Al-Qaida moving into Syria

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WASHINGTON – The United States now admits that there is increasing evidence al-Qaida is working its way into Syria and associating itself with the opponents of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

There also is evidence that al-Qaida is going into Syria from neighboring Lebanon and associating itself with the Sunnis there and in the Western-most Sunni-dominated provinces in Iraq that border on Syria.

Central al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called for his al-Qaida insurgents to assist the Sunni opposition against al-Assad, who is Alawite, an offshoot of Shi'ism, and defend persecuted Sunnis.

"Don't depend on the West and Turkey, which had deals, mutual understanding, and sharing with this regime for decades and only began to abandon it after they saw it faltering," al-Zawahiri said.

Now, there is increasing evidence that jihadist fighters are beginning to stream in from Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Libya.

"If al-Assad is ousted," one informed Lebanese observer told G2Bulletin, "al-Qaida will take over the opposition movement and control Syria."

An indication of this concern is out of Moscow itself. The Kremlin in recent days has condemned the killing of some 109 people including women and children in the Syrian village of Houla outside the city of Homs.

The Russians even agreed to a United Nations Security Council resolution which condemned the violence and even criticized the al-Assad regime for allowing the violence to continue.

However, Moscow stopped short of placing all the responsibility on al-Assad's military, warning that the government faces increased terrorist threats that reflect a "clear signature of al-Qaida."

In addition, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. observer in Syria Gen. Robert Mood didn't rule out the possibility of the killings in Houla also could have been done at the hands of insurgents who had infiltrated the opposition.

Indeed, there are indications of increased al-Qaida activity emanating from some of the Sunni Palestinian refugee camps in neighboring Lebanon, including Ain el-Hilweh just south of Beirut outside Saida, or Sidon, a major Sunni stronghold.

"Syria has now become a proxy battlefield in which al-Qaida is laboring very hard to find a new refuge, and to portray itself as a guardian of Sunni Muslims – objectives that lie in stark contrast to those of the majority of Syrian protesters," said London School of Economics professor Fawaz A. Gerges, who also directs the Middle East Centre.

"As the Syrian conflict escalates, and the country threatens to descend into all-out sectarian strife, al-Qaida-like activists and factions will go to further lengths to establish a foothold in the country as they did in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003," Gerges told the Christian Science Monitor. "Their success will depend on how Syrians react to these foreign fighters and whether the aggrieved Sunni community will provide shelter."

So far, al-Qaida has been able to operate with virtual impunity in Syria among the Sunni opposition, according to informed sources.

Just as al-Qaida began to infiltrate into Syria only after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the same appears to be emerging in Syria.

"The terrorist organization was not present at the beginning of the uprising (in Syria) more than a year ago," Gerges said. "Yet through the escalation of the violence and continuing bloodshed, the Syrian government has succeeded in imposing its own reality on the essentially peaceful struggle, throwing the country into chaos, thereby attracting Salafi-Jihadi fighters."

In Iraq, it took overwhelming U.S. intervention to halt al-Qaida's rise.

If Syria descends into all-out civil war as Iraq did, al-Qaida likely will find a new haven and become the hub for fighters that then could use Syria to threaten nearby Sunni Gulf Arab states which fear the al-Qaida/Salafists who are anti-monarchist.

All of the Gulf Arab states are led by Sunni monarchies. Gerges and others see Syria turning into a proxy sectarian war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran.

If al-Qaida begins to show serious gains in Syria, however, the sectarian proxy war could be put on hold since al-Qaida's ascendency could prompt these Gulf Arab countries to reconsider their opposition to al-Assad.

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