Inter-rebel fighting in Syria

[Ars Moriendi]

I will use this thread to post information regarding attacks between warrying rebel factions in Syria. While the big hype of this conflict, most notably in January -March this year, has dwindled, combats still continue and can alter the development of the war.



------------


Explosion wipes out Ahrar al-Sham leadership

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Sep-10/270172-explosion-wipes-out-ahrar-al-sham-leadership.ashx#axzz3Cwu65hcT

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/dailystar/Pictures/2014/09/10/346107_img650x420_img650x420_crop.jpg

BEIRUT: A huge explosion in a town in northwest Syria Tuesday evening wiped out the senior leadership of the powerful Ahrar al-Sham militia, killing its leader Hassan Abboud and more than two dozen figures from the Salafist-jihadist group.

An official from Ahrar al-Sham told Al-Jazeera TV the cause of the blast remained unclear while an anti-regime media activist group based in Idlib claimed that a bomb planted inside the building where the high-level meeting was taking place razed the structure, killing everyone inside.

A statement from Ahrar al-Sham said the blast in the town of Ram Hamdan killed Abboud, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Abdullah al-Hamwi, along with 11 other top leaders, including military and religious figures.

“They were martyred ... in an explosion inside their meeting headquarters,” said a statement on the Twitter feed of the Islamic Front, the rebel coalition to which it belonged. The Front blamed a car bomb for the blast.

The Idlib News Network activist group said that over 40 people were killed in the explosion, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based, anti-regime group of activists, said “dozens” of Ahrar al-Sham members were killed.

Syrian state media and followers of the Al-Qaeda breakaway group ISIS were quick to announce Abboud’s killing.

Abboud was a former inmate in Seidnaya prison who was released under an amnesty by Syrian President Bashar Assad in the summer of 2011. Aron Lund, a researcher who follows the myriad of groups fighting in Syria’s war, called the killing a “crushing blow at a crucial moment” for Ahrar al-Sham.

Lund commented on Twitter that recently the group had “started to moderate their public image and strike more alliances into the [rebel] FSA-end of the rebel spectrum, to counter” ISIS and secure funding.

In a series of recent statements on Twitter, Abboud himself spoke critically of the notion that his conservative militia should necessarily be linked to the more hard-line Nusra Front and ISIS.

He was responding to criticism by hard-line Islamist figures of Ahrar al-Sham’s decisions to cooperate with other, non-Salafist-jihadists rebel groups in the Syrian war. No claim of responsibility was made for the blast.

An anti-regime, Syrian observer of the Syrian conflict told The Daily Star that Abboud and his militia had “many enemies,” ranging from the Syrian regime to the Al-Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, as well as ISIS.

The observer, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that while it was too early to draw conclusions as to who was responsible for the assassination, Ahrar al-Sham had recently found itself in an increasingly untenable position, with international anger against the more notorious Nusra and ISIS on the rise.

He said that Ahrar al-Sham was in the process of staking out a less hard-line position by emphasizing that its political and military objectives would remain limited to Syria, in effect acknowledging the 20th century “Sykes-Picot” borders of Iraq and Syria, which are rejected by groups such as Nusra and ISIS.

While both Al-Qaeda affiliates have been described as the best-organized and funded militias operating in the Syrian war, the observer said that Ahrar al-Sham was in some ways as disciplined, if not more so, than its rivals. – with agencies

[Linebacker]

When Karma gets you.

[TheGoldenSon]

I have no doubts, in which salafist group with a M.O. of assassinating leadership of ideological competitors they will melt into.

[Ars Moriendi]

I have no doubts, in which salafist group with a M.O. of assassinating leadership of ideological competitors they will melt into.

You got me curious. What group will pick the pieces left of Ahrar Al Sham?

[TheGoldenSon]

You got me curious. What group will pick the pieces left of Ahrar Al Sham?

The same one which does this from time to time when they aren't beheding American jurnalists.

[Ars Moriendi]

The same one which does this from time to time when they aren't beheding American jurnalists.

I don't think IS - ISIL - ISI (genealogy of the group) have ever been characterized by killing their own leaders.
Al Zarqawi was undisputed until the Americans blasted him, and al-Baghdadi has never been targeted for removal either.

[Ars Moriendi]

According to the British (take note) Arab journalAsharq Al Awsat, the Free Syrian Army is still struggling to not fall completely to its grave, and has launched a counterattack operation north of Aleppo against the Islamic State.

