New York Times: As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role

[stockholmer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/world/middleeast/as-syrian-war-drags-on-jihad-gains-foothold.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government grinds on with no resolution in sight, Syrians involved in the armed struggle say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well as small groups of fighters from Al Qaeda, are taking a more prominent role and demanding a say in running the resistance.

The past few months have witnessed the emergence of larger, more organized and better armed Syrian militant organizations pushing an agenda based on jihad, the concept that they have a divine mandate to fight. Even less-zealous resistance groups are adopting a pronounced Islamic aura because it attracts more financing.

Idlib Province, the northern Syrian region where resistance fighters control the most territory, is the prime example. In one case there, after jihadists fighting under the black banner of the Prophet Muhammad staged significant attacks against Syrian government targets, the commander of one local rebel military council recently invited them to join. “They are everywhere in Idlib,” said a lean and sunburned commander with the Free Syrian Army council in Saraqib, a strategic town on the main highway southwest from Aleppo. “They are becoming stronger, so we didn’t want any hostility or tension in our area.”

Tension came anyway. The groups demanded to raise the prophet’s banner — solid black with “There is no god but God” written in flowing white Arabic calligraphy — during the weekly Friday demonstration. Saraqib prides itself in its newly democratic ways, electing a new town council roughly every two months, and residents put it to a vote — the answer was no. The jihadi fighters raised the flag anyway, until a formal compromise allowed for a 20-minute display.


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Further, extensive backgrounding on the Syrian conflict, including historical antecedents (both of a recent nature and also further back from the current event horizon) :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=337334

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Maybe that's what John McCain was getting at when he wanted a more active U.S. involvement

with the insurgency: to fight both the Assad regime and the Jihadists.

[leveymg]

2. The 1976-82 "Long Campaign of Terror" featured the same cast, resulted in > 60-80K casualties

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Syria

History
Under Hafez al-Assad
Islamic uprising
Main article: Islamic uprising in Syria

From 1976 to 1982, Sunni Islamists fought the Ba'ath Party-controlled government of Syria in what has been called "long campaign of terror".[2] Islamists attacked both civilians and off-duty military personnel, and civilians were also killed in retaliatory strike by security forces.

The Muslim Brotherhood was blamed for the terror by the government, although the insurgents used names such as Kata'ib Muhammad (Phalanxes of Muhammad, begun in Hama in 1965 Marwan Hadid) to refer to their organization.[3]

Following Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1976 a number of prominent Syrian officers and government servants, as well as "professional men, doctors, teachers," were assassinated. Most of the victims were Alawis, "which suggested that the assassins had targeted the community" but "no one could be sure who was behind" the killings.[4]

Among the better known victims were:

the commander of the Hama garrison, Colonel Ali Haydar, killed in October 1976
the rector of Damascus University, Dr. Muhammad al-Fadl, killed in February 1977
the commander of the missile corps, Brigadier 'Abd al Hamid Ruzzug, killed in June 1977
the doyen of Syrian dentists, Dr Ibrahim Na'ama, killed in March 1978
the director of police affairs at the Ministry of the Interior, Colonel Ahmad Khalil, killed in August 1978
Public Prosecutor 'Adil Mini of the Supreme State Security Court, killed in April 1979.
President Hafez Asad's own doctor, the neurologist Dr. Muhammad Shahada Khalil, who was killed in August 1979.[5]

These assassinations led up to the 16 June 1979 slaughter of cadets at the Aleppo Artillery School. On that day a member of school staff, Captain Ibrahim Yusuf, assembled the cadets in the dining-hall and then let in the gunmen who opened fire on the cadets. According to the official report 32 young men were killed. Unofficial sources say the "death toll was as high as 83."[6] This attack was the work of Tali'a muqatila, or Fighting Vanguard, a Sunni Islamist guerrilla group and spinoff of the Muslim Brotherhood. `Adnan `Uqla, who later became the group's leader, helped plan the massacre.[7]

The cadet massacre "marked the start of full-scale urban warfare" against Alawis, cadre of the ruling Ba'ath party, party offices, "police posts, military vehicles, barracks, factories and any other target the guerrillas could attack." In the city of Aleppo between 1979 and 1981 terrorists killed over 300 people, mainly Ba'thists and Alawis, but also a dozen Islamic clergy who had denounced the murders. Of these the most prominent was Shaykh Muhammad al-Shami, who was slain in his own mosque, the Sulaymaniya, on 2 February 1980.

On 26 June 1980 the president of Syria, Hafez al-Asad, "narrowly escaped death" when attackers threw two grenades and fired machine gun bursts at him as he waited at a diplomatic function in Damascus.[8]

On 17 June 1980 an estimated 1,152 Islamist inmates at the prison in Palmyra were massacred by the alawi-ruled government Defense companies troops. Less than a month later membership in the Muslim Brotherhood became punishable by death with a month grace period given for members to turn themselves in.

Individuals assassinated at this time include:

Salim al-Lawzi, publisher of al-Hawadith, in Lebanon killed by Syrian assassins in March 1980.
Riad Taha, head of the journalists' union in Beirut killed in July 1980.
Wife of guide of Muslim Brothers Isam al-`Attar, (Bayan al-Tantawi) killed in Aachen, Germany as she opened the front door to assassins in July 1980. (p.329)
Salah al-Din Bitar, co-founder of the Ba'ath Party killed in Paris on 21 July 1980.

While the involvement of the Syrian government "was not proved" in these killings, it "was widely suspected."[9]

The insurgency is generally considered to have been crushed by the bloody Hama massacre of 1982, in which thousands of were killed, "the vast majority innocent civilians".[10][11]
Perpetrators

According to some sources, such as Syrian president Hafez al-Asad[12] and journalist Robert Dreyfuss[13], the Muslim Brotherhood insurgents in Syria were aided by the Jordanian government in cooperation with Lebanese Phalangists, South Lebanon Army, and the right-wing Israeli government of Menachem Begin, who allegedly supported, funded and armed the Muslim Brotherhood in an effort to overthrow the regime of President Assad.

We are not just dealing with killers inside Syria, but with those who masterminded their plans. The plot thickened after Sadat's visit to Jerusalem and many foreign intelligence services became involved. Those who took part in Camp David used the Muslim Brothers against us. [14]

The South Lebanese Army allegedly set up camps to help train the Muslim Brotherhood insurgents. Both Israel and Syria had troops in Lebanon and clashed over domination of that country. Syria's Arab nationalist government has supported the overthrow of the Royalist, pro-Western Jordanian government.
1986 bombings
Main article: 1986 Damascus bombings

. . .

The arrival and dominance within the opposition of Saudi and other foreign-supported jihadists should come as a surprise to no one as this reverts to the long meat grinder phase of the last Sunni uprising in Syria.