Syria Rebels Reject Opposition Coalition, Call For Islamic Leadership

[Purveyor]

By Erika Solomon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Powerful Syrian insurgent units have rejected the authority of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), badly damaging efforts by Western-backed political exiles to forge a moderate rebel military force on the ground.

Thirteen groups, including at least three previously considered part of the coalition's military wing, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), signed a statement calling for the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad to be reorganised under an Islamic framework and to be run only by groups fighting inside Syria.

The signatories range from hardliners such as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham battalions to more moderate Islamist groups such as the Tawheed Brigade and Islam Brigade.

"These forces feel that all groups formed abroad without having returned to the country do not represent them, and they will not recognise them," said the statement read in an online video by Abdulaziz Salameh, the political leader of the Tawheed Brigade.

MORE...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-reject-opposition-coalition-call-islamic-leadership-092503945.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[eissa]

2. Gee, who didn't see this coming?

Arming "the good guys" is a complete waste of resources. Even if the Assad regime is toppled, the "good guys" (what there is of them) will be immediately crushed by the Islamists, who far out-number them.

A tragic state for the Syrian people, who didn't deserve this. A relatively secular and modern society (at least in comparison to other countries in the region) now under the thumb of a bunch of brutal and backward thugs.

[pampango]

3. For one Assad saw it coming if his forces did not put down the rebellion quickly, as his father

had done with massive force in 1982.

He knew that, if the struggle went on for many months, the peaceful opposition would be replaced by "bad guys" with guns. Of course, he thought that his well-equipped, modern army with an effective air force could defeat any military challenge presented by the opposition so he chose to confront them on the battlefield rather than the negotiating table.

At the start of this in early 2011, I remember people posting that any opposition to Assad would not last long and the international community would not intervene due to Syria's large and effective military. Part of that is true. The world did not intervene as it did in Libya, but someone forgot to tell the opposition that Assad's military was invincible. Now it turns out that his army is unable to win the military victory that he was always counting on as his last resort.

Islamist forces grew in power as the Syrian conflict changed from peaceful protests into an armed insurgency after a fierce crackdown by Assad's forces. Militant groups, some linked to al Qaeda, have become even stronger in the ensuing civil war.

[LittleBlue]

4. Surprise, surprise, supporting Al Qaeda is blowing up

in our faces.


Who could have predicted this?