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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Interview: Revolt Against Assad Draws Briton To Syria
2012-08-10
[Ma'an] Motivated by his mother's tales of atrocities in her homeland three decades ago, British student Mohammad Qadi Riha said he set off from London to Syria to join the armed resistance against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
He said he convinced his mother, a survivor of the 1982 Hama massacre, that he was going only to film footage on behalf of British media. Rebels, with whom he said he spent six weeks, gave him rudimentary combat training as soon as he arrived in May and took him on their missions.
Details of our brave lad heroically filming from behind while carrying a real pistol available at the link.
Thousands of Syrians expatriates have been helping the rebellion, mostly by contributing money, activism on the Internet, hosting refugees, or going to border areas in Jordan, Leb and Turkey to offer expertise, such as doctors who help the maimed, according to opposition sources.

There are no figures on foreigners who joined the rebels on the inside, but Syrian authorities say fighters have come from North Africa, Yemen, Gulf states and Afghanistan.

Qadi Riha said he plans to spend some time with his family in London before going back for a third "tour of duty".
Posted by:trailing wife

#5  NYT excerpt:

Some activists said on Thursday that they were growing frustrated with the Free Syrian ArmyÂ’s approach.

“They don’t admit their defeats,” said Ammar, 22, an activist from Aleppo. “Everything is tactical, and all their operations are always about high expectations.”

A woman from Homs, who would not give her name, said that residents ended up suffering when the rebels moved into a neighborhood only to depart when the Syrian military entered. “Why do they claim the areas are free and say they’ve liberated them if they know they cannot stand against the regime’s troops and tanks?” she asked.

These people are naive. The rebels aren't in the cities to protect civilians - they're using civilians as human shields, taking their food and drink instead of having to feed themselves and confiscating their homes as impromptu fortifications. The amusing thing is that the regime gets all the blame for destroying districts from which insurgents are firing at government troops.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-08-10 12:22  

#4  Hopefully, the locals will draw his guts out.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2012-08-10 05:17  

#3  Overheard on the web:
The German foreign intelligence service, the BND disclosed that “around 90 terror attacks that can be attributed to organizations that are close to Al-Qaeda or jihadist groups were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July.” “At least three major German newspapers – Die Welt, Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Bild have published reports attributing responsibility for the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla to anti-government rebel forces….writing in Bild, German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer accused the rebels of ‘deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government.’ He described this ‘massacre-marketing strategy’ as being among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict.’”
I have heard the Bild Zeitung is Germany's right-wing paper.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-08-10 02:11  

#2  He said he convinced his mother, a survivor of the 1982 Hama massacre, that he was going only to film footage on behalf of British media.

In 1982, the residents of a number of districts in Hama were told to leave so that the army could root out the rebels who, as usual, were hiding among civilians. Then the army flattened those districts with artillery. Very WWII-style, which makes sense, because the Syrian military isn't much evolved from a WWII military. Anything more requires a lot of money that most Third World countries can't afford. That this guy's mom "survived" the Hama artillery barrage means that she was among the Islamists who stayed to provide logistical or other material support for the Muslim Brotherhood rebels. It's pretty amazing that Britain let in the troglodytes related to the Ikhwan after their defeat in Syria in the 1980's. With any luck, this "British student" will end up buying the farm in Syria before he gets up to any mischief in the UK.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-08-10 01:58  

#1  Assad is hanging in there, without much grandstanding either like Gaddafi or Mubarak did during their crisis. He just keeps hammering away at the rebels.
Posted by: Percy Mussolini2436   2012-08-10 00:27  

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