...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
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group in a southern province near the Israeli-held Golan Heights, with at least 29 people killed in days of festivities, a front man and activists said Wednesday.
The ISIS group is not known to have a significant presence in southern Syria.
However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
Isam al-Rayess, front man for the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
's Southern Front, said a group known as Jihad Units ambushed some of his fighters in the Quneitra province who were on their way to join an offensive against forces loyal to
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
.
He said the Southern Front, a rebel coalition, has long suspected the Jihad Units of being loyal to the Islamic State group. After the ambush, the Islamic forces of Evil raised black flags similar to those carried by the IS group.
Six of the Southern Front fighters were killed in the ambush, al-Rayess said. Soon after, another ambush resulted in the kidnapping of two fighters, he said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 29 people, including at least nine from the Jihad Units and two Saudi nationals, have been killed in the fighting since Monday.
The rebels have vowed to clear the Jihad Units from the province, and al-Rayess said his men are currently besieging about 200 Jihad Units fighters in a village south of Quneitra.
Fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and 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...
, a hard-line Islamic rebel group, have also joined in the fight against the Jihad Units, al-Rayess said, although there is no coordination.
"We will not allow for the presence of Daesh in the southern front," al-Rayess said in a telephone interview, referring to the IS group by its Arabic acronym. In an offensive last year, the rebels seized most of the Quneitra province, which is also considered a gateway to the capital.
| An Nahar has a slightly different take on Golan events, and gives us the Arabic names of the parties involved: |
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said 31 of the deaths came in fighting in Qahtaniya pitting Jaish al-Jihad, which has pledged allegiance to IS, against Islamists backed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-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 .. ...
Front and other rebel forces.
Al-Nusra and its allies have taken several positions from Jaish al-Jihad, the Observatory said.
In nearby Saham Jolan, five al-Nusra fighters including a commander were killed in festivities with al-Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade, another group close to IS, opposition sources said.
Two al-Yarmuk members were killed.