International Crisis Group

Are Foreign Jihadists Gaining Influence Inside the Syrian Rebel Forces? | The Daily Beast

By Anna Therese Day

When I first met the man I’ll call Mahmoud, he refused to speak with me because he “hates America.” Carrying a conspicuous wad of U.S. dollar bills and surrounded by young Syrian men, Mahmoud caught my eye one evening in the lobby of my Turkish hotel on the border with Syria. Through a series of talks, I slowly discerned that he was from Saudi Arabia, that he had learned English in Canada, and that he was here to “help the Muslims of Syria in their jihad.”

One evening, 29-year-old Mahmoud explained to me that he ferries money, not guns, to the Syrian people. He said that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) can use the funds for humanitarian purposes or for weapons, but he just gives it to the officers and lets them make the decisions. “I’m just a soldier of Allah,” he told me.

FULL ARTICLE (The Daily Beast)

Photo: FreedomHouse2/Flickr

Cajoling, Drugging and More as Rebels Try to Draw Defectors | The New York Times

By Kareem Fahim

ANTAKYA, Turkey — For months, the disparate militias known as the Free Syrian Army relied on defections from the Syrian military to lead a credible if halting challenge to the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Every day seemed to bring word of new recruits. Soldiers fled in packs, or officers stole across a border, lifting the rebels’ morale while swelling their ranks.

FULL ARTICLE (The New York Times)

Photo: FreedomHouse/Flickr

As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role | New York Times

By Neil MacFarquhar and Hwaida Saad 

BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government grinds on with no resolution in sight, Syrians involved in the armed struggle say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well as small groups of fighters from Al Qaeda, are taking a more prominent role and demanding a say in running the resistance.

FULL ARTICLE (NYT)

Photo: FreedomHouse2/Flickr

Accounts of Syria rebels executing prisoners raise new human rights concerns  |  Kansas City Star

By Hannah Allam and Austin Tice / McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Syrian insurgents fighting to unseat President Bashar Assad face a growing list of accusations that they’ve carried out executions and torture, muddying the Western narrative of a heroic resistance force struggling against a vicious regime.

FULL ARTICLE (Kansas City Star)

Photo: Freedom House/Wikimedia Commons

Victory closer, divisions deepen in Syria opposition  |  Reuters

By Yara Bayoumy

Three separate Syrian opposition groups have floated proposals for a transitional government in the past week, a sign that differences among the many factions opposing President Bashar al-Assad are deepening even as victory seems closer.

FULL ARTICLE (Reuters)

Photo: Freedom House/Flickr

Syria crisis: rebels ‘execute shabiha’ in Aleppo - Wednesday 1 August 2012  |  The Guardian

By Matthew Weaver and Brian Whitaker

Summary of the latest developments on Syria

• The Assad regime is morphing into a brutal militia that is pushing the conflict towards an even bloodier outcome than many feared, according to a new report by the International Crisis Group.

• In a telephone interview with the Guardian, a spokesman for the Tawheed (“Unification”) Brigade in Aleppo has described “field trials” of shabiha suspects. He said those believed to have been involved in killing were executed, while others are being kept for trial “after the collapse of the regime”.

• After some delay, the opposition Syrian National Council has now condemned the executions carried out by rebels in Aleppo.

The Guardian

Photo: Freedom House/Flickr

Syrian Paradox: The Regime Gets Stronger, Even as It Loses Its Grip  |  TIME

By Tony Karon

News reports typically characterize the Syrian rebellion as being 16 or 17 months old. It is one of those descriptions delivered en passant while relating the news of the day: the battle for Aleppo grinds on into its sixth day threatening a massive humanitarian crisis; new video shows rebels executing unarmed prisoners; President Bashar Assad urges his troops on through written messages but declines to make public appearances, and so on. But the International Crisis Group (ICG), a respected organization of analysts, mediators and former diplomats, on Wednesday issued a report urging opponents of the Assad regime, both Syrian and international, to pay closer attention to the implications of that 17-month time span.

FULL ARTICLE (TIME)

Photo: Syria Freedom/Flickr

Syria: Urban Fronts | Financial Times

By Michael Peel and Roula Khalaf

A volley of gunfire shattered the early evening calm in Salhiya Street, bringing a posse of men armed with metal bars, plastic chairs and other improvised weapons dashing to the busy thoroughfare in the heart of Damascus. 

FULL ARTICLE (Financial Times)

Financial Times: Syrian opposition wary of jihadist push

“Jihad is the only way to avenge the killing of our brothers,” says the narrator as the camera zooms in on roadside bombs taking out Syrian security vehicles. 

FULL ARTICLE (Financial Times)

Photo: FSA member on patrol in Idlib, FreedomHouse/Flickr

WASHINGTON — On the one-year anniversary of the uprisings in Syria, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the armed resistance is not able to mount a credible military threat to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, senior U.S. intelligence officials told The Huffington Post.

The powerful, Russian-armed Syrian army remains firmly in control behind the Assad regime, senior intelligence officials say.

That assessment underlies the Obama administration’s reluctance to become more actively involved in the uprising against Assad that began on March 15, 2011. After a year of sporadic and inconclusive violence against the regime, the White House has flatly ruled out providing arms to the opposition and instead is focusing on coordinating international pressure against the Assad regime and providing humanitarian relief.

…

Even though the Assad regime has fended off the challenge so far, its long-term future is in doubt, some critics say. In a recent assessment, the International Crisis Group, an independent think tank, wrote that Assad’s days are numbered.

The regime “continues to enjoy substantial military superiority over the opposition,” the International Crisis Group reported. “Its conduct on the ground — including excessive use of force by regular troops … horrendous treatment of detainees and indiscriminate punishment of entire swathes of the population — precludes even a semblance of normalization.”

Given enough time, the International Crisis Group said, “the regime might be able to destroy the urban and social fabric of entire neighbourhoods, as it appears to have done in parts of Homs. But that will only reinvigorate protests and armed resistance elsewhere.”

FULL ARTICLE (The Huffington Post)

Photo: FreedomHouse/Flickr