Syria: Stolen Revolution

[pieter]

www.arte.tv/en/videos/073307-000-A/syria-stolen-revolution

One of my favorite European stations is ARTE.

Listen to the disillusioned, sad and disappointed Syrian uncle in Turkey. His younger and older bother were killed by Shabiha men. Shabiha were mostly Alawite groups of armed militia in support of the Ba'ath Party government of Syria, led by the Al-Assad family. The Uncle: "Later I saw a man in prison kneeling down surrounded by men dressed in black on tv. I didn't know who these men were. The moderator said they called themselves "Islamic State" . I never heard about it before. The man pleaded for them not to hurt him. They shackled him like a sheep. A man held his head, took a knife, and beheaded him. His head flew across the room. I had goosebumps. I couldn't talk for 2 days. What kind of Islam is this? A man beheads another man and cries out "God is great" while doing so! It's inconceivable. They say it's the IS. But what is Islamic State (Daesh) really? I am disgusted by Syria. I also hate myself. What kind of religion is this? Even Jews wouldn't be capable of something like this." (Comment Pieter: I think that the man means Israeli's with Jews, because Israeli's attacked Palestinians in Gaza, the West-Bank, Egypt, Iraq -the bombardment of nuclear facilities in Saddam Husseins era-, the PLO in Tunesia -Tunis-, Lebanon -1982 and 2006- and Syria -several attacks inside Syria by the Israeli airforce and artillery bombardments of Hezbollah, Iranians inside Syria and the Syrian army, and ofcourse the occupation of the Golan Heights-)



ARTE (Association relative à la télévision européenne) is a public Franco-German TV network, a European channel, that promotes programming in the areas of culture and the arts. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE GEIE, plus two member companies acting as editorial and programme production centres, ARTE France in Paris (France) and ARTE Deutschland in Baden-Baden (Germany). As an international joint venture (an EEIG), its programmes cater technically to audiences from both France and Germany. This implies double-titling, opposite-language subtitling, dubbing, hosts who speak both languages alternately, and two separate audio tracks (through DVB-T, satellite television and digital cable).

80% of ARTE's programming are provided in equal proportion by the two member companies ARTE France and ARTE Deutschland while the remainder is being provided by ARTE GEIE and the channel's European partners.

ARTE France was formerly known as La Sept. ARTE Deutschland TV GmbH is a subsidiary of the two main public German TV networks ARD and ZDF.

Selected programmes are available with English, Spanish and Polish subtitles online.

[pieter]

Dear friends,

This is an interesting documentary because it shows the start of the Syrian opposition protests in 2011/2012 against the Syrian Ba'ath party Assad regime and how it transformed into an armed struggle. It shows Syrian civilians who transformed from 'peaceful' demonstrators into Free Syrian Army fighters. Men who fought against the Syrian army, against the Salafist jihadist terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) (Jabhat Fatah al-Sham today) and at the end fought against ISIS (Islamic State / Daesh). It is difficult to determine who is who in the Syrian civil war, because there are so many fractions, parties, movements, countries and groups involved. I had the impression that the men in the house in Turkey spoke some truth. The truth from their Syrian opposition point of view, in the sense of being anti-Syrian regime, anti Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and anti-Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS or ISIL - Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-).

Every family, every individual, every, clan, every Syrian Sunni Muslim Arab-, Alawite Arab-, Kurd-, Assyrian christian-, Druze-, Armenina-, Yazidi-, Turkmen-, (Syrian-) Palestinian-, Circassian-, Albanian-, Bosnian-, Georgian-, Greek-, Persian-, Pashtun- and Russian has his or her own subjective affiliation, loyalty, alliance, connection, interconnection, interdependence with some dominant player, front, Union of parties and groups, gathering of armed militia, religious groups, nations, federations of alliances. Every Broadcast corporation, news channel, news blog, radio station, tv network or free lance journalist (war correspondent) who makes a simple one sided news report, documentary, essay, article or interview (Q&A) draws a wrong image and distorts the image of what is really happening in Syria.

