Al-Qaeda flags fly over rebel-held
Syria By John Rosenthal
There has recently been a small stir in
the American media, as media organizations from
the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to
the Associated Press have finally gotten around to
acknowledging a "presence" of al-Qaeda and
like-minded jihadist groups among the Syrian rebel
forces seeking to topple the regime of Bashar
al-Assad.
It is difficult to see what the
cause of the excitement is. After all, such a
presence has been blindingly obvious for many
months: whether as a result of the dozens of
suicide attacks that have
plagued Syria [1] or the numerous
videos that have emerged showing rebel forces or
supporters proudly displaying the distinctive
black flag of al-Qaeda. [2]
But observations
made by German journalist Daniel Etter during a
recent visit to rebel-controlled towns near the
embattled city of Aleppo suggest that there is no
mere "presence" of jihadists among the rebels:
religiously-inspired mujahideen is what the rebels
are. The real question is whether there is a
presence of anything else. Etter's report, which
appeared in the leading German daily Die
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [3], also provides
evidence that rebel authorities are subjecting
civilians to arbitrary detention and torture and
summarily executing captured members of the
regular Syrian armed forces.
In the town
of Maraa, north of Aleppo, Etter saw some 120
prisoners, apparently civilians, "herded into a
large classroom" in what had previously been a
school. Many of the prisoners showed signs of
abuse. The prison director, whom Etter identifies
only as "Jumbo," refused to allow Etter to speak
with them alone. Etter notes that Jumbo "looks
like his name." "Jumbo is not someone with whom
you would like to pick a fight," Etter writes:
[N]ot someone whom as a prisoner you
would like to have as your jail keeper. Thus the
detainees say that their wounds and bruises are
the product of falls or shrapnel. They say how
well they are treated here, and they swear
loyalty to the Free Syrian Army. Much of what
they say is not credible.
The
most gruesome wounds that Etter describes involve
a certain "Tamer" from Aleppo: until recently an
enthusiastic supporter of Assad - so enthusiastic
that he had a portrait of the Syrian president
tattooed on his chest. In the meanwhile, the
tattoo has been excised from Tamer's body with a
razor blade. Tamer insists that he did the deed
himself after rebel forces entered Aleppo. He says
that he ran to the rebels' headquarters and sliced
at the tattoo while yelling, "I give my blood for
the Free Syrian Army!"
In a remarkable
journalistic leap of faith, Etter writes, "Tamer's
story cannot be independently verified either, but
it is unlikely that Jumbo would have let a
journalist speak with him if his scars were the
result of abuse." As made clear by Etter's own
description of the circumstances under which he
was able to speak with the detainees, it is surely
far more unlikely that Tamer would have accused
his captors with "Jumbo" present.
Moreover, even supposing that Tamer did
indeed inflict his own wounds, why would he commit
such an act of self-mutilation if he did not
expect worse from the "new authorities," as Etter
puts it, if the tattoo was discovered? Rebel
groups have repeatedly made clear that they feel
entitled to target any and all supporters of the
ancien regime.
Jumbo says that Tamer was a
member of a pro-Assad militia: a so-called
"shabiha". But there is no evidence
presented for this in the article. "I have no
proof that he killed anyone," Jumbo concedes.
It is equally unclear what "crimes" the
other detainees are supposed to have committed.
But their daily routine makes clear, at any rate,
the ideological orientation of their captors.
"They pray five times a day," Etter writes:
[A]nd study the Quran. Perhaps out
of a sense of remorse, perhaps to please their
jailers, perhaps because they are forced to do
so. Jumbo seems to be convinced that their turn
to God is doing good. "They are happier and they
are changing their attitude," he
says.
In the neighboring town
of Azaz, Etter encountered a less didactic form of
Islamism: namely, in the person of rebel commander
Abu Anas. Etter describes meeting Abu Anas in his
office: a Koran and a "silver sword" were lying on
his desk and a black flag hung over it. An Arabic
inscription on the flag proclaimed, 'There is no
God but God. Mohammed is his Prophet" "It is the
flag that al-Qaeda also used," Etter remarks.
Seemingly taking his cue from Western
supporters - or perhaps indeed advisors - Abu Anas
emphasized that the black flag was also used
before al-Qaeda. But if it is the distinctive
black flag with the circular white "seal of
Mohammed" in the middle, there appears to be no
evidence that this is the case.
This is
the flag made famous by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's
al-Qaeda in Iraq: notably, as a result of the
group's notoriously harrowing videos documenting
the executions of captured Iraqi security
personnel and American and other hostages. Indeed,
even Zarqawi's group went through various versions
of its flag before settling on the version that
has since become the standard banner of al-Qaeda
affiliates around the world.
In any case,
it is not only the choice of flag that appears to
have been inspired by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The rebel
leader tells Etter that his forces captured Syrian
government troops in the battle for Azaz. Asked
what became of the government soldiers, Abu Anas
responds, "We could not take care of them. Most of
them are dead."
"Earlier," Etter explains,
"when Abu Anas was not yet in the room, a smiling
subordinate of his showed with gestures how they
bound prisoners and shot them."
While
there is not much he can do to put a positive spin
on the actions of Abu Anas and his men, Etter
labors mightily to try at least to cast "Jumbo"
and his prison in Maara in a more positive light.
In one somewhat surreal paragraph, he even praises
the rebels for their supposed efforts to build a
"fairer" system of justice in Maara - after he has
raised the specter of prisoner abuse in Jumbo's
prison.
Jumbo tells him about one case
involving a group of Alawites who were detained by
the rebels, but then later released since "we had
no evidence against them". Etter does not ask:
evidence of what? But even supposing that Jumbo's
claim is true, it amounts to an admission that
Alawites are being detained in rebel-controlled
territories simply because they are Alawites.
In the language of international
humanitarian law, what Etter has described in his
article are clearly war crimes and probably too
crimes against humanity. But when it is a matter
of the crimes of the Syrian rebels, the West's
otherwise supposedly so acute moral sensibilities
appear to have become dull.
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