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Tag: rebel groups
‘All Bases Covered’ In Coalition Bid To Crush IS

‘All Bases Covered’ In Coalition Bid To Crush IS

Washington (AFP) — “All bases are covered” in a U.S.-led multinational coalition against the Islamic State, John Kerry said, as Washington rallies diplomatic and public support to smash the jihadists.

The U.S. Secretary of State told CBS’s Face the Nation that there were allies willing to join the United States in air strikes on IS, which has overrun large swaths of northern Iraq and Syria in a brutal and lightning campaign that has seen beheadings and forced religious conversions.

“Some” had offered to put troops on the ground to defeat IS, Kerry said in the interview aired Sunday, adding: “But we are not looking for that at this moment anyway.”

Kerry was speaking in Cairo on Saturday, before news of the latest IS beheading of a Western hostage, Briton David Haines, and ahead of a likely Congress vote this week on President Barack Obama’s plan to train and equip Syrian rebels, a key plank in his strategy to destroy IS.

That strategy was outlined Wednesday by Obama in a primetime televised speech to the nation, in which he announced expanded U.S. air strikes in Iraq against IS and said he envisaged new action against the radical group in neighboring Syria.

Obama plans to train “moderate” Syrian rebels to take on IS and to reconstitute the Iraqi army, parts of which fled an IS blitzkrieg across northern and western Iraq.

Kerry, who has been touring the Middle East drumming up support for the U.S.-led coalition, told CBS that allies in the Middle East and beyond were ready to help in the battle against IS, which has executed two American reporters in graphic videos which sparked revulsion.

“Every single aspect of the president’s (Obama) strategy, and what is needed to be done in order to accomplish our goal, has been offered by one country or multiple countries, and all bases are covered,” Kerry told CBS.

Opposition forces would do the fighting on the ground in Syria, augmented by U.S. and allied air support, he said, adding that Washington would not coordinate air attacks on the militants with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, but would ensure their forces do not come into conflict.

“We will certainly want to deconflict and make certain that they’re (Syria) not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously,” Kerry said.

“But we’re not going to coordinate, it’s not a cooperative effort.”

Australia was among the latest to make a concrete commitment to the growing coalition, Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying that Canberra would deploy 600 troops to the United Arab Emirates, a regional Washington ally.

Ten Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, are among the countries backing the coalition.

Speaking in Paris, Kerry’s latest port of call on his whistlestop coalition-building trip, a US official said the number of countries signing on was “going up almost every hour,” from Europe and the Middle East right across to Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

– What is success? –

Obama’s intent to “degrade and ultimately destroy” IS drew a skeptical response in Washington, with critics noting that even Al-Qaeda has not been eradicated, despite a 13-year U.S.-led war against it.

War-weary Democrats worry that maximalist U.S. goals could suck the United States back into intractable Middle East ground wars, while Republicans criticized the president for not going far enough, having consistently ruled out U.S. troops on the ground.

In a series of interviews on U.S. television Sunday, including on NBC’s Meet the Press, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough clarified Washington’s goals.

“Success looks like an ISIL that no longer threatens our friends in the region, no longer threatens the United States,” he said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State, which has declared a “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq.

“An ISIL that can’t accumulate followers, or threaten Muslims in Syria, Iran, Iraq, or otherwise. And that’s exactly what success looks like.”

Polls show U.S. public sentiment swinging sharply behind U.S. action since IS posted a video showing the beheading of American hostage James Foley last month. But they also show the public still appears doubtful that the president’s strategy will work.

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski

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Syrian Rebel Group Names New Chief After Blast Wipes Out Leadership

Syrian Rebel Group Names New Chief After Blast Wipes Out Leadership

By Weedah Hamzah and Pol O Gradaigh, dpa

BEIRUT — One of Syria’s largest rebel groups hurriedly named new commanders after its leadership was wiped out in an explosion, hours before the U.S. president was to outline a plan to combat the Islamic State and discuss support for the moderate Syrian opposition.
In a major blow to Syria’s beleaguered rebels, who are caught between resurgent government forces and advancing Islamic State jihadists, some 50 members of Ahrar al-Sham were killed in an explosion in Idlib province on Tuesday night, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Ahrar al-Sham is among the rebel forces fighting against the Islamic State group, which has taken control of large swathes of territory in northern and eastern Syria and in neighbouring Iraq.
Ahrar al-Sham and its allies in the Islamic Front — one of Syria’s largest rebel coalitions — have also played a key role in fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Hashim al-Sheikh Abu Jaber would replace Hassan Abboud as overall commander, the group announced. Abboud was also head of the Islamic Front’s political bureau. There was no immediate indication of his replacement in that role.
Later Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama is to outline a strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and providing support for the moderate Syrian opposition.
And on Thursday, the new U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is to meet al-Assad in Damascus, the al-Watan newspaper reported.
Analyst Aron Lund wrote for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that “the list of dead [in the blast] reads like a who’s who of Ahrar al-Sham leaders.”
Ahrar al-Sham issued a defiant statement vowing to continue the fight against al-Assad’s forces as well as Islamic State “until the people of Syria are delivered from them both.”
Lund wrote: “Of course, there may still be influential but unknown figures left who could step into the void and prevent Ahrar al-Sham from fracturing. But if not, it seems that one of Syria’s most important rebel groups has been decapitated.”
The cause of the blast remained unclear. The Islamic Front’s initial statement announcing the “martyrdom” of Abboud said the rebels were killed by a car bomb as they held a meeting.
Syria analyst Charles Lister, writing for the Huffington Post, said that “the most likely scenario appears to be that a government airstrike targeted the meeting, which was taking place in an underground bunker.
“The airstrike set fire to an attached ammunitions depot, which consequently meant the bunker was filled with acrid smoke, causing suffocation. An apparent lack of bodily wounds on the victims’ bodies would appear to fit this account,” Lister wrote.
The Islamic State, which has fought rebels including Ahrar al-Sham since the beginning of this year, has previously used car bombs and suicide attacks to target the leaders of rival groups.
Abboud himself had accused the Islamic State of a February blast that killed Ahrar al-Sham’s Abu Khaled al-Suri, a jihadist believed to have personal links to al-Qaeda’s leadership.
Al-Suri had fought against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. government described him as al-Qaeda’s representative in Syria.

