Syrian Civil War (Graphic Photos/Vid Not Allowed)

[elszADaQ]

Oh, the good old 'FSA', comes only with Al-Qaeda flag. You try too hard to pretend that 'FSA' is actually a strong force, but every single time, nutjobs appear instead of them.

The moderate, secular Southern Front is gaining ground and their foreign backers including Arabic countries like Jordan and the West see it as the best organized of the mainstream opposition, and provide it with training and weaponry. The Southern front is a merger of 56 rebel factions with a total amount of fighters that add up to some 38,000 strong, most of them vetted by their backers, and are spread across the southern provinces of Quneitra and Daraa. It has forged a temporary tactical cooperation with no more than a few hundred local Nusra recruits from Southern Syria, which is far from ideal but they only cooperate with them out of necessity because of their shared goal of defeating the genocidal Assad regime. However the Southern Front is holding the military and ideological line against extremism in the South .

Rebels attacking Nasib Crossing

FSA First Corps announced the capture of the Nassib border crossing after several reports circulating

 

[Serpentine]

The moderate, secular Southern Front is gaining ground and foreign backers including Arabic countries like Jordan and the West see it as the best organized of the mainstream opposition, and provide it with training and weaponry. The Southern front is a merger of 56 rebel factions with a total amount of fighters that add up to some 38,000 strong, most of them vetted by their backers, and are spread across the southern provinces of Quneitra and Daraa. It has forged temporary tactical cooperation with no more than a few hundred locally recruited Nusra fighters from Southern Syria, which is far from ideal but they only cooperate with them out of necessity because of their shared goal of defeating the genocidal Assad regime. However the Southern Front is holding the military and ideological line against extremism in the South .

Okay, I'll just pretend that Al-Qaeda wasn't with them. Let's keep on...

To give you an idea, ISIS's goal is also getting rid of Assad.

However the Southern Front is holding the military and ideological line against extremism in the South .

By fighting shoulder to shoulder with extremists, wise idea indeed.

 

[elszADaQ]

Okay, I'll just pretend that Al-Qaeda wasn't with them. Let's keep on...

To give you an idea, ISIS's goal is also getting rid of Assad.



By fighting shoulder to shoulder with extremists, wise idea indeed.

Not sure why you are nit-picking what I said but if you reread my post again, I mentioned how Nusrats were able to recruit a few hundred Southerners. Southern Syrians are very tribal people and in many cases those fighters from Southern Front and Nusrat are from the same tribe. Nusra themselves hasn't attacked the Southern Front yet, that's why they aren't fighting them for now like SRF/Hazm did in Idlib and instead focusing on sending lots of Hazara, Hizboola and tartousi mullah invaders to hell.

 

[Dr.Thrax]

Okay, I'll just pretend that Al-Qaeda wasn't with them. Let's keep on...

To give you an idea, ISIS's goal is also getting rid of Assad.



By fighting shoulder to shoulder with extremists, wise idea indeed.

ISIS's goal is to get rid of Assad for their own agenda. The same applies to Nusra. Rebels are different, but in your 1-sided view they're all the same because they say "Allahu Akbar."

 

[elszADaQ]

35 female army snipers were killed after a mine struck their vehicle in Eastern Ghouta.
It's tragic to see something like this happen to women. I wonder if they are the same ones from the Reuters Video. Remember that story about Assad's female sniper unit last week?

 

[Madali]

Iraq and Syria have become “international finishing schools” for extremists according to a UN report which says the number of foreign fighters joining terrorist groups has spiked to more than 25,000 from more than 100 countries.

The panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions against al-Qaida estimates the number of overseas terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71% between mid-2014 and March 2015.

It said the scale of the problem had increased over the past three years and the flow of foreign fighters was “higher than it has ever been historically”.

The overall number of foreign terrorist fighters has “risen sharply from a few thousand … a decade ago to more than 25,000 today,” the panel said in its report to the UN security council, which was obtained by Associated Press.

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The report said just two countries had drawn more than 20,000 foreign fighters: Syria and Iraq. They went to fight primarily for the Islamic State group but also the al-Nusra Front.

Looking ahead, the panel said the thousands of foreign fighters who travelled to Syria and Iraq were living and working in “a veritable ‘international finishing school’ for extremists”, as was the case in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

A military defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq could have the unintended consequence of scattering violent foreign terrorist fighters across the world, the panel said. And while governments are focusing on countering the threat from fighters returning home, the panel said it was possible that some may be traumatised by what they saw and need psychological help, and that others may be recruited by criminal networks.

