Archive for the 'Opposition' Category

New report on the Muslim Brotherhood

by Aron Lund for Syria Comment The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which has a great Syria resource site, just released my new paper on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. They’re also about to release a second report by Raphaël Lefèvre, a French scholar who recently published a well-received book on the Syrian Ikhwan, called Ashes [...]

Major salafi faction criticizes Jabhat al-Nosra

by Aron Lund for Syria Comment The Islamic Ahrar al-Sham Movement, which is the leading faction of the Syrian Islamic Front (SIF) and probably the biggest salafi group in Syria, has issued a statement about Jabhat al-Nosra’s recent declaration of allegiance to al-Qaida’s Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Ahrar al-Sham statement is available in Arabic on Aaron [...]

New Addition to the Syrian Islamic Front

by Aron Lund for Syria Comment The Haqq Battalions Gathering, a militant group in the Hama province, announced in mid-April 2013 that they are joining the Syrian Islamic Front (SIF). This is the first time since the SIF’s creation in December 2012 that an independent outside organization of any consequence decides to join the front. [...]

Islamic State Declared in Syria

by Matthew Barber   Al-Qaida and Jabhat al-Nusra have each declared an Islamic State in Syria, in their own way. And by the way, Jabhat al-Nusra is al-Qaida. The head of al-Nusra, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, finally confirmed the obvious through an official declaration of allegiance.   An Islamic State in Syria? For Real? Al-Qaida in [...]

The Raqqa Story: Rebel Structure, Planning, and Possible War Crimes

The Raqqa Story: Rebel Structure, Planning, and Possible War Crimes Written by Matthew Barber for Syria Comment, with research from the Syria Video team April 3, 2013 Syria Comment Sunday unveiled Syria Video, a web application that maps and aggregates video footage of the Syrian war. This service does not attempt to measure or compare [...]

Sorting out David Ignatius

by Aron Lund for Syria Comment David Ignatius has written an article in the Washington Post called “Sorting out the Syrian opposition”, where he provides names and manpower figures for the Syrian insurgency. He’s basing his argument on reports from a Syrian opposition group. I happen to know which one, but I haven’t seen the [...]

Opposition Infighting and Fragmentation Bedevils Syria

In Syria, the Rebels Have Begun to Fight Among Themselves By Rania Abouzeid / Tal AbyadMarch 26, 20134 Comments The day started like a regular Sunday for Mohammad al-Daher, better known as Abu Azzam, the commander of the rebel Farouq Brigades in the vast swathe of eastern Syria called the Jazira, a region that stretches [...]

Moaz al-Khatib, Moderate Syrian Leader, Resigns, as Islamic Front and Nusra Move on Damascus. Will the US build a Counter-force?

In this interview with Al-Arabiya, Syrian opposition leader Michel Kilo accuses the Muslim Brotherhood and Mustafa Sabbagh’s Qatari-backed faction in the Syrian opposition of catapulting Ghassan Hitto to the Prime Ministership of the interim government in a non-consensual manner: “Qatar wanted Hitto…and the Qatari-backed group in the National Coalition agreed on Hitto and imposed Hitto [...]

Drones, A New Alawite Opposition, Obama in Israel

Posted by Matthew Barber Drones & Intervention   We included a report in a previous post that the CIA is eyeing Syria for the use of drones. Now a report by Chuck Hagel and David Boren suggests that the drone program is aberrant and problematic for the CIA: U.S. intelligence too focused on killing suspected [...]

Who is Ghassn Hitto? Why Was He backed to be Prime Minister of an Interim Gov by Mustafa Sabbagh?

Ghassan Hitto was elected to be Prime Minister of an interim opposition government by a vote of 35 Syrian Opposition Coalition executives out of 45 who voted in Istanbul. There are 63 active members of which 48 voted and of which 4 cast blank ballots. Hitto received 35 of the remaining votes. Hitto  is a [...]