.
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Having
seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in
neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to
remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military
backing for the revolt.
The rise of al Qaeda's affiliate in
Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist
organisation last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation
with the West, and perhaps Israel.
Inside Syria, the group is
exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw
themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot
of Shi'ite Islam that dominates Syria's power and security structures.
Al-Nusra
appears to have gained popularity in a country that has turned more
religious as the uprising, mainly among Sunni Muslims, has been met with
increasing force by authorities.
It has claimed responsibility
for spectacular and deadly bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, and its
fighters have joined other rebel brigades in attacks on Assad's forces.
According
to Site Intelligence group, Nusra claimed responsibility in one day
alone last month for 45 attacks in Damascus, Deraa, Hama and Homs
provinces that reportedly killed dozens, including 60 in a single
suicide bombing.
"In 18 communiqués issued on jihadist forums ...
most of which contain pictures of the attacks, the al-Nusra Front
claimed ambushes, assassinations, bombings and raids against Syrian
security forces and 'shabbiha', pro-Bashar al-Assad thugs," Site said.
REVIVING THE CALIPHATE
Members
of the group interviewed by Reuters say al-Nusra aims to revive the
Islamic Caliphate, which dates back to the Prophet Mohammad's seventh
century companions, forerunners of the large empire that once stretched
into Europe.
That prospect alarms many in Syria, from minority
Christians, Alawites and Shi'ites to traditionally conservative but
tolerant Sunni Muslims who are concerned that al-Nusra would try to
impose Taliban-style rule.
Fear of religion-based repression has
already prompted Kurds to barricade their quarter of Aleppo city and was
behind fierce clashes between Kurdish and al-Nusra fighters in the
border town of Ras al Ain in November.
The ideas of al-Nusra are
also at odds with a new Syrian opposition coalition that was recognized
last week by dozens of countries as an alternative to Assad and is
committed to establishing a democratic alternative to Assad's rule.
Omar,
a 25-year-old university graduate and former army conscript, said he
deserted and joined al-Nusra in reaction to repression he experienced as
a Sunni from Alawite officers who all but monopolize the army's higher
echelons.
Prior to the revolt, Omar said he had sympathized
quietly with Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic international party with a
vision for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate abolished by the
secular Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924.
"Prayer
in the army is banned, and if they suspected that you pray they would
send you to the most remote posts," Omar said by phone from a rural area
near Aleppo city.
"Our aim is to depose Assad, defend our people
against the military crackdown and build the caliphate. Many in the
Free Syrian Army have ideas like us and want an Islamic state."
"We
and other Islamists have gained a reputation as being able to hold our
own in battle. Lots of people want to join Nusra, but we do not have
enough weapons to supply all of them."
But a woman teacher, who lives in the central Mogambo district of Aleppo, said Nusra's thinking was abhorrent.
"Al-Nusra
thinks that by shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) they can justify
anything they do. We did not rise up to move from the humiliation from
being under Assad to the humiliation of being under al Qaeda," she said.
NUSRA ATTACKS
Opposition
sources said many Syrians who facilitated the transfer of jihadis from
Syria to al Qaeda in Iraq at the height of its campaign against U.S.
forces there were now fighting for Nusra, while jihadis in Iraq had
reversed their roles, arranging for transfer of personnel and
bomb-making know-how into Syria.
The source of Nusra funding is unclear, though that, too, may come from Iraq.
Ibrahim,
another young Nusra member in Idlib province, said he was imprisoned in
the notorious Sednaya prison north of Damascus, where 170 mainly
Islamist prisoners were killed after the army put down a mutiny in 2007.
"We want revenge," he said.
Asked about a U.S. statement that Nusra operations were killing many civilians, Ibrahim said it was an exaggeration.
"A
bomb goes off in front of a security compound with four cars full of
shabbiha in civilian clothes guarding it. The shabbiha die and state
media says they were civilian. Only their clothes are civilian," he
said.
Several videos have appeared on the Internet in recent
weeks purportedly showing al-Nusra-linked rebels shooting and in some
instances beheading captured Assad soldiers.
But al-Nusra still
appears to have wide support. Video footage on Friday showed crowds in
southern Syria, the birthplace of the revolt, denouncing the U.S.
designation of the group as terrorists and shouting "al-Nusra front
protects us".
Farouk Tayfour, deputy head of the Muslim
Brotherhood, who fought against Assad's father in the 1980s, said it was
too early to categories opposition fighters. Some, he said, joined
Nusra to defend their homes without subscribing to its ideology.
"NOT A MONOLITHIC GROUP"
The
identity of al-Nusra's leadership is not clear. A shadowy figure known
as Abu Muhammad al-Golani - whose nationality is not known - has been
named by some as the head.
But an Islamist opposition campaigner
who toured northern and central Syria a few days ago and met Nusra
commanders said the group operates more like an umbrella organisation
with little coordination between units in different regions.
"They
are not a monolithic group. The nature of Nusra in Damascus is more
tolerant than Idlib. They have a real popular base in Idlib, where most
Nusra members are Syrians, as opposed to Aleppo and Damascus."
He
said it did not appear to be seeking to impose Taliban-style control.
"Many rebels I have met say they joined al-Nusra because the group has
weapons, mostly seized from raids, and that they will go back home after
the revolt," he added.
But many centrist opposition campaigners
fear that al-Nusra will turn its guns on any non-Islamist order that
could come if Assad was deposed. "The big question is how to contain
Nusra in a post-Assad Syria," said an opposition figure linked to
jihadist groups, who did not want to be identified.
"Al-Nusra is
the type of group that could declare the most pious cleric a heretic and
kill him in the middle of a mosque just because he does not share its
view," he said.
Nusra members are estimated to number in the
thousands and are particularly strong in the northern region of Aleppo
and Idlib, where they have joined or carried out joint operations with
Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and Liwa al-Tawhid unit.
In
and around Damascus they are fewer in number but remain potent, and are
only 20 kilometers (12 miles) at some points from the Golan Heights
front with Israel.
Abu Munther, an engineer turned rebel who
operates on the southern edge of Damascus and goes to Jordan to meet
other rebels, said in Amman that al-Nusra numbered hundreds of people in
Damascus, as opposed to thousands in the north.
But those
numbers could grow. Al-Mujahideen brigade in the southern Tadamun
neighborhood of Damascus declared its allegiance to al-Nusra after
dissatisfaction with Arab-backed military groups headed by defector
officers.
Another opposition figure, who did not want to be
named, said international intelligence agencies were trying to curb
Nusra's influence in Damascus and the southern Hauran Plain, where they
are near Israel and close to the Jordanian border.
"Western
intelligence agencies are realising that the Nusra is the biggest threat
in a post-Assad Syria and are devoting more resources to deal with the
threat," he said.
"For the first time al Qaeda is within striking
distance of Israel," he said. "Many are realising that the best that
could be done for now is to contain them in north Syria - even if the
area risks becoming an Islamist emirate of sorts - while trying to build
a civic form of government in and around Damascus."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/20/us-syria-crisis-qaeda-idUSBRE8BJ06B20121220#undefined