Month

Archives: Jabhat al-Nusra

Will the US missile strike be the turning point in Syria’s shifting war?

By Harout Akdedian | (The Conversation) | - - The US has struck the Syrian airbase used to launch a suspected sarin gas attack against Khan Sheikhun that killed more than 80…

Washington’s Supreme Hypocrisy on Chemical Weapons and Civilian Deaths

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Army in Idlib is an atrocity and the pictures of dead children tug at the…

Why Russia and Regime want all of Aleppo before Trump is sworn in

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - In the past two days, the Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies (Hizbullah from Lebanon and others from Iraq) has taken…

Monsters to Destroy: Top 7 Reasons the US could not have forestalled Syrian Civil War

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The interventionist temptation, muted since the Iraq imbroglio, is now returning. Sec. Clinton's team are already talking about taking steps to remove Syrian…

Looming Aleppo Battle indicts both sides of Civil War for breaking Cease-Fire

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC)…

Top Five Ways to tell if a Terrorist is still al-Qaeda despite name Change

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The leftist Beirut newspaper al-Safir comments scathingly on the name-change of the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front led by Abu Muhammad al-Julani,…

Kerry Proposing Joint US-Russian Airstrikes against Extremists in Syria

TeleSur | - - According to a leaked U.S. plan, Washington and Moscow would merge their respective air campaigns against non-state armed groups in Syria. The United States will propose increasing military…

Is Kerry Right? Are Freemen of Syria and Army of Islam Radical Terrorists?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Josh Rogin of the Washington Post caused a stir by noticing something Secretary of State John Kerry said at Aspen last month. Kerry…

Syrian Troops foil al-Qaeda riposte in Aleppo as France warns al-Qaeda could replace ISIL

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Even as the Syrian army defeated a counter-offensive by al-Qaeda in Syria and its battlefield allies at Aleppo, French President Francois Hollande warned…

Syrian War Overflows: Radical Salafis attack Christian Village in Lebanon

Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - A wave of suicide bombings was launched by four radical attackers struck al-Qaa, a largely Christian Lebanese village on the border with Syria on…

Al-Qaeda Speaks The Language Of Syrian Sectarianism

By Sam Heller | ( RFE/RL) | - - As the extremist group Islamic State (IS) and its rival Al-Qaeda have captured pieces of Iraq, Syria, and other countries in the region,…

Not the Onion: US asks Russia not to Bomb al-Qaeda in Syria

TeleSur | - - The Russian foreign minister said his Washington counterpart asked Moscow not to target the extremist groups out of fear of hitting moderate rebels. The United States has asked…

ISIS and Israel on the Golan Heights

By Sam Brennan | ( Open Democracy ) | - - The Yarmouk Valley is run by ISIS – and left alone by Israel. This is a testament to the complex, cynical…

Al-Qaeda’s Al-Zawahri, 9/11 Mastermind, Plays Syrian Politics

Al-Qaeda’s Al-Zawahiri, 9/11 Mastermind, Plays Syrian Politics

By Sam Heller | ( RFE/RL ) | - - When the self-proclaimed Islamic State declared the establishment of a global Muslim “caliphate” in 2014, the move accelerated a race for legitimacy…

Al-Zawahiri Supports Syrian al-Qaeda, calls for more global Volunteers

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Al-Qaeda central leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, DC, has issued a new audio tape.…

A Tale of Two Cities: Muslim Rebels strike back at Hospital in Gov’t held West

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment)| - - Muslim fundamentalist rebels, including al-Qaeda, took revenge Tuesday on West Aleppo for the heavy government bombardment of East Aleppo that has killed dozens in…

Al-Qaeda Everywhere: US support for Oppressive Gov’t’s undermined victory against Bin Laden

Al-Qaeda Everywhere: US support for Oppressive Gov’t’s made Bin Laden’s Killing Moot

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The US government has never understood insurgency for the most part. Smart USG officials with whom I've interacted have had a firm belief…

Syria: Is al-Qaeda rising as ISIL is rolled Back? Is the US de facto Allied with it?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The cessation of hostilities in Syria never included Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) or al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front or Support Front), but it did include…

Syrian Ceasefire in Tatters as al-Qaeda & allies attack in South Aleppo

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The London pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reports that the rebel opposition allied with al-Qaeda broke the ceasefire Saturday morning, taking several villages and towns…