In my opinion the Syrian Civil War, together with the Rwanda genocide, the Cambodian Killing fields, the Lebanese and Bosnian Civil wars, the suffering of the Afghan people for the last 40 years and the terrible destructive wars in Chechenia during the nineties and early this century are comparable to the Human suffering during the Second World War. The genocide in some places against Yazidis in Syria and Iraq and the genocide against the Tutsi's in Rwanda are comparable to the systematic slaughter in some places in Europe of Jews, Gypsies and Slavic people, because they were considered inferior by certain Germanic German and Austrian Nazi's and their Dutch, Flemish, Wallon, Danish ( Free Corps Denmark [Frikorps Danmark]) French and other henchmen.

The Western press have been very one sided against the Syrian Ba'ath Party regime, and against the Russian and Iranian and Lebanese (Hezbollah) partners in and during the Syrian Civil War (15 March 2011 – present). When I say Western press I mean the BBC, CNN, Fox News, Sky News, Euronews, ABC, NBC News/CNBC, Newsmax TV, the Dutch NOS, the Flemish VRT (Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Organization); Canvas ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_(Belgium) ) and Eén ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89%C3%A9n ), and last but certainly not least the German ARD, ZDF, WDR and RTL. These are my Western channels. I don't watch French channels that much, because my french is inferior to my knowledge of English and German unfortunately. Ofcourse the French channel France 24 is an excellent English language Broadcast Corporation too. And I don't count out the Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster and Der Spiegel Online English. (Karl and I use the latter on occasion on this Forum).

There is no Black and White, good and bad in the Syrian civil war. People have their own opinions, ideology, religion, faith, belief, mindset, set of values, desires, aims, goals, set points, political affiliations and drives in life. Westerners have a hard time to understand the mindset of Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Berbers, Tuareg people, Persians (Iranians), Turkmen, Bedouins, Bosnians, Albanians, Chechens, Black Africans with a Muslim faith (Sudanese people, Nigerians, Malians, Somalians), and Asian Muslims (The Afghan, Pakistani and Indian Muslims, the Uyghurs in China, the Indonesians, the Malayans, and the Muslim Thai-, Filipinos and other Muslim minorities in non-Muslim Asian countries -Indonesia and Malaysia are Muslim majority countries with some Muslim extremist [read Terrorist] elements-), because Westerners don't understand Sunni Islam, Shia Islam and Ahmadiyya Islam. In the Syrian Civil war the Western media ignore the position of Alawite-, Pro-Baath regime Sunni Muslim Arabs, Syrian Christian, Druze and Secular Syrians. That the Alawites, Syrian Christians, Druze and Secular Syrians fear the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, the revenge of the Sunni Muslim majority for decades of Ba'ath rule, and the general fear of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) and Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS). People support the Baath regime for several reasons. Some because their families are linked with and member of the Baath party and believe in the Ba'athist Arab nationalist, pan-Arabism, Arab socialist ideology and it's anti-imperialist (read anti-Western; anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist and anti-American) stance. And it is true that Syria supported certain Palestinians fractions and Hezbollah for decades against Israel. The Ba'ath regime specifically supported two Palestinian groups; the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist group founded in 1967, and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Council (PFLP-GC), established in 1968 as a splinter group from the PFLP.

The Assad regime has also funded Islamist Palestinian movements. After Jordanian authorities kicked Hamas’ leadership out of Amman in 1999, Hamas established its political bureau in Damascus and received weaponry, financial assistance, and political support from the Syrian regime. Bashar al-Assad’s support for groups such as Hamas (and the more radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad) played into Syria’s grander geostrategic strategy of countering Israel’s military dominance in the Levant by arming anti-Israel proxy networks. (Source: fpif.org/assad-palestinians/ )

Syria for decades had a complicated and minority position in the greater Arab world of the Arab Leage and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Why, because the Ba'ath party regime of the Assad family and their Alawite allies in the Ba'ath party were and are based on an Alawite powerbase in the Ba'ath Party, the Syrian Army, the Syrian government and Syrian intelligence agencies and security services. The majority of the secular, republican and royal (Monarch) rulers in the Muslim world have a Sunni Muslim background. The Alawites are different than the Lebanese, Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian, Arabian Penisula, Afghan, Pakistani and Indian Shia Muslims. Syria probably allied itself with Shia Iran, because of disagreements with Iraqi (under Saddam Hussein - Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein were bitter rivals, and the Syrian and Iraqi Ba'ath parties were two completely different Ba'ath parties; The Iraqi Ba'ath party was an Iraqi Sunni Muslim dominated party with Iraq's national interest, and the Syrian Ba'ath party was and is an Alawite dominated Ba'ath party with a Syrian Nationalist aim-) Egypt, Jordan, Saoudi Arabia, Tunesia, Libiya (under Muammar Gaddafi), Algeria and Morocco.