They seemingly have managed to get IS to abandon some positions, but fighting is expected to resume shortly.

Free Syrian Army rebels attack ISIS near Aleppo
http://www.aawsat.net/2014/09/article55336390

http://www.aawsat.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/1410114140052755800.jpg
Syrian rebel fighters man a checkpoint in the East Al-Ansari neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, on September 7, 2014. (Reuters/Ammar Abdullah)


Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Fee Syrian Army, aided by moderate Islamist brigades, launched an attack on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Syria after receiving new weapons, including anti-tank missiles, amid doubts about their ability to defeat the organization.

The latest campaign follows reports that Washington is planning to expand its support for non-jihadists among the ranks of Syrian rebels.

Speaking at a NATO conference in Wales last week, President Obama told reporters that the US and its NATO allies would consider enlisting “moderate” Syrian rebels in the struggle against the organization, while giving no indication if he would authorize US air strikes on Syrian territory.

Opposition sources in northern Syria refused to comment on the issue of links with the US. A spokesman for one rebel group calling itself the Fajr Al-Hurriyah Brigades, Abu-Jad Al-Halabi, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “There is no information which can be revealed about communications with the Americans.” Halabi said the Fajr Al-Hurriyah Brigades were formed more than a year ago and were led by a dissident military field commander known as Abu-Fouad.

Syrian opposition fighters began to attack ISIS positions last week, forcing the extremist group to retreat from some areas north of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based monitoring organization the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, said: “Opposition fighters were training to use new advanced weapons which recently arrived in the north, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.”

However, Abdulrahman cast doubts over the opposition’s ability to defeat ISIS, saying “the real test facing the opposition starts in the next battle planned in the town of Al-Bab, north of Aleppo.”

“The only fighters who can make progress against ISIS are the Kurds and the [Kurdish] People’s Protection Units (PYG) in the areas of northern Syria under their control, which are the border areas with Iraq,” he added.

Clashes between ISIS and other rebels began in earnest last spring, when the group launched attacks in the northern areas of the governorate of Aleppo, occupying a number of villages.

Abdulrahman said: “It is not possible to launch attacks on ISIS to force it to retreat without air cover . . . ISIS’s control of strategic hills in the northern Aleppo suburbs enable it to repel any attack from the opposition.”

He also said that ISIS was heavily armed, and that its arsenal included “anti-aircraft weapons which it has not used so far.”

Opposition brigades, however, said the reason for their ability to defeat ISIS was the fact that they were outgunned.

Halabi told Asharq Al-Awsat that his group and other rebels suffered from a “lack of advanced weapons, which enables us to launch wide and simultaneous attacks on ISIS positions in a number of areas.”

“The reinforcements and ammunition we have received are enough to repel ISIS attacks, but not enough to attack it at the moment,” he added.

He denied that the opposition needed air cover, saying: “We are the people of this area and we make up the absolute majority among the brigades, and we are able to face ISIS without air cover in northern Aleppo if we receive advanced weapons which compare to those ISIS has.”

-------------------------------------------

It's interesting to how vested the SOHS is so invested in the support of the Free Syrian Army, even though it has objectively lost any sort of real capacity to direct the course of the war.

[Ars Moriendi]

An article dealing with the implications of the destruction of Ahrar Al-Sham leadership:

The mysterious explosion that could change the Syrian war
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/09/11/the-mysterious-explosion-that-could-change-the-syrian-war/

http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_908w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2014-09-09/Getty/REF22310.jpg
An opposition fighter from the Ahrar al-Sham Brigade, part of the Islamic Front coalition, fires a machine gun from a truck displaying the group's flag during clashes with government forces as he defends the Marjah neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Jan. 27, 2014. AFP PHOTO/ MAHMUD AL-HALABIMAHMUD AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images

On Tuesday, a single event happened that could change the course of the the Syrian war. At least a dozen commanders of Ahrar al-Sham, including leader Hassan Aboud, were wiped out in an instance by what has been described as a suicide bomb during a high-level meeting in Ram Hamdan in Syria’s Idlib province.

Less than 24 hours after the explosion, the group announced new leaders, but relatively little is known about them. In a video, its new leadership announced that the group will continue on the same course as before.