AFP Photo/Zein al-Rifai

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New Videos Show More Rebel Groups In Syria Have U.S.-Made Anti-Tank Missiles

New Videos Show More Rebel Groups In Syria Have U.S.-Made Anti-Tank Missiles

By Mitchell Prothero, McClatchy Foreign Staff

BEIRUT — Advanced American-made anti-tank missiles can be seen in numerous videos posted by Syrian rebel groups over the weekend, an indication that what experts thought was a limited trial program to arm moderate pro-Western units recently has been expanded.

The trial program was revealed early last month when videos posted by the Hazem Movement, a rebel group with ties to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army, showed a small number of TOW anti-tank missiles being fired at Syrian government targets. Experts who examined the videos concluded that the missiles likely had been supplied by Saudi Arabia after the United States approved transfer of the advanced weapons.

New video released over the weekend suggests the program has since been expanded to at least five rebel groups, most with ties to the FSA but some that are loyal to the Syrian Revolutionary Front, another secular rebel coalition. The videos purport to show combat operations in both Syria’s north near the border with Turkey and in its south, along the border with Jordan.

Besides a new video showing the Hazem Movement operating the system, videos of the TOW system in use were also posted by the FSA-aligned Southern Front, the Southern Front’s Omari Brigade, the FSA’s Martyr Ahmad Abdo Brigade, and the Syrian Revolutionary Front.

In one video, the Martyr Ahmad Abdo Brigade’s fighters could be seen missing what appeared to be a Syrian armored military vehicle as it sped down a road, while the Omari Brigade video showed what appeared to be a hit on a stationary Syrian tank within a construction site on a Syrian military base outside the southern city of Deraa.

A military attache in Beirut who works with both U.S. officials and Syrian rebel units said that he suspected the Hazem Movement was the first to have received training in the weapons and that other groups were added later. He said he believes the program remains relatively small. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position.

“It seems like a carefully vetted network of rebels with American training are getting these as part of a pilot program,” he said. “If none leak out to other more radical groups, I’d expect the program to be expanded.”

“I believe these missiles can still be counted in the low scores rather than the hundreds, at least at this stage,” he said.

American officials have expressed concern for years that any weapons given to rebel allies not fall into the hands of Syria’s increasingly powerful Islamist rebel groups, many of which have significant ties to al-Qaida and subscribe to its ideology. In January, the U.S. stopped deliveries of nonlethal aid and equipment to the Free Syrian Army after units affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an al-Qaida-inspired group noted for its brutality, seized control of an FSA base that held American equipment.

Adding to the concerns is the close working relationship that so-called moderate rebels have developed with the Islamists. For example, Jamal Marouf, who commands the Syrian Revolutionary Front, which received a TOW system, told the British newspaper The Independent that he had no problem coordinating with the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s official Syrian franchise, and had even sent weapons to the group in the past.

“It’s clear that I’m not fighting against al-Qaida,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “This is a problem outside of Syria’s border, so it’s not our problem. I don’t have a problem with anyone who fights against the regime inside Syria.”

Marouf told the paper that he had dispatched “a lot of weapons” to rebels fighting in Yabroud, where Nusra battled government troops before abandoning the city in March.

In an email exchange, Charles Lister, who studies the Syrian rebels for the Brookings Centre in Doha, Qatar, said there is now little doubt that the provision of the missiles was expanding, despite whatever concerns there might be about them finding their way to radical groups.

“While there is no way yet to determine exactly how many TOWs have been sent into Syria, these American manufactured anti-tank guided missiles are now in the hands of at least five moderate rebel units, whose areas of operation stretch from Deraa in the south to Idlib and Aleppo in the north,” he said, noting it seemed likely the rebels had more missiles than the initial reports of two dozen indicated.

“All discernible recipients can be placed solidly within the moderate camp and all have their initial roots in organizations linked to Saudi Arabia. It seems very clear from all available video footage that those operating the TOWs have themselves received professional training in their use, particularly in terms of their clear and methodical loading and preparing of the system,” he said.

“All of this adds up to what looks to be a well-organized and planned-out weaponry provision program,” he said. “The more groups that continue to appear armed with TOWs, the more this apparent program could potentially symbolize a genuinely strategically significant development in the wider battle for Syria.”

©afp.com / Ammar al-Arbini