In addition to Syria and Iraq, the report said Afghan security forces estimated in March that about 6,500 foreign fighters were active in the country. And it said hundreds of foreigners were fighting in Yemen, Libya and Pakistan, about 100 in Somalia, and others in the Sahel countries in northern Africa, and in the Philippines.

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The number of countries the fighters come from has also risen dramatically from a small group in the 1990s to more than 100 today — more than half the countries in the world — including some that have never had previous links with groups associated with al-Qaida, the panel said.

It cited the “high number” of foreign fighters from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Russia, the increase in fighters from the Maldives, Finland and Trinidad and Tobago, and the first fighters from some countries in sub-Saharan Africa which it did not name. The groups had also found recruits from Britain and Australia.

The panel said the fighters and their networks posed “an immediate and long-term threat” and “an urgent global security problem” that needed to be tackled on many fronts and had no easy solution.

With globalised travel, it said, the chance of a person from any country becoming a victim of a foreign terrorist attack was growing “particularly with attacks targeting hotels, public spaces and venues”.

But the panel noted that a longstanding terrorist goal is “generating public panic” and stressed that the response needed to “be measured, effective and proportionate”.

It said the most effective policy was to prevent the radicalisation, recruitment and travel of would-be fighters.

The panel noted that less than 10% of basic information to identify foreign fighters had been put in global systems and called for greater intelligence sharing. As a positive example, it noted that the “watchlist” in Turkey — a key transit point to Syria and Iraq — now included 12,500 individuals.

 

[Hindustani78]

Syrian aircraft bomb area near seized Jordan crossing| Reuters

(Reuters) - Syrian military helicopters bombed areas close to the Jordanian border overnight after insurgents captured the Nasib border crossing, witnesses and a group monitoring the war said on Thursday.

Rebel groups fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad said they had seized the Nasib, the main crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border, late on Wednesday.

The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front also said it seized the crossing, but the mainstream rebels denied this.

Both Jordan and Syria had announced they were closing their sides of the crossing on Wednesday.

Helicopters dropped barrel bombs -- crude devices filled with shrapnel -- in the area overnight, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It collects information using sources on the ground.

The Southern Front, an alliance of rebel groups in southern Syria, said on Thursday that the Nasib crossing was still under their control. Nusra Front fighters had been told to leave the area, it said.

Pan-Arab channel al-Arabiya broadcast live footage from the Jordanian side of the border. It showed a plume of gray smoke rising on the Syrian side and said it was coming from an explosion.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

 

[Dr.Thrax]

Levant/Sham Front rebels fighting ISIS give congratulations towards Idlib Mujahideen for freeing it, wishing the same for areas occupied by Daesh:

Syrian Army defector tells his story:

He says among the drafted Sunnis and the Alawites in the army there was much strife, as the Alawite officers usually made the Alawite soldiers and Sunni soldier hate each other, and he also said that the Alawites viewed Assad as their God. He also then stated that anyone in the Army who tried to pray or read Qur'an was thrown into jail.

 

[Madali]

Beirut (AFP) - Islamists in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib should set aside their differences and rule the city together, the head of Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate said in an audio message published Wednesday.


Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, chief of Syria's Al-Nusra Front, said his group does not "want to monopolise rule over Idlib city," which was recently taken over by an Islamist coalition.

He also stressed the importance of "quickly establishing a religious court to judge over people and to end disputes," in a speech published by Al-Nusra's official Manara station on YouTube and Twitter.

Jolani's message came four days after Al-Nusra and other Islamist groups seized Idlib from regime forces.

It was unclear whether the city would be ruled by religious courts or if the various factions would fight among themselves for control of it.

Jolani called on the Islamist groups to set aside differences and join forces "for the victory of Islam and Muslims."

"Maintaining control over the city is harder than taking it over... Because our enemies and critics are betting on our disputes, our poor behaviour and our failure," he said.

Idlib is the second city to fall entirely into rebel hands after the northern city of Raqa, which is now ruled by Al-Nusra's jihadist rival, the Islamic State group.

Al-Nusra and its allies already control a large portion of Idlib province after a November offensive in which they ousted several Western-backed opposition groups.

In July, Jolani announced that Al-Nusra sought the establishment of an "emirate" in Syria that would rival IS's "caliphate." Analysts said Idlib city could be the emirate's capital.

In his message, Jolani promised Idlib's residents that they would be treated well, and called for the creation of a "supervisory council" from various factions "to answer the needs of the people."

