ISIS will wait: Russia is destroying Crimean jihadists in Syria
The “moderate opposition” in Syria is in panic. If government troops attack them from the south and west, and Russian aircraft carry out air strikes, then ISIS attacks from the east. Thus, in the northeast of Syria, where the fiercest fighting is taking place, the “moderate opposition” is being squeezed. On their social media accounts, militants are already warning that the country's second largest city, Aleppo, could soon fall to the Islamic State. They have already captured three villages near the city and are on the outskirts of the metropolis. “How timely our Muslim brothers from ISIS came to visit us,” the “moderate opposition” panicked on social networks. And he adds: “Now you understand why the Russians are bombing us!?”
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In the current Syrian mess, massive Russian airstrikes, more often against the “moderate opposition” than ISIS, can really lead to confusion. But only if you don’t know who it consists of and the location of the opponents. The striking force of the “moderate opposition” is the Army of Conquest, which brings together jihadist militants from all over the world. The core is the Syrian army of al-Qaeda in the form of the Jabhat al-Nusra group. The only difference between it and the Islamic State is that Al Qaeda wants to build its own Caliphate. Also, the heads of infidels are not cut off. Kafirs, and they are considered everyone who is not a follower of the Sunni movement in Islam, are simply shot. In mid-September, Syrian al-Qaeda captured an air base near Aleppo. More than 50 government soldiers who surrendered were executed en masse on the airstrip. The jihadists wanted to keep silent about the bloody massacre, but footage taken on a mobile phone ended up online.
Syrian al-Qaeda now controls most of the “moderate opposition” territory in the northeast, in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo. Yesterday its leaders announced that women must now wear a hijab, and government forces have sent 7 suicide bombers over the past week. Sharia law has been in effect on the “lands” of Syrian al-Qaeda for more than a year.
Positions before the start of Russian airstrikes: yellow – Kurds, black – ISIS, green – “moderate” opposition”, red – government troops, large cities for which fighting continued are highlighted in blue
How the war to establish an essentially medieval state is consistent with the struggle for a democratic Syria is unclear. However, along with Syrian Al-Qaeda, the “Army of Conquest” also includes the groups “Division 13” and Sukor Al-Hab. They are officially armed by the United States. Moreover, the other day the “Army of Conquest” was named one of the three forces to which Saudi Arabia will supply weapons. Let us remember that it was the founder and spiritual leader of the “Army of Conquest” who announced a reward for Russian soldiers and downed planes.
For the Gulf countries and the West, the opposition under the banner of the Caliphate may be interesting because it represents a real force - more than 10 thousand militants. They can effectively resist the troops of Bashar al-Assad and ISIS and are controlled by the Saudis. Through funding, Sharia judges and their emissaries, they tightly control the militants. And over the past month they have forced jihadist groups to unite around al-Qaeda. Almost all militants from the CIS countries who did not go to the Islamic State also joined the army of Osama bin Laden from the Syrian spill. In total - about a thousand militants. In October, they were joined by the Crimean Jamaat group. This, however, is no longer the same Crimean Tatar battalion that existed a few years ago and numbered several hundred militants. In 2013, some went to ISIS. Another went to Donbass in 2014.
The Crimean Tatar battalion itself completely split in 2015. Several dozen jihadists formed an independent “Crimean Jamaat”, and the same number remained in the “Crimean House”, controlled by the Chechen group.
Last week, both of them, along with al-Qaeda, promised jihad to Russia until the last militant. The fact that hundreds of jihadists from the North Caucasus and Crimea may not keep their word and try to return home safe and sound is another reason for Moscow to root out terrorism in Syria and among the “moderate opposition.” Moreover, both the zone off the Syrian coast, where the Russian airbase is located, and the porous border with Turkey, through which militants move freely, are today largely controlled not by the Islamic State, but by those who are protected by the West and the Gulf countries.
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