A conflict between the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian Ba'ath Party in the city Hama in in Februari 1982 laid some of the foundations of the Civil War of today.

In the early 1980s, increasing political unrest culminated in a rebellion in the city by the Muslim Brotherhood in February 1982. The uprising was suppressed by the Syrian government with great force; about one-fourth of the old city was destroyed, and some 25,000 people were estimated to have been killed. Pop. (2004 est.) 366,800. The Hama massacre (Arabic: مجزرة حماة‎‎) occurred in 2 February 1982, when the Hafez Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies, under the orders of the country's president Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against al-Assad's government. The massacre, carried out by the Syrian Army under commanding General Rifaat al-Assad, effectively ended the campaign begun in 1976 by Sunni Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, against the government.

Al-Qubeir massacre



The Al-Qubeir massacre (Arabic: مجزرة القبير‎‎), also known as the Hama massacre, occurred in the small village of Al-Qubeir near Hama, Syria, on 6 June 2012 during the country's ongoing civil conflict. Al-Qubeir is described as a Sunni farming settlement surrounded by Alawite villages in the central province of Hama. According to preliminary evidence, troops had surrounded the village which was followed by pro-government Shabiha militia entering the village and killing civilians with "barbarity," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council.

Activists, and witnesses, stated that scores of civilians, including children, had been killed by Shabiha militia and security forces, while the Syrian government said that nine people had been killed by "terrorists". It was further claimed by the Syrian National Council that 35 of the people killed were from the same Al Yatim family and more than half of them women and children.



Casualty estimates

Casualty estimates vary. In an early report activists stated that at least 78 people were killed, including children. The opposition said that 100 people had been killed in the massacre; Syrian National Council spokesperson Mohammed Sermini said, "We have 100 deaths in the village of Al-Qubeir, among them 20 women and 20 children." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated the number of dead to be 87. Two days later, the SNC revised their death toll to 78 while SOHR revised it to at least 55. When describing the massacre, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reported how some of the victims were burned, while others were slashed with knives.


Female victims of the Al-Qubeir massacre

While we today focus on Islamism, Salafist Sunni Muslim fundamentalist political islamist extremist terrorist terror, we forget the role Secular extremists played in the past and present in the Arab and Muslim world. Secular Pan-Arabic, Arab Nationalist, Arab Socialist, Communist, Marxist and Maoist groups are active in several conflicts too and participate in civil wars and wars. I think about the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Council (PFLP-GC) who fights on the side of the Syrian army, Hezbollah, Iran, Iraqi and Afghan Shia militia and Russia in the Syrian Civil War.

Complicated matter is that on both sides of the Syrian Civil War, Secular forces, Conservative and Fundamentalist Muslims and Nationalists fight. The Hezbollah, Iranian revolutionary Guards and Shia militia Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistan are as fanatic religiously as the Islamic Front, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) and Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS) on the Sunni Muslim opposition side. Both sides commit human rights violations, both sides bombed and shelled civilian area's (city neighborhoods, towns, urban agglomerations, villages and hamlets; elderly people, fathers and mothers, babies, toddlers and children.) Syrian backed groups, Iranian backed groups, Turkish backed groups, Saoudi and Qatar backed groups, American backed groups killed, wounded and maimed civilians. The Russians took part in large scale bombing of the Syrian air force and thus also killed Syrian civillians.

Again, what the West forgets is that in Syria in the Ba'ath party socialism, Nationalism, Patriotism, Syrian identity, Arabism, the Alawite faith, culture, identity and ideology are merged. The Ba'ath party and Ba'athism is different than Sovjet communism or Western Marxism-Leninism, because this Ba'athism has fascist, nationalist, Lebanese, Syrian, Pan-Arabic, and Palestinian roots. It is a brutal, oppressive, despotic, autoritarian, totalitarian system no doubt, but it is rooted in the region, in Arab identity, an old civilian and military power base which was built in decades and old strong ties and alliances with the Sovjets/Russians, Iran and Hezbollah. The Syrian Civil War is in large part fought today by the foreign Lebanese, Iranian, Pakistani, Afghan and Iraqi Shia fighters.

