Rift Between Syrian Islamist And Secular Interventionists As One Kills Another
By Countercurrents.org
12 July, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Militants linked to al Qaeda in Syria killed a senior figure in the Western- and Arab-backed Free Syrian army on July 11, 2013, signalling a widening rift between Islamists and more moderate elements in the armed Syrian opposition. Moreover, interventionists have fired on hungry people.
Citing FSA source media reports from Beirut said:
Kamal Hamami, a member of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, known by his nom de guerre Abu Bassel al-Ladkani, was meeting with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the port city of Latakia when they killed him.
Qassem Saadeddine, a Free Syrian Army spokesman, told: "The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Bassel and that they will kill all of the Supreme Military Council."
"He met them to discuss battle plans," Saadeddine added.
The Free Syrian Army has been trying to build a network of logistics and reinforce its presence across Syria as the US administration pledged to send weapons to the group.
The US congressional committees are holding up the plan because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants, security sources have said.
While Free Syrian Army units sometimes fight alongside Islamist militant groups such as the Islamist State, rivalries have increased and al Qaeda-linked groups have been blamed for several assassinations of commanders of moderate rebel units.
There have been many other such incidents in this factional fighting. It is partly a battle over spoils and partly ideological, pitting the secular Free Syrian Army against Islamists who want to establish a theocracy.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is one of the main groups in Syria linked to al-Qaeda, and has contributed to the spread of Sharia in rebel-held areas.
Interventionists fire on hungry people
Citing residents a Reuters report said:
Syrian rebels fired into the air to disperse a protest by civilians in a rebel-held district of Aleppo against a blockade preventing food and medicine reaching government-held areas of the northern city.
Rebel fighters have stopped supplies entering western parts of Aleppo for weeks. The tactic is aimed at weakening the supply routes of president Assad's forces but thousands of civilians are now going hungry.
Video footage posted on the Internet on July 9, 2013 showed dozens of civilians in the rebel-held neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr protesting at a rebel checkpoint which prevents supplies from entering the western section of the city, home to 2 million people and held by the army.
Although insurgents and the army control different parts of the country, civilians are normally allowed to cross freely to shop or meet family members and friends.
The footage, posted by the opposition Bustan al-Qasr Information Office, showed men at the protest chanting, "the people want an end to the blockade." A rebel fighter brandishes a pistol and then a gunshot is heard as the video ends.
An opposition activist group called the Aleppo Martyrs said rebels fired at the protesters, killing one person and wounding several others. But a resident at the protest said the man was killed prior to the protest by army sniper fire as he tried the cross between rebel and government-held territory.
Reuters was not able to confirm the report due to media and security restrictions in Syria.
More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's two-year conflict. It started because Assad's force fired live ammunition against pro-democracy protests, leading to an armed revolt.
Religious courts
Rebels who now control parts of the country are blamed for similar abuses by rights groups, including torture and harsh punishments imposed by religious courts.
Humanitarian aid organizations say their shipments have been blocked by both rebels and the army in many parts of Syria.
"We are facing challenges delivering assistance throughout the country, especially in contested areas," said Jane Howard, a UN World Food Programme spokeswoman.
Howard said that WFP has tried eight times since October 2012 to deliver aid to Moadamiyeh, a suburb of Damascus that has been pummelled by air strikes and artillery.
Although the area is only five km from the WFP warehouse, Howard says convoys were "either turned back, did not get approval or came under fire."
In Aleppo, the WFP has delivered rations to more than 250,000 people in the weeks leading up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
At the rebel checkpoint in the Aleppo neighborhood of Bustan al-Qasr, a sign displayed by rebels read: "Food, medicine, oil, babies' products, milk, vegetables, meat, bread: completely forbidden (from crossing)."
Residents in western Aleppo say food prices have jumped to more than ten times their original level and basics such as bread and flour have become harder to find.
Civilians say they are stockpiling food, such as bulgur wheat and rice, which are still available. They say some vegetables are still being sold in markets.
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