Analysts have their doubts, however, on whether that will be true – or even if Ahrar al-Sham can survive at all. "This will be a turning point of sorts," Syrian journalist and analyst Hassan Hassan tweeted shortly after the news spread.

Could one explosion really change the Syrian war?

Ahrar al-Sham

Formed in 2011 by former Islamist prisoners – including a number of al-Qaeda alumni – Ahrar al-Sham pushed a Salafist agenda and called for a Sunni Islamist state, but steered clear of calls for a global jihad and focused on the Syrian state. Over the course of the Syrian civil war, the group (whose name means "The Free Men of Syria") gained a reputation as one of the strongest and best organized forces among the rebel groups.

By mid-2013 the group was estimated to have 10,000-20,000 fighters, and months later it helped to form the Islamic Front, an Islamist alliance that rivaled the Western-backed, secular Supreme Military Council (SMC) and the Free Syrian Army. While Ahrar al-Sham was one of the more hard-line Salafist groups, it cooperated with both the SMC as well as Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda's branch in Syria. It's leader, Aboud, was widely regarded for his intelligence and fluent English, and went on to became the political head of Islamic Front.

Ahrar al-Sham was ultimately too Salafist to be considered an ally by the West, but it was never declared a terrorist organization by the United States (unlike Jabhat al-Nusra) and was seen as a bridge between the secular rebels and the more extremist groups. There were signs that the group was softening its religious stance, however, partly due to a weakening funding. There were stories that the group had even met with a top U.S. State Department official, for example, and the group had recently agreed to join the Revolutionary Command Council, a broad opposition coalition that enjoyed U.S. support.


Crucially, the group was also a key enemy of Islamic State, the extremist group that had captured much of Syria and Iraq in the past six months. The two groups had fought fiercely for much of the year, and on February, Ahrar al-Sham accused Islamic State of assassinating Abu Khalid al-Suri, one of its top leaders and an alleged link to al-Qaeda, in a suicide attack.

The explosion

The death of Aboud and the rest of Ahrar al-Sham's leadership has been labeled as some kind of suicide bombing, but no one has claimed responsibility for it and a number of rival theories exist. While an Islamic State suicide bomber might be the most obvious choice, others suggest that Syrian regime forces could have bombed the building where the meeting was being held with an airstrike, and the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has described it as a car bombing.

"There is a possibility that the meeting was infiltrated and an explosion happened first in the bunker," Abu al-Mustafa al-Ambsi, a member of the political wing of Ahrar al-Sham, told Al Jazeera. "Maybe someone planted a device inside because the bunker is at a secret location."

Other reports call into question more fundamental aspects of the explosion. Reuters spoke to one rebel leader who claimed that doctors at the scene were "frothing at the mouth and fluid coming from the eyes and noses," reminiscent of scenes from alleged chemical weapons attacks in the country or smoke inhalation. Another account shared on social media and cited by McClatchy suggests that the explosion may not have been an attack at all, but an accident.


What happens now?

Analysts seem unanimous: Whatever caused this blast, it was a big deal.

"The gutting of Ahrar al-Sham’s leadership will have major ripple effects in the opposition," writes Aron Lund at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "Unless Ahrar al-Sham somehow manages to recover and sustain its relevance as a major Islamist faction, the Islamic Front may now be beyond repair."

Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, argues that the killing of Aboud in particular would be devastating. "He was almost certainly a crucial barrier preventing young Syrian Ahrar al-Sham fighters from joining Al-Qaeda (Jabhat al-Nusra) or even ISIS," Lister, who had met Aboud, writes at the Huffington Post. Lister later adds "it would seem Ahrar al-Sham's senior leadership has lost a balance it previously managed between moderates and hardliners, with the latter now more openly dominant."

The timing may be everything. Just as the United States was looking like it could possibly cut some leeway to Salafist groups like Ahrar al-Sham, and just when that group appeared to be attempting to work more closely with moderate levels, its entire leadership has been destroyed. Even if it can survive as a group, its direction may well change. If it can't survive, exactly where its thousands of fighters would defect to is unclear.

"If ISIS is behind assassination of Abboud and co, it could well attract some [Ahrar al-Sham]'s disoriented fighters," Emile Hokayem, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, tweeted on Tuesday. "Big setback for anti-ISIS rebels."

[askra]

If they kill each other, rather that annoying other peoples in the world, is a very positive news imo.I hope for them a "mutual assured destruction".