Rebel leaders in Syria warned last night that gunmen linked to Al Qaeda were undermining the battle to oust tyrant Bashar al-Assad. Hundreds of rebel fighters are defecting and pledging allegiance to the extremists, according to sources. Many Syrian rebels are attracted to radical units because they are generally more effective than the moderate forces which have Western backing but receive only halting military aid.
Entire units are said to have joined the small but powerful Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in recent days. At least two entire rebel brigades are said to have joined the Nusra Front in opposition-held Raqqa, which borders Turkey. One of the groups, the Raqqa Revolutionaries, is said to have about 750 fighters.
In one glimmer of reconciliation, Al Qaeda fighters and a rival Syrian rebel group agreed a truce to end two days of vicious infighting in the northern town of Azaz which militant Islamists had seized from more moderate rebels. The clashes – dubbed a ‘civil war within the civil war’ – have alarmed London, Washington and Paris, especially as it is seen as weakening the two-and-a-half-year revolt against Assad. Fighting has been intensifying between Nusra/ISIL and the less effective but more moderate forces that make up the majority of opposition fighters. |