When the uprising developed into the Syrian civil war, there were increasing reports of Iranian military support, and of Iranian training of NDF (National Defence Forces) both in Syria, and in Iran. Iranian security and intelligence services are advising and assisting the Syrian military in order to preserve Bashar al-Assad's hold on power. Those efforts include training, technical support, combat troops.

The National Defence Forces (NDF) (Arabic: قوات الدفاع الوطني‎‎ Quwāt ad-Difāʿ al-Watanī) is a pro-government militia, formed after summer 2012 and organized by the Syrian government during the Syrian Civil War as a part-time volunteer reserve component of the Syrian Armed Forces. The NDF is made of units across various Syrian provinces, each of them consists of local volunteers willing to fight against rebels for various reasons.

From January 2013 onward, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps lost more than 1,100 troops in Syria. 360 of the deaths have been Iranian nationals, mostly officers, including several brigadier generals.

In Syria certain Alawites, Pro-Ba'ath Christians and Druze and secularists will fight to the bitter end for Hafez al-Assad and the present Syrian Ba'ath party regime. From one side due to their loyalty, ideology, family ties to Ba'ath and Syria, and from the other side, because their fear of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Front, Free Syrian Army, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) and Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS) on the Sunni Muslim opposition side is larger then their fear for Hafez al-Assad and the present Syrian Ba'ath party regime.

The situation for many Syrian Sunni Muslim Arabs, Alawite Arabs, Kurds, Assyrian christians, Syrian Druze people, Syrian Armenians, Yazidis, Turkmens, Syrian Palestinians, Circassians, Albanians, Bosnians, Georgians, Greeks, Persians (Iranians), Pashtun and Russians will be much worse under a regime of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, he Islamic Front, Free Syrian Army, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) or Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS). Sunni Muslim extremists consider anybody who follows not their strict, puritinical, Fundamentalist, Salafist, Wahhabist version of Sunni Islam as infidels, as Kafir (Arabic: كافر‎‎ kāfir; plural كفّار kuffār; feminine كافرة kāfirah) "unbeliever", or "disbeliever", a person who rejects or disbelieves in God and the teachings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and denies the dominion and authority of God.

Foreign powers should avoid a Iraq development after 2003 in Iraq in the case the Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party would be toppled. Foreign powers should not dismantle Ba'ath Party structures and regimes institutions, but reform them and keep them in place. The Syrian army, the Syrian police and the Syrian state burocracy should stay in tact. In Iraq the dismantled Iraqi army, Iraqi state burocracy, Iraqi police and Ba'ath party created the ideal circumstances for Iraqi insurgency, Iraqi domestic terrorism and Al Qaida in Iraq. Many elements in the Iraqi branch of Al Qaida were former Sunni Muslim Iraqi members of the Ba'ath party. During Saddam Husseins rule there were no connections between the Iraqi Ba'ath party and Al Qaida, but after the occupation of Iraq and mass murder of Sunni Muslim men of the Sunni Muslim minority in Bagdad and other places, Arab Iraqi Sunni Muslims joined former elements of Al Qaida who entered Iraq from Jordan, Saoudi Arabia and Syria.

In my opinion there must an awful lot of work must be done to solve the Syrian conflict and Civil War. Wounds have to heal, reconciliation, mediation, negotiations, diplomacy, rebuilding, international funding of the reconstruction of Syria (Look at Lebanon and Kurdistan in Northern Iraq, it is possible). A combined political, diplomatic, financial-economical, human aid, and military means can change the situation in Syria. Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS) and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) must be defeated, the Syrian army and the National Defence Forces (NDF) must retreat from opposition strongholds. Peace negotiations between the Ba'ath party regime and the Syrian opposition; The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces (Arabic: الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة السورية‎‎), commonly named the Syrian National Coalition (Arabic: الائتلاف الوطني السوري‎‎), and the National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change (NCC), or National Coordination Body for Democratic Change (NCB), the Kurdish National Council, the Free Syrian Army and other moderate armed groups that are accepted and respected by the Syrian government and the international community. All parties should make painful concessions, will have to give up some aims, and will have to strive for and work for a united Syria, in which former government supporters and opposition people have to live together. In the Multi-ethhic, multi-religious and multi-cultural Syria only a Secular state with a democratic nature and Trias Politica (Separation of Powers) will work. Syria will have good examples in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Turkey (the Turkish democracy).

