Syrian Rebels Continue Advance on Government-Held Cities

[European Knight]

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Qaeda-led rebels take Idlib's last Syria regime bastion

Beirut (AFP) - A rebel coalition led by the Syrian affiliate of Al-Qaeda stormed and seized the last regime-held city in Idlib province Thursday, as Iraq exhumed the remains of 470 jihadist victims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Al-Nusra Front and its allies in the Army of Conquest -- Jaish al-Fatah in Arabic -- captured Ariha after fierce clashes with regime forces including their Hezbollah allies, who were seen withdrawing.

The rebel sweep saw their fighters quickly enter outer districts of Ariha, the Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"Jaish al-Fatah has taken full control of the city of Ariha after a lightning offensive that ended with a heavy pullout of regime forces and their allies Hezbollah from the western side of the city," he said.

The coalition confirmed the takeover of Ariha on Twitter, saying it seized the city in just six hours.

Earlier, Abdel Rahman said: "There was heavy shelling and rocket fire, then they stormed the city. They have entered the city and are engaged in fierce clashes on its peripheries."

Ariha, which was home to 40,000 people before the conflict began, was the last remaining government-held city in Idlib province bordering Turkey.

"The march of lions has begun... Let Allah liberate Ariha," the Army of Conquest's official Twitter account posted as the attack began.

The Britain-based Observatory said late Thursday that dozens of military vehicles were seen withdrawing from Ariha.

- String of victories -

The Army of Conquest coalition has won a string of victories in Idlib, including taking the provincial capital on March 28 and the key town of Jisr al-Shughur on April 25.

Most recently, the rebels seized the massive Al-Mastumah military base and overran a hospital complex where regime soldiers were trapped.

Many government forces retreated from these areas to Ariha, which Abdel Rahman said was heavily defended by fighters from Iran and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

The Army of Conquest vowed to consolidate its control of Idlib province, where before the latest attack the regime still held Ariha, the Abu Duhur military airport and a sprinkling of villages and military posts.

In the fight against the separate Islamic State group, the Pentagon said Thursday US-led coalition had hit targets in both Syria and Iraq.

Aircraft targeted IS with six strikes in Hasakeh and Deir Ezzor provinces, while in neighbouring Iraq warplanes launched a total of 20 strikes against the jihadists.

Iraq's health minister said on Thursday authorities there have exhumed the remains of 470 people believed to have been executed by IS near Tikrit last year in what became known as the Speicher massacre.

"We have exhumed the bodies of 470 Speicher martyrs from burial sites in Tikrit," Adila Hammoud told reporters in Baghdad.

In June 2014, armed men belonging or allied to IS abducted hundreds of young, mostly Shiite recruits from Speicher military base, just outside the city of Tikrit.

- Executed one by one -

They were then lined up in several locations and executed one by one, as shown in pictures and footage later released by IS on the Internet.

Some were pushed into the Tigris river, others hastily buried in locations that were discovered when government and allied forces retook Tikrit from the jihadists about two months ago.

The highest estimate for the number of people killed in one of the worst IS atrocities stands at 1,700.

The exhumed remains came from four burial sites, including one which contained 400 bodies, said Ziad Ali Abbas, the chief doctor at Baghdad's main morgue.

"There were several layers of bodies all piled on top of each other," he said, adding that 50 bodies were found in a second site and nine more in the two remaining graves.

The health minister said the figure of 470 was not final.

"The work to exhume Speicher victims continues," Hammoud said.

"The morgue also continues its work to identify the bodies... It's complicated work. It's a huge case. It takes a lot of work to identify the victims," she said.

Officials had said in mid-April that up to 10 different suspected burial sites were identified in the Tikrit area after government forces recaptured it in late March and early April.

The Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass recruitment of Shiite volunteers to fight the Sunni Muslim jihadists.

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[European Knight]

http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaedas-syria-branch-seeks-image-makeover-west-152622668.html?soc_src=copy

Al-Qaeda's Syria branch seeks image makeover in West

Beirut (AFP) - Al-Qaeda's Syria franchise is striving to reinvent itself as a legitimate opposition force that is more acceptable to the West, but it is unlikely to succeed, analysts said Thursday.

