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Al-Qaeda linked group pushes through ISIS-held Syrian territory
[ALMASDARNEWS] The media department of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham
...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant...
 (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
, al-Qaeda franchise) has released footage of its fighters combating Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 snuffies at Jabal al-Afa'i, a mountain in the Eastern Qalamoun region, northeast of Damascus.
Two sets of gentlemen in cool black track suits with matching ski masks striking cool poses as they shoot off vast streams of bullets in each other's general direction, occasionally actually hitting someone?
Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fights against ISIS alongside Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
 and the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
 (FSA) affiliated Ahmad al-Abdo Brigade; meanwhile, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is standing idle by while the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) carries out daily Arclight airstrikes on ISIS snuffies in the region, indirectly supporting the aforementioned Syrian rebel groups.

Eastern Qalamoun represents the only region in Syria with a somewhat pragmatic alliance between Salafist tough guys and the SAA, two otherwise staunch opponents.

For instance, when ISIS downed a SyAAF jet two days ago and the pilot subsequently parachuted onto rebel-held territory, he was returned by Syrian rebels to a nearby SAA checkpoint by the following day.

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham and the FSA now control some 70% of Jabal al-Afa'i after gradually advancing on ISIS in the past few days.


Posted by: Fred 2016-09-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=468400