Syria in the future will stay vulnerable due to internal tensions, old scars and animosities due to the bloody civil war and the heritage of the 1982 Hama massacre, the Syrian past of involvement in the Lebanese Civil War and presence and participation in that Civil War, and the vulnerable borders of Syria with Turkey (the Turkish-Kurd conflict, and tensions between Turks and Arabs, and certain Turkish backed opposition groups in Syria, like the Syrian Turkmen), Iraq, Jordan (Salafist and other Islamist groups can infiltrate Syria via the Jordanese border), the Syrian border with Israel in the occupied Golan Heights territory, the Syrian border with Lebanon (certain internal Syrian polarisation and conflict extends to Lebanon, where you have the same ethnic, religious and political division) and the Mediterranean sea where future foreign powers could invade Syria by sea, air and land. I hope that Peace, reconstruction, democratization in an Arab and Middle-eastern manner and style, and a Syrian solution can take place in the near future. Fact is that many different ethnic and religious groups will have to live, work and rebuilt Syria together.

Can you imagine that the United Nations, the USA, EU, the Russian Federation, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Saoudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain (The United Kingdom), Qatar, Kuwayt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates could work together for Syria and invest in Syria. If rich Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Persians, Armenians, Druze people, Americans and Russians could invest in Syria, because they remember how beautiful Syria was and what potential Syria has, than maybe Syria has a future. Remember that Aleppo, Damascus, Daraa, Homs and Idlib were beautiful cities. Mind you that Syria has a very important history in Christian civilization, that the first christian communities outside Palestine/Israel were in Syria. And that Syria is the cradle of Assyrian civilization, and is important for Islam, Kurds, Judaism, Druze people, Yazidis, Armenians, Turkmens, Palestinians and Circassians too.







Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

For the German speakers amongst us

[pieter]

The Syrian war is tragic for every Syrian, and it is a heavy burden on Syria's neighbours Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. It causes troubles in Europe due to the refugee crisis and the many dead Syrian refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean sea, and countries like Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia who struggle with the large influx of refugees form Syria, Afghanistan, Libiya, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and other parts of North-Africa. Germany and Sweden also struggle with the large amount of refugees in combination with large immigration groups that are already in these countries.

To put an end to the Civil Wars and wars in the world and better use of Fair Trade and Development Aid would cure the world and stop the refugee crisis. A problem is that the Military Industrial Complex, arms industries and arms smugglers and traders haven't got an interest in the end of Wars and Civil Wars. They and war lords and war hungry regimes and movements benefit from wars too. War lords and regimes abuse and misuse development aid in illegal black economies. Extortion, corruption, fraud, nepotism and Clientelism ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clientelism ).

The three monotheist religions could coexist in the Middle east if Nationalist, ethnic, territorial, geopolitical issues were solved. Behind the scenes there are political-, financial-, economical-, diplomatic-, social-, cultural- and personal connections between Israeli's and Arabs in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saoudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and probably Qatar too. Syrians know that the facts on the ground in the Arab world changed and that the old despotic, totalitarian, authoritarian regimes lost power and influence and that the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, the Internet, Young Arabs who studied and worked and lived in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand got new ideas and influences. The Arab world is changing like Europe and North America during one and a half century (from the 19th century until now).

If the Arabs don't change they will not be able to catch up with the rest of the world; Asia, Europe and the America's.

[pieter]

The Problem With Syria's Demographics

How Population Change Stymies Peace

By Tarek Osman



Over the years, there have been several attempts to broker peace in Syria. The most recent one took place on the sidelines of the G–20 summit in Hamburg, where U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin discussed a possible agreement between their two countries. The hope was that a bilateral deal could inject some life into the stalled Geneva and Astana peace talks that have been going on for over two years. But this discussion, and all recent efforts to end the now six-year conflict have been premised on the erroneous assumption that returning Syria to its pre-war political structure will bring peace.



