Al Qaeda-Linked ISIS Under Attack in Northern Syria

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: BBC

A powerful al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria has issued an ultimatum to other rebel factions that have been fighting it.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) threatened to leave the city of Aleppo to government forces unless its rivals stop their attacks against it within 24 hours.

ISIS has suffered losses in two days of fighting against an alliance of rebel forces in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

The group is accused of imposing a reign of terror on areas it controls.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25606370

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. These are the same guys that just took over Fallujah in Iraq.

From Beirut to Baghdad, it is on.

[Alamuti Lotus]

3. And taking credit for the bombing in Beirut a couple days ago..

[hollowdweller]

8. And the big losers

Are the regular people.

I realize there's been protestant against Catholic before.

But the Islamic world seems to be taking sectarianism to a whole new level.

The really sad part is you look at some place like Lebanon.

I mean they've been going at it for a LONG time. However they are only getting just a LITTLE bit tired of it now.

Seems like religion over there has sort of been used to create like a caste system in each country to promote or marginalize a certain group of people.

The regular people need to take over but seems like when they do that then rather than a cohesive society you wind up with a hundreds of little dictatorships.

I think it may take them 50 years or more over there. The sad part is that it's almost like the Crips and the Bloods have taken over the middle east. There's just sort of these gangs that are based around religion and they go from country to country and earn their living from being so called holy warriors. So I think there is a huge economic element to the whole thing. But how do you keep the rich pious, muslims from funding them??

[quadrature]

2. give everyone a gun

then the local people will decide who
they don't like.

[nilesobek]

4. I forgot what side we are on a long time ago

Did we arm these guys too? How long have we been hooking up with al queada against certain foreign governments?

There will be no sympathy from me for these guys when the Syrian Government forces give them what they have coming.

[bemildred]

5. Threatening to leave doesn't seem like much of a threat.

Especially against people who are attacking you to start with.

[Alamuti Lotus]

6. Turning their positions over to the gov't seems like a threat..

For better or worse, their fighters tend to do the heavy lifting and take the insane death risks while the other factions focus on editing videos for YouTube. Reversing the small gains the anti-gov't forces have made in the area seems like a real threat. On the other hand, ISI is increasingly very arrogant in its dealings with the other formations, a move like this could just be a power play to force further concessions.

[bemildred]

7. Right, I get that, but the guys they want to stop are trying to remove them now.

So removing themselves first seems more like saying "OK, you win!" to that group. Their response will be: "Redouble your efforts, Men!"

And if one presumes some 3rd party is the audience, who does not want them removed, in Syria, and opposed to Assad; one must ask what they expect that 3rd party to do that they cannot do for themselves. As you point out, they're supposed to be the hard guys, the heavy lifters.

I just seems to me more like a bleat of outrage than a coherent request for help. They appear to lack discipline.

Edit, to summarize: "You cannot threaten people with things they are not afraid of." I think that's their problem, them leaving isn't much of a threat unless you think Assad is worse, and the Salafis have thoroughly undercut that idea themselves.

[bemildred]

9. This is what I'm getting at, there seems a disconnect:

Syria fighting between rebels and Al Qaeda-linked group spreads

Muhammad "Abu Zaki” Aassi, a spokesman with the Suqoor al-Sham Brigade in Idlib, said that in the beginning the rebel groups believed ISIS was aligned with their interests against the government of President Bashar Assad.

“But it became clear that they weren’t a part of us,” he said.

“Almost all of the rebels are working together to get rid of these fakers,” Aassi said. “The Syrian revolution hopes that ISIS will leave Syria. Wherever they want to go they can go as long as they leave Syria.”

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syria-fighting-al-qaeda-20140104,0,1630402.story

Another one:

Al Qaeda-linked group routed in Syrian rebel infighting

AMMAN, Jordan -- Infighting among Islamist anti-government groups operating in northern Syria continued for a third day, as rebel factions engage in a large-scale rout against an extremist Al Qaeda affiliated group.

Jaysh Al-Mujahideen (the army of the Mujahideen), a new coalition of presumably moderate Islamist groups, as well as factions affiliated with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front consolidated their gains against the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) in what activists are hailing as a "second revolution." The Turkish government reacted with a shutdown of the vital Bab Al-Salameh crossing on the Syrian border.

"The rebels have achieved tremendous progress against ISIS in all the points of conflict, liberating more than 80% of the Idlib countryside and 65% of Aleppo and its countryside" said Abu Bakr, a media activist for the Sham News Network in Raqqa.

Another activist agreed, saying that "the presence of the State of Baghdadi is finished," in reference to the group's shadowy leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, adding that many of its headquarters have been handed over to the Nusrah Front, another Al Qaeda affiliated group that is nevertheless viewed as more moderate.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syrian-rebel-infighting-20140105,0,2285747.story