthens the impression that the merger was a unilateral coup detat launched by the Iraqi branch - ISI, in a bid to take over Al Nusra. At any rate, it appears that most foreign fighters have already joined the new Al Qaeda of Syria and Iraq. The train has left the station. Syria does posses that strange quality. From regional players to international organizations, anybody who touches on that country loses himself to fragmentation, internal rivalries and infighting. Al Qaeda was no exception *** Zawahiri’s verdict came this week in letters sent to Joulani and Baghdadi. According to sources in both groups, al-Zawahiri ruled that the official branch of al-Qaeda in Syria will be al-Nusra. ...... Zawahiri also appointed a local Syrian commander named Abu Khaled al-Soury as a personal emissary "to oversee the implementation of the accord," according to Joulani’s letter. Joulani’s letter also urged his fighters to "minimise their difference" and "rebuild harmony" with likeminded Iraq-based jihadists, despite the split. It is unclear whether Baghdadi will accept the al-Qaeda leader’s ruling, and what impact it will have on the ground. The fighters who left al-Nusra to join the ISIL might not want to rejoin the group, according to those close to Baghdadi. "Ninety percent of the Arab and foreign fighters [battling in Syria] joined ISIL," said Abu Osama al-Iraqi, an activist affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq. "It will be hard for them to take a step backward." (By Basma Atassi) *** Abu Raccoon
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:28:05 +0000
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