For starters, the war has fundamentally altered Syria’s demographics, and for this alone, a return to pre-war Syria will be impossible. Over the past three years, the Assad regime and its allies have successfully reduced the presence of Sunnis in the areas closest to the big urban centers, primarily Damascus and the coast. These are areas where Christians and Alawites (the sect to which the Assads belong) have a strong presence and where the bulk of the country’s trade takes place. The operations of the regime and its allies here were not aimed at killing Sunnis, but rather at incentivizing them to leave. It was no coincidence that the routes out of Syria to Jordan and Lebanon remained quite safe over the past few years. Assad’s goal was to create a geographically contiguous area with a significantly lower Sunni share of the population compared to pre-2011 levels. The underlying logic is that many minorities support the Assad regime because they believe that only it can protect them. But it is exactly this new demographic make-up that makes it impossible to return to Syria’s pre-war political structure.


Syrian Sunni Muslims pray in a Sunni Mosque

Modern Syria, which emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s, was carved out of Greater Syria and the eastern Levant, from which the Lebanese Republic and modern-day Jordan were also born. Greater Syria’s large Sunni communities dominated the big urban centers (especially Damascus). Some Sunni communities, whose geographic location made them “Lebanese,” wanted a union with the Damascus-based republic. For them, Syria was the center of Arab Sunnism in the Levant, in the same way that Mount Lebanon was seen as a haven for the region’s Christian Maronites and Druze. But such a union never came about. A political compromise in Lebanon and the Hashemites’ failure to secure a kingdom in Syria cemented the new states’ social composition.



The newly created Syrian republic quickly descended into a long period of political turbulence. Among the several military coups in Syria, from the late 1940s to 1970, only the one led by Hafez Assad, Bashar’s father, managed to bring about stability. The price of peace, however, was the death of opposition politics. Under his one-man rule, Hafez Assad eliminated any group that would contest his power, and later, as his regime evolved into a family affair, he cultivated support by forming a cadre of confidantes mostly from the Alawite sect and garnered legitimacy by projecting a façade of secular Arab nationalism.


Syrian president Hafez al-Assad celebrates his 28th anniversary in power in November 1998 (Khaled Al Hariri/Courtesy Reuters). He is the father of pressent Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The war of the past six years has crumbled that mirage. Iran’s military support to Damascus and political influence in Syria, renders it impossible for the Assad regime to invoke Arabness to anchor its legitimacy and to hide the stark sectarian domination of a minority over a majority. The civil war has now exposed all of this, leaving Syria’s Sunnis without any illusions about the nature of the regime. Carrots, sticks, violence, and acute repression could make it work for some time. But it is unsustainable.


Iranian revolutionary guards fight in the Syrian Civil war on the side of Bashar al-Assad

A return to the pre-2011 regime will also be costly. Minority rule will, by default, concentrate economic power at the top, result in poor economic decision making, and breed corruption. This would inevitably drain a country’s economy unless it is endowed with a massive amount of natural resources, which Syria is not. This means that Damascus will always depend on the support of outside powers such as Iran and Russia, which face their own internal challenges and economic problems, primarily because of declining oil revenues.


Syria's Steel Beasts: The Russian T-72

Seen in this light, the Assad regime’s strategy becomes more clear. Artificially changing the country’s demographics by reducing the size of the Sunni majority looks as if it is the regime’s best shot at creating the conditions to make minority rule more sustainable. In reality, however, this is short-sighted because it will not last. After all, a significant percentage of Syrians from across various socio-economic backgrounds blame the regime for hundreds of thousands of deaths, in addition to the dislocation of millions. These feelings run deep and will fuel widespread anger for years to come.

Syria’s historic Sunni identity will also hinder Assad’s strategy. The remaining Sunni majority will never accept overhauling the key characteristic that has defined their country’s positioning in the region. And if some of the millions of Syrian refugees now in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Europe return to Syria (a likely scenario, given the difficult economic conditions they endure in these countries, and that waves of refugees from Lebanon have already begun returning to areas where a ceasefire has been established), they, too, will not accept the ahistorical identity the regime has been trying to create.


