| Daily Beast | - |
Al Qaeda's franchise in Syria, just one year old, is now the fastest growing al Qaeda front in the world, attracting fighters from across the Islamic world.
Al Nusra: Al Qaeda's Syria Offensive
The terror group's Syrian front, al Nusra, is not only attacking Assad, but building a base from which it can threaten U.S. interests in the region. By Bruce Riedel
Al
Qaeda’s franchise in Syria, just one year old, is now the fastest
growing al Qaeda front in the world, attracting fighters from across the
Islamic world. Jabhat al Nusra, translated variously as the Victory
Front or the Support Front for the Syrian People, was founded in January
2012, almost a year after the first demonstrations against the
dictatorship of President Basher al Assad. It was created with the
assistance of the al Qaeda franchise in Iraq that was formed nearly a
decade ago during the American invasion. The Iraqi base provided a safe
haven for setting up the front in Syria and still provides sanctuary for
the Syrian group to this day.
The
Syrian franchise has also gotten crucial support from the al Qaeda core
in Pakistan. Al Qaeda’s Amir Ayman Zawahiri issued a public call in
February 2012 in which he demanded that “every Muslim and every free and
honest person in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon to rise and help
their brothers in Syria with everything they have and can do.”
Zawahiri’s call, just after the announcement of the creation of the al
Nusra front and its first major attacks in Aleppo, was clearly
coordinated with the fighters on the ground. Since Zawahiri’s call at
least one senior member of the al Qaeda shura council in Pakistan has
traveled to Syria to further coordinate plans and operations with the
core hiding in Pakistan. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
termed the exchanges of messages between al Qaeda in Pakistan and al
Nusra in Syria as “deeply disturbing” in one of her final interviews in
office.
Estimates
of the size of the al Nusra organization vary but they may now account
for up to a quarter of the opposition fighters in Syria. The al Qaeda
presence is stronger around Aleppo and the north than around Damascus,
but it is becoming a national phenomenon. Without doubt, they are among
the most effective fighters in the resistance to the Assad regime and
the most willing to use multiple simultaneous suicide bombings, an al
Qaeda trademark. Al Qaeda in Iraq has a wealth of experience in
developing large sophisticated bombs – experience that has been exported
into Syria.
And
the front is attracting more fighters rapidly, not just among Syrians
but from across the Muslim world. A recent review of jihadist websites
found over a 130 martyrdom notices -- that is, obituaries posted on
extremist websites “celebrating” the martyrdom of fighters in Syria.
Most are relatively new -- 85 of the 130 were posted in the last four
months. The majority of these were for fighters in the al Nusra front.
They came to Syria from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia,
Palestine, Lebanon, Australia, Chechnya, Kuwait, the United Arab
Emirates, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, France, Iraq, and Spain.
The Danish press reported
this week that a 39-year-old Danish citizen, Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane,
along with another unnamed Danish citizen, were killed fighting in
Syria. Abderrahmane, the son of a Danish mother and an Algerian father,
had served two years in Guantanamo, Cuba after being captured by
American forces in Afghanistan in 2002. Danish reports say at least
thirty Danish Muslims have gone to fight with al Nusra in Syria. Senior
European intelligence officials have told me that there is a wave of
angry young Muslim men from all across Western Europe going to Syria to
join al Qaeda and fight Assad.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has a wealth of experience in developing large sophisticated bombs – experience that has been exported into Syria.
Assad,
of course, from the beginning of the uprising against his tyranny, has
blamed it all on terrorists and al Qaeda. But the truth is that by
refusing to give up power and by resorting to a brutal war against his
own people, he has created a self-fulfilling prophecy and brought al
Qaeda to Syria. The longer the war goes on now, the stronger al Qaeda
will get in Syria.
The
Syrian group has also tried to export its violence to Jordan. Last
October the Jordanian intelligence service foiled a plot based in Syria
by al Qaeda to stage a mass-casualty terror attack in Amman that was
apparently modeled on the 2008 attack by Pakistani terrorists on Mumbai,
India. The attack would have begun with suicide bombings in two
shopping malls in Amman; then, when the security forces rushed to deal
with those, other attackers would attack the American embassy and other
Western diplomats in the city.
Jordanian
authorities believe that the planned attacks were scheduled to coincide
with the anniversary of the November 9, 2005, terrorist attacks in
Amman, in which 60 people were killed and 115 injured in multiple hotel
bombings. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks, citing its
rejection of Jordan’s alliance with the United States and its 1994 peace
treaty with Israel. Jordanian intelligence said that group nicknamed
its terror plot “9/11 the second” after the 2005 bombings. Among those
arrested were two cousins of the Jordanian founder of al Qaeda in Iraq,
Abu Musaib al Zarqawi, who planned the 2005 attack.
For
now the jihadists are focused on Syria and winning the war against
Assad. But their ambitions are much larger. With a base in Syria they
can threaten American interests in the entire Levant region, Europe, and
our allies in Turkey, Jordan and Israel. The worst danger is that the
al Nusra front will get control of some of Syria’s large chemical
weapons arsenal. Bashar’s father, Hafez al Assad, built major chemical
weapon capability in the 1980s, including the deadly nerve agent Sarin,
which was first developed by the Nazis. Al Qaeda has been trying to get a
weapon of mass destruction for years. Now in Syria it may be closer
than ever.
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