Washington Post Admits Foreign Extremists Dominate Syria Fight
By Countercurrents.org
02 October, 2013
Countercurrents.org
AP - Rebels from an al-Qaeda-affiliated group sit on a truck full of ammunition at Taftanaz air base,
which was captured by the rebels, in Idlib province in northern Syria.
The Washington Post reports that the number of Syrians battling to overthrow the Syrian regime led by President Bashar al-Assad outstrips by a large margin the thousands of Arabs and other non-Syrian Muslims who have streamed into Syria over the past two years to join in the fight. The post also admits that most of these foreign mercenaries are affiliated to Al-Qaeda.
The report filed by Liz Sly from Beirut says,
Foreign fighters man checkpoints, serve as commanders on the battlefield and have become the de facto rulers of towns and cities in areas under rebel control, giving them a visible and much-feared presence across large swaths of territory, according to Syrians living in the north as well as analysts.
Saudis, Tunisians and Libyans are among the most frequently encountered nationalities, the residents and analysts say, but men from Chechnya, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates also are present. The Pakistani Taliban announced in August that it had established a presence in Syria. Among those killed in recent battles was a Moroccan commander who had spent years as a prisoner of the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was eulogized in one of the many videos prepared by the foreign volunteers to advertise their presence.
Read the full report here
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