Fighters from the Free Syrian Army, the main coalition of armed groups fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

That is why, for the peace talks to be effective, all parties must seriously consider the demographic engineering that is taking place in Syria and look to stop it. There are two incentives for Russia, which has the most leverage over the Assad regime, to do so. First, halting Assad’s demographic changes will not actually threaten his hold on power. Russia’s military intervention in Syria has essentially ensured the Syrian regime’s survival in the short and medium term. Secondly, Russia wants a political solution. For this to happen, the Assad regime needs to feel some pressure and have an incentive to seriously engage in a political process. That could come from a social situation that’s not acutely skewed in its favor.

Other international players, primarily the United States and Europe, must link their support to peace with putting an end to Assad’s demographic engineering. Their leverage comes from the fact that they would be the main financiers of most reconstruction and development efforts, which are expected to follow any permanent ceasefire. And here, Washington and Brussels should make it clear that their support—financial and advisory—is conditional.

Of course, if Assad’s moves to fundamentally alter Syria are not countered, the war might still come to a stop in the short term. But it will not be a permanent fix. Sooner or later, the return from abroad of displaced Syrians, the strong desire for revenge against the Assad regime, or internal pressures from groups that rightfully feel they have been robbed of their heritage—or any combination of these factors—will only renew the cycle of conflict and send Syria spiraling into another devastating war.


Russia wants a political solution for Syria





About Foreign Affairs:

Foreign Affairs is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. Founded in 1922, the print magazine is currently published every two months, while the website publishes articles daily.

Foreign Affairs is considered one of America's most influential foreign policy magazines. Over its long history, the magazine has published a number of seminal articles including George Kennan's "X Article", published in 1947, and Samuel P. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations", published in 1993. The magazine often publishes articles by important academics, public officials, and policy leaders, including Robert O. Keohane, Hillary Clinton, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Ashton Carter, Colin L. Powell, Francis Fukuyama, David Petraeus, Zbigniew Brzezinski, John J. Mearsheimer, and Joseph Nye. It is considered a forum for debate among academics and policy makers. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 2.009, ranking it 6th out of 85 journals in the category "International Relations".

[karl]

Pieter

An excellent presentation of Syria now and history. What was once Syria, will never again be, for this long civil war has changed most every thing that was Syria. Mr. Putin is correct though, the war must be resolved in a political manner. With this, to change out the course of Israel and Americans with their wish to defeat the currant Basher Goverment with replacement of their own brand of Goverment that would also please very much the Saudis.

The following url is one of many couples and families living in the hell of Allepo that once was a beautiful city of history that dates back to biblical times:

Life Under Siege in Syria

www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/10/21/how-to-survive-in-aleppo/?utm_term=.367a171999d2Karl

Karl

[pieter]

Dear Karl,

It doesn't matter what religion, sect or ethnic group you belong too in Syria, I truely believe that most Syrians regret the destruction of their once beautiful homeland, by both foreign and domestic fighters. For Israel Syria is an ememy, but a reliable enemy. Israel hasn't got a war with Syria for decades. For Syria it would be suicidal to attack Israel military. For the Palestinians Syria was a home for decades too, the initial influx of Palestinians was substantial (90,000–100,000), and the government, through a series of laws, gradually paved the way for their integration into the Syrian socioeconomic structure while preserving their separate Palestinian identity.

Palestinians in Syria have the right to own more than one business or commercial enterprise as well as the right to lease properties. These rights extend to trade and commerce. Union membership in Syria is also open to Palestinians. Palestinians are free to travel throughout Syria and have the right to establish residence in Syrian villages and cities.

There is, however, a prominent gap in the home and land ownership laws. Unlike Syrian nationals, Palestinians may not own more than one home or purchase arable land. Also, Palestinian refugees in Syria do not have the right to vote or candidate for the People's Council or presidency.

Due to the civil war in Syria that commenced in 2011, many Palestinians in Syria have been displaced, either within Syria itself or they have fled the country. Their propensity to fleeing includes having been under siege in refugee camps and reports that they are being conscripted into the regime's army. Many have opted to make the dangerous journey to Europe as conditions remain hostile to Palestinians in neighbouring Middle Eastern states.

During the Gulf War in 1990–91, Syria cooperated with the United States as a member of the multinational coalition of forces. The U.S