Sept. 23, 2013
NewsRescue– With these terrorists the foreigners love, it gets so confusing. Anyway, read it from CNN:
The group was denounced by the Syrian National Coalition, a Western-backed opposition group that operates largely in exile.
“ISIS no longer fights the Assad regime,” the coalition declared in a statement published Friday. “Rather it is strengthening its positions in liberated areas at the expense of the civilians. ISIS is inflicting on the people the same suppression of the Baath Party and the Assad regime.”
More of the story from CNN:
(CNN) — Al Qaeda-linked militants justified their takeover of a strategic opposition-held town near the Syrian border with Turkey by accusing the Syrian rebels who held it of being pro-democracy traitors who cooperated with Western officials like U.S. Sen. John McCain.
The ousted rebels “have called for democracy … which conflicts with Islamic teachings,” the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria announced in an online statement Monday.
ISIS said it “cleansed” the northern border town of Azaz of more moderate fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army in the past week because the rebels “received American Senator McCain and agreed with him to fight Islamists.”
Earlier this year, McCain made a surprise visit to this border region to lend support to Syrian rebels.
FSA rebels have controlled Azaz and the Syrian side of the Oncupinar-Bab el Salama border crossing with Turkey since seizing the town from the government of President Bashar al-Assad last year.
ISIS militants attacked the Syrian rebels and drove them out of Azaz after the rebels refused to hand over a German doctor that the al Qaeda-linked group accused of being a Western spy.The deadly power play by ISIS left at least one prominent Syrian opposition activist from Azaz dead. The militant group also detained dozens of other anti-Assad fighters and activists, some of whom still remain in ISIS custody.
ISIS’ ranks are bolstered by foreign jihadi militants from North Africa, the Caucasus and Iraq.
The group was denounced by the Syrian National Coalition, a Western-backed opposition group that operates largely in exile.
“ISIS no longer fights the Assad regime,” the coalition declared in a statement published Friday. “Rather it is strengthening its positions in liberated areas at the expense of the civilians. ISIS is inflicting on the people the same suppression of the Baath Party and the Assad regime.”
But it is unclear how much the coalition can dictate events on the ground inside Syria, where the north of the country is controlled by an assortment of rebel factions that often compete for weapons, territory and financial resources.