In a rare television interview, Al-Nusra Front chief Abu Mohamed al-Jolani vowed not to use Syria as a springboard to attack the West and said he would be willing to protect minorities.

"It's all part of a normalisation process that Al-Qaeda in Syria has been seeking to do for some time now," said Charlie Winter, an analyst on jihadism at the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

"It wants to appear more palatable to the West... It was kind of like an infomercial for 'Al-Nusra, the moderates'," he said of Wednesday's interview with Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera.

Al-Nusra and its extremist rival, the Islamic State group, have been designated as terrorist organisations by the United States since 2012.

In recent months, the Al-Qaeda branch has become one of the most powerful forces in northwest Syria after a series of victories in the province of Idlib, including the provincial capital and a large military base.

But the group is seeking to transform its image in the West to one of a legitimate political opponent to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, analysts said, and Jolani's interview was the first step.

"Al-Nusra is trying to change the West's opinion, to make it see Al-Nusra as a political actor and a Syrian opposition actor," said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

"This is one of the main reasons Jolani was sending messages of reassurance to the West."

- Al-Nusra's 'pragmatism' -

The shift may be part of a renewed push by regional powers including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to bolster Syrian opposition groups, analysts said.

Qatar, in particular, "had a relatively moderating influence on Al-Nusra that was clear in this interview," said Thomas Pierret, a Syria expert at the University of Edinburgh.

His face covered in a black shawl, Jolani accused Washington of coordinating with the Syrian government over air strikes on jihadist-controlled territory.

But he said Al-Nusra had been instructed to focus on toppling Assad, not attacking the West.

The militant chief also played down fears of future attacks on Syrian minorities, including Christians and Alawites, the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Assad clan belongs.

It was a clear juxtaposition with IS, which has carried out atrocities including videotaped beheadings and mass killings, sowing fear among minority communities in the Middle East.

Jolani's messages were "an example of the pragmatism with which Al-Nusra has begun to act," Khatib said.

"Al-Nusra has political ambitions, and Jolani's interview is the beginning of presenting the group as a political actor in Syria, not just an extremist Islamist organisation," she told AFP.

Al-Nusra Front itself has been accused of indiscriminately targeting civilians with suicide attacks, car bombs and executions.

- Committed to jihadism -

The jihadist leader attempted to walk a fine line between mollifying other Islamist leaders in Syria and positioning his group as a more moderate choice than IS.

"Jolani was trying to say to the world that he's not like this extremist IS group," Winter said.

"At the same time, he tried to appease the jihadist community. He needed to toe the line between satisfying both camps," he added.

Despite this careful positioning, analysts do not expect the West to change its view of the group.

"Jolani effectively 'reassured' the West and minorities, but did not compromise in doctrine or in terms of Al-Nusra's links to Al-Qaeda," Pierret said.

With an "Al-Qaeda in the Levant" flag featured prominently on the table in front of him during the interview, Jolani seemed to dispel rumours that his group would split with Al-Qaeda's central command.

"I don't think Jolani imagines he'll change the mind of the US president, or that many Alawites or Christians will think he seems like a great guy," said Aron Lund, editor of the Syria in Crisis website.

Despite his apparent overtures to minorities, he conditioned their protection on turning to "his own Salafi interpretation of Sunni Islam," he said.

"He's not stepping away from his ideology," added Lund.

Winter said there was "a propensity to forget that Jolani came from the Islamic State of Iraq, the forebearer of IS."

While Al-Nusra may seem to be more moderate than its jihadist rival, "it's all a temporary phase of the broader question of their implementation of jihad," he said.

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[Böri]

During the last two months, the regime lost Idlib, Jisr Shougur and Ariha to rebels and Palmyra to ISIS. It's interesting. Maybe they decided to retreat from other areas and keep and the coastal line and Damascus to create a Nusayri state.