Mordechai Kedar: Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, and the Iranian Octopus
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Demonstrators march in support of Bashar al-Assad's regime
Photo Credit: Matanya Tausig/Flash90
We have all been watching the horrific events occurring in Syria for more than a year now, and the media report all the time about conflicts between “Syrian security forces” on one side, and the “rebels”, the “opposition”, and the “Free Syrian Army” on the other. However, most of us are unaware that the “Syrian security forces” include no small number of foreign soldiers, a true foreign legion, which came to Syria by order of their superiors in order to help Bishar Asad and his cronies remain in power at any price. The foreign soldiers who came to Syria to shore up the regime are mainly Lebanese members of Hizbullah and Iraqis who serve in special units composed entirely of Shiites, who are routinely used by Iran to carry out assassinations and attack missions.
In the beginning of April, the governments of Iraq and Syria signed an agreement to organize a patrol on the border between them, in the area of Dir A-Zur, in order to stop the flow of weapons and ammunition that the Sunni Iraqis send to their Sunni brothers in Syria, in order to stand up to the murderous attacks of the Alawite regime. The Syrian regime is especially fearful of the activists of “Al-Qaeda in the land of the rivers;” those who in the past, operated under the leadership of Abu Musab Al-zarqawi, and who might relocate the focus of their activities from Iraq to Syria, and turn their jihad against the Alawite infidels who are supported by the ‘Christian Russians’ and ‘Chinese idol worshipers.’
Iman Al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s successor and head of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, also declared a few weeks ago that it is the duty of every Muslim in the world to enlist in the holy jihad against the regime of infidels in Syria. These announcements harm the Syrian rebels very much, because they justify the claims of the regime that it is fighting not against peaceful citizens but against armed terror gangs. Organizations of the Syrian opposition have stated that they strongly object to the Al-Qaeda proclamations, and that their intention is to establish a democratic, civilian state in Syria, not a radical Islamic emirate.
In parallel, there are many reports of a large quantity of weapons that are streaming into the rebels’ hands, including those stolen from the munitions warehouses of the Syrian military. These weapons include mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, and even katyusha rockets, which will enable the Free Syrian Army to renew its attacks on the Syrian regime’s military bases and its units if and when – and apparently it will be very soon – it decides to renew the fighting, since it is now clear that the cease-fire exists only “on paper” in the possession of Kofi Anan. In the field, the regime continues to slaughter citizens, and dozens of them are killed every day of the “cease fire”.
The head spokesman of Sunni Islam, Sheikh Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has also joined the chorus that supports the Syrian rebels. He recently published a Fatwa forbidding the purchase of Russian and Chinese goods, due to Russia’s and China’s support for a regime that is murdering Sunni Muslims.
Iran is Very Worried
Iran watches all of these developments with great concern, fearing the fall of the regime in Damascus. Because if it does fall, then Iran’s whole sphere of influence in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and other places in the Arab world will collapse as well, as Syria is Iran’s springboard to them. Cue General Qassem Suleimani, one of the heads of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. It he who is responsible for the portfolio that includes Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. He enlisted Iraqi Shi’a militias who were trained, armed, and equipped in Iran in order to act against the American forces in Iraq, who have won for themselves the name “Asab ahl al-Haqiq” (“Teams of people of the Truth”), and commanded them to speed to Syria by way of Iraq to join forces with the Syrian military in the suppression of the Syrian rebellion. The operational battle experience of these militias, accumulated over hundreds of terror attacks carried out against Iraqi Sunnis, will be translated into similar “quality actions” against the Sunni rebels in Syria.
The head of this militia is “Abu Dara”, a Shi’a mass murderer and one of the commanders of the “death squads” that belong to Muqtada Al-Sadr’s “Mahdi Army”. Born in 1970, his real name is Ismail Hafeth Allami, and he served previously in the Iraqi army. After he joined the “Mahdi Army” in 2003 he was assigned to hunt down officers, pilots, intelligence people, and administrators who had served Saddam Hussein and the Baath party, and execute them without a trial. He took an active part in the mass attacks against Sunnis in Baghdad in order to rid the capital of the Sunnis and turn it into a Shi’ite city. In Islam, this act has very great significance, because for five hundred years, from 751 until 1258 CE, Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, which was established upon the skulls of the Shi’ites. The transformation of Baghdad to a Shi’ite city would be sweet revenge upon the Sunnis, who slaughtered Hussein bin Ali, the Shi’ite leader, in Karbala in the year 680 CE. And now, Abu Dara is sent to Syria in order to support Asad to continue ruling in Damascus, which was the capital of the Sunni Umayyad dynasty between 660 and 750. The minister of Islamic history is laughing all the way to the blood bank.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Ph.D. Bar-Ilan U.) Served for 25 years in IDF Military Intelligence specializing in Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups and the Syrian domestic arena. A lecturer in Arabic at Bar-Ilan U., he is also an expert on Israeli Arabs.
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