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Syria
US Ambassador Robert Ford said the Islamic Front flatly turned down the US’ request for talks; Ford added that the US is “ready to sit with them because we talk to all parties and political groups in Syria.” The Assad regime called the US offer “reprehensible” as the Islamic Front “agrees in principle, strategy, and goals with” the Al Nusrah Front, a US-designated terrorist group. Saudi Arabia signaled that it will ‘go it alone‘ in Syria given the West’s reluctance to arm the rebels. Five rebel fighters in Idlib were killed on Dec. 16 by the premature detonation of a…
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Ansar al Sharia
Young Tunisians Are Being Recruited to Jihad
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Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham
British ‘celebrity jihadi’ and chef dies in Syria
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State Department designates head of Al Nusrah Front branch in Lebanon
The State Department added Usamah Amin al Shihabi to the list of specially designated global terrorists. Al Shihabi is the head of the Al Nusrah Front’s “Palestinian wing in Lebanon.” Leaked State Department cables reveal that the Jordanians previously accused him of training a terror cell that targeted Americans.
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The Islamic Front ‘will not fight the al Qaeda organization’
As the US courts the Islamic Front to be part of the “moderate opposition” to the Assad regime in Syria, the newly formed group said that because it was “founded to form a link for jihadists,” it would not fight al Qaeda.
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Syrian rebel leader was bin Laden’s courier, now Zawahiri’s representative
Abu Khalid al Suri, Ayman al Zawahiri’s representative in the Levant, also serves as a senior leader in Ahrar al Sham, a Syrian rebel group that often fights alongside al Qaeda’s two official branches. According to the Spanish government, al Suri was one of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted couriers and may have delivered surveillance tapes of the World Trade Center to al Qaeda senior leadership in Afghanistan prior to 9/11.
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Syria
A Syrian National Coalition source said Western nations are now signaling that they may prefer the Assad regime to remain for a transitional period in order to avoid possible chaos and an Islamist takeover. The Islamic Front denied reports it was meeting with the US ambassador; an Islamic Front official claimed that the group will not fight against al Qaeda. The Al Nusrah Front and rebels are besieging the Aleppo Central Prison area. Gunmen assassinated a leader of the al Tawhid brigade near Anadan in Aleppo. The OPCW said it was possible that the Dec. 31 deadline for moving all…
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Hezbollah
Dragged off the bus in Tripoli and shot: the latest spillover from Syria’s brutal civil war
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Saudi Arabia
Syria’s Saudi Jihadist Problem
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Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham
Extremist Syrian faction touts training camp for boys
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Free Syrian Army
Syrian Kurds jockey for seat at Geneva talks
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Syria
US Ambassador Robert Ford is said to be meeting with the Islamic Front tomorrow. The Assad regime complained to the UN that the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front killed over 100 Syrians in the Damascus suburb of Adra last week. Rebel fighters are seeking to lift the siege of Eastern Ghouta. Recent regime airstrikes in rebel-held areas of Aleppo have reportedly killed over 100 people. Russia told the UN Security Council that the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Ghouta was a provocation “staged” by the Syrian opposition; on Dec. 13, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said whoever perpetrated…
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Ahfad al Rasoul
Syrian fighter defects to Qaeda-linked group
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Syria
Syrian refugees’ hardship worsens with snow, cold
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Al Nusrah Front
Rise of Islamic Front a disaster for Syria
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Spain
Jihadists from Spain in Syria: facts and figures
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Syria
The UN asked for more humanitarian assistance for Syria, where four million Syrian children are in need. The Syrian army is said to be preparing an offensive on Yabroud near the Lebanese border. A new sharia council, formed by the unification of several armed battalions into “The gathering of Mujahidi al-Qa’qa,” took over the oilfields of Deir Azzour. The Al Nusrah Front and other Islamist factions killed at least 32 civilians, mainly Alawites, in Reef Dimashq. At least 22 civilians were killed by explosive barrels dropped by regime forces in Aleppo. Al Nusrah, the Islamic State of Iraq and the…
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Palestinian Territories
Gaza fighters head to Syria as refugees flow in
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Syria
A look at 2 suicide bombers who sought death in Syria, driven by jihadist ideology
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Syria
A coalition of 15 armed rebel groups, including the Free Syrian Army’s Supreme Military Council, reportedly joined together to form the “Syrian Rebels Front”; talks between the FSA and the Islamic Front have not produced an accord, and the FSA as a result sought to form a new military coalition to unify the Syrian rebels that support the FSA. In Idlib, the Islamic Front and the Free Syrian Army’s Martyrs of Syria brigade remain at odds after the Islamic Front seized the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from the brigade as well as FSA warehouses and arms depots; the two groups…
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Popular Saudi cleric endorses Islamic Front, calls for cooperation with al Qaeda
Since arriving in Syria in early October, Dr. Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini has attempted to mediate disputes between jihadist groups. He has said that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar should serve as models for the Syrian opposition. His efforts and fundraising have been praised by an al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb official.
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Al Nusrah Front
Jabhat al-Nusra, Ghassan Hitto Divide Syrian Opposition
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Al Qaeda in Iraq
Syrian war revitalises al-Qaeda in Iraq
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US seeks to include ‘moderate’ Islamists in Syrian coalition
Despite the Islamic Front’s obvious ties to al Qaeda, the US government hopes the coalition of Islamist brigades will denounce the international terrorist organization.
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Syria
The OPCW’s report on chemical weapons use in Syria found that such weapons were “probably used” in five of seven reported instances, and that in three of those five, soldiers were targeted. The instances of probable use were: Khan al-Assal, near Aleppo city, in March; Saraqeb, near Idlib city, in April; and in Jobar, Ashrafiat Sahnaya, and Ghouta, all near Damascus, in August. Fighters from the Islamic Front and the Al Nusrah Front killed at least 15 Druze and Alawite civilians in Adra, northeast of Damascus. The UN said the list of participants for the Jan. 22 Geneva II conference…
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Libya
Benghazi, Libya, has become training hub for Islamist fighters
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Afghanistan
Hagel Lifts Veil on Major Military Center in Qatar
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Does the Islamic Front ‘battle al Qaeda’?
The answer is no, as the Islamic Front has far more in common with al Qaeda than many want to admit.
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Syria
Islamist fighters attacked regime forces in Reef Dimashq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham has kidnapped at least 62 Syrian Kurds, including women and children, in the cities of Menbej and Jarablus in Aleppo province; ISIS killed five men for taking food to besieged areas, and forcibly evicted 15 Kurdish families from their homes so they had to sleep out in the open. ISIS, the Al Nusrah Front, and allies continue to clash with Kurdish YPG forces in the area. Al Nusrah executed six rebels, including a defected officer, in Anadan in Reef Aleppo yesterday. Members of the…
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Islamic Front brigade launches joint raid with al Qaeda’s Syrian branches
In addition to conducting operations with the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, Ahrar al Sham was involved in the recent takeover of a large cache of weapons and munitions owned by the Free Syrian Army.
