Al Nusrah Front released photos of execution of Syrian soldiers

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The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group that is fighting Bashir al Assad’s regime in Syria, has released two photographs of the execution of Syrian soldiers reportedly captured in Aleppo [one of the photographs is reproduced above]. The soldiers were “from the Hanano barracks” according to the statement that was released by the group. The short statement was released on Sept. 3 and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group on Oct. 3.

The photos of the execution are eerily similar to video footage of al Qaeda in Iraq’s execution of Iraqi policemen in Haditha in March 2012. In that video, the captured Iraqi policemen are tied up and placed in a line. An al Qaeda fighter then walks down the line and executes the policemen with a pistol. To watch the video of the Haditha executions, see LWJ report, Al Qaeda in Iraq video details deadly raid in Haditha.

Al Nusrah’s tactics, operations, and propaganda are nearly identical to those of al Qaeda in Iraq. Al Nusrah has now claimed credit for 26 of the 33 suicide attacks that have taken place in Syria since December 2011. The Syrian terror group conducts complex suicide assaults, ambushes, IED attacks, and assassinations. Just as al Qaeda in Iraq rails against the Shia, Al Nusrah says its attacks are directed against the Nusayri, or Alawite, enemy. Alawites are a sect of Shia Islam, and President Assad’s regime is supported by Iran.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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13 Comments

  • Dave says:

    Whoops. The US, Europe, and the western press have all consistently sided with the freedom loving rebel forces fighting to overthrow the evil dictator Assad, who we all know has been indiscriminatly bombing, shelling, and killing his innocent civilian population.
    Here we see some of our side executing bound captives of Assad’s forces. The article suggests that some of these innocents (that is, the killers in this photo, not the killers being executed) are the same army of the caliphate that continues a war of terror in Iraq, the war of terror in Afghanistan, in half a dozen African countries, and once brought their war to lower Manhattan.
    This clearly calls for more drones. We need to whack the caliphate in Syria in its infancy, not to give the Iranian-backed Assad regime the upper hand, but to make sure our side of “innocent anti-Assad rebels” aren’t subverted by our enemies.
    Either that or send in our Code Pink protestors now in Pakistan.

  • JR says:

    This is why we should not provide any type of military aid to this conflict. We have no means to control whose hands it ends up in.
    There is no cure for extremism and the Middle East is teeming with extremists.

  • mike merlo says:

    one can’t help but wonder how many of Al Nusrah personnel are ‘transplants’ from the AfPak theater & Yemen

  • sundoesntrise says:

    This is why we need to do, as others have suggested, nothing. Sit out the conflict, watch from the sidelines and watch the two sides annihilate each other.
    It’s quite ironic and hilarious that many Internet jockeys always complain about western intervention around the world, yet at the same time these keyboard jockeys are yelling and screaming at us, saying “Why are you letting a dictator slaughter his people??? You are murderers for just sitting there and watching!!!”.
    It’s time to realize we can’t police the world, and we should just stay out of it. Don’t give them aid, moral support, nothing. We have a right not to get involved in a conflict in a Muslim country once again – and then, when we save them from being slaughtered, a while after, Jihadists will say that we were “crusaders”, and that we killed innocent Muslims, and that we should be attacked. And of course the Muslim population eats it up with a spoon.
    No. More.

  • blert says:

    Dave…
    You’re pretty loose with whose side the islamist rebels are on.
    As for America: we are ( officially ) not providing any
    weapons aid at all.
    By their ethics it is plain that they are not receiving any American military advice.

  • Eric Palmer says:

    I am confident our glorious and pure, U.S. State Department will see us through all of this.

  • Dheere says:

    Bomb the Winners!

  • gb says:

    This is slightly reminiscent of the Iran, Iraq war where you kind of hope for maximum casualties on each side…

  • Mr T says:

    A Muslim shooting a Muslim that is tied up. That’s not going to be good for him in the afterlife.
    This should make Mulims angry. They will be burning down the Al Qaeda embassy in Syria and killing the Al Qaeda Ambassador there next. As soon as he comes back from his killing spree in Iraq.

  • Witch Doctor says:

    @mikemerlo….
    regarding the transplants, you can be sure that the numbers are increasing all the time. a chance to instill Sharia law in another country just invites more extremists. your logic is correct sir.

  • Rod says:

    These are the people Romney wants to give advanced heavy weapons to, saying “these freedom fighters share our values”

  • sundoesntrise says:

    Mr T,
    I just want to clarify, the armed groups fighting in Syria, almost all of them think that Assad’s forces are not real Muslims. So, in their minds, they are killing “infidels” rather than fellow Muslims.

  • Barlowmaker says:

    @Rod: I am hopeful Romney will revisit that notion as the true nature of the Free Syrian Army and it’s allies reveals itself.

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis