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Islamist Groups Reject New Syrian Opposition Coalition
[NY Times] Several Death Eater Islamist groups fighting in Syria have said they reject the new Syrian opposition coalition, which was formed under the guidance of the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab countries. The development underscored worries about the rising influence of religious fundamentalism amid the chaos of the bloody civil war in Syria.The Islamist groups are involved in fighting government forces in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , Syria's largest city, and include units aligned with Al Qaeda. They made their declaration in a video uploaded to the Internet on Sunday, saying that their goal was to establish an "Islamic state" in Syria and that they would reject any plans for the country imposed from abroad. At the conclusion of the video, a man holds up a Koran and yells, "Make the Koran your constitution and you will prosper!" The video, in turn, was quickly rejected by commanders of the Free Syrian Army, the umbrella group for loosely knit bands of opposition fighters across Syria, and some residents of Aleppo mocked the video on Facebook. While it called attention to the growing role played by Islamist groups, the video and the controversy it incited among other rebel groups also highlighted the lack of unity among the myriad groups trying to topple the government of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... Posted by: Fred 2012-11-20 |
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