He said the authority of "jihadists and (local rulers) emirs does not come from scaring the people, but in protecting them, defeating their oppressor and defending the weak."

The Al-Nusra chief also lambasted those seeking Western support, saying it was impossible to achieve victory in Syria with the help of "criminal killers or Western agents who stab us in the back to satisfy the Americans."

"This victory has proven to everyone that trying to achieve victory through the West or regional countries is a mirage," he said.

Nusra has emerged as the most powerful jihadist group in northwest Syria after it rose to prominence in 2012.

More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and half the country's population has been displaced.

-----

Let's see how the city will run.

 

[Superboy]

Beirut (AFP) - Islamists in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib should set aside their differences and rule the city together, the head of Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate said in an audio message published Wednesday.


Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, chief of Syria's Al-Nusra Front, said his group does not "want to monopolise rule over Idlib city," which was recently taken over by an Islamist coalition.

He also stressed the importance of "quickly establishing a religious court to judge over people and to end disputes," in a speech published by Al-Nusra's official Manara station on YouTube and Twitter.

Jolani's message came four days after Al-Nusra and other Islamist groups seized Idlib from regime forces.

It was unclear whether the city would be ruled by religious courts or if the various factions would fight among themselves for control of it.

Jolani called on the Islamist groups to set aside differences and join forces "for the victory of Islam and Muslims."

"Maintaining control over the city is harder than taking it over... Because our enemies and critics are betting on our disputes, our poor behaviour and our failure," he said.

Idlib is the second city to fall entirely into rebel hands after the northern city of Raqa, which is now ruled by Al-Nusra's jihadist rival, the Islamic State group.

Al-Nusra and its allies already control a large portion of Idlib province after a November offensive in which they ousted several Western-backed opposition groups.

In July, Jolani announced that Al-Nusra sought the establishment of an "emirate" in Syria that would rival IS's "caliphate." Analysts said Idlib city could be the emirate's capital.

In his message, Jolani promised Idlib's residents that they would be treated well, and called for the creation of a "supervisory council" from various factions "to answer the needs of the people."

He said the authority of "jihadists and (local rulers) emirs does not come from scaring the people, but in protecting them, defeating their oppressor and defending the weak."

The Al-Nusra chief also lambasted those seeking Western support, saying it was impossible to achieve victory in Syria with the help of "criminal killers or Western agents who stab us in the back to satisfy the Americans."

"This victory has proven to everyone that trying to achieve victory through the West or regional countries is a mirage," he said.

Nusra has emerged as the most powerful jihadist group in northwest Syria after it rose to prominence in 2012.

More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and half the country's population has been displaced.

-----

Let's see how the city will run.

It's only a matter of time before different jihadist groups fight each other in Idlib. Syria is a functional internationally recognized state with effective leadership and laws. These terrorist groups do not.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Iranians sent Qassim Sulaimani to lead the battle in Halab, and he miserably lost the battle and his stupidity caused Bashar and his allies losing even more strategic areas in Halab and hundreds of casualties, and later Idlib was liberated. Then Iran sent him to lead the battle in Daraa, again he miserably lost the battle and his stupidity caused Bashar and his allies hundreds of casualties, losing strategic Busra Al-Shaam, and now losing strategic Nassib border crossing. What a joke

 

[Madali]

If Iran is losing everywhere, then why do you guys keep panicking over Iran's influence?

 

[Madali]

Because there are 90 million shiite idiots ready to die for the sake of killing innocents.

Maybe as long as you think 90 million muslims are idiots, than Iran will continue gaining influence. Take care of your Shias, so that Iran doesn't have to.

 

[Superboy]

Because there are 90 million shiite idiots ready to die for the sake of killing innocents.

reported

 

[Dr.Thrax]

Maybe as long as you think 90 million muslims are idiots, than Iran will continue gaining influence. Take care of your Shias, so that Iran doesn't have to.

So by taking care of those 90 million idiots willing to die for mullahs (keep in mind there are 150 million shiites, I'm not here insulting Shiites, I'm insulting the idiots among them) you mean we should give them more innocents to kill? Iran fails miserably at strategy (unlike back in the Sunni days) so they aren't much of a worry, but the worry is that whenever Iran gains ground civilians die, usually those civilians are Sunni. And your entire strategy focuses on hordes and hordes of barely trained units. Civilians who took up arms killed thousands of your Basij. That's how bad your army is. But the sheer number of those barely trained peasant army is whats worrying, especially when their enemies like the rebels barely have much ammo.