Thursday, July 11, 2013

Syria's al-Nusra Front – ruthless, organised and taking control

Special report: The main jihadi group is marshalling its resources shrewdly, and the 'emir of gas' is impressed.

Syrian oil
Syrian rebels pump crude oil from a well under their control. Photograph: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
The al-Qaida-affiliated commander in charge of the oil company in Shadadi, eastern Syria – a lean, broad-shouldered man who is followed everywhere by a machete-wielding bodyguard – was explaining the appeal of jihadi rule to the people of the newly captured town.
"Go and ask the people in the streets whether there a liberated town or city anywhere in Syria that is ruled as efficiently as this one," he boasted. "There is electricity, water and bread and security. Inshallah, this will be the nucleus of a new Syrian Islamic caliphate!"
The al-Nusra Front, the principle jihadi rebel group in Syria, defies the cliche of Islamist fighters around the Middle East plotting to establish Islamic caliphates from impoverished mountain hideaways. In north-eastern Syria, al-Nusra finds itself in command of massive silos of wheat, factories, oil and gas fields, fleets of looted government cars and a huge weapons arsenal.
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1 comment:

  1. 911 families, your government is now supporting the same people who brought down the world trade centre. The same people that killed and maimed thousands of your troops and whom you wasted a decade of blood and treasure fighting! Al Qaeda are now your allies and you are sending them money and you are sending them advanced weapons and your puppets in Saudi are doing the same. All so a shitty little country called Israel can feel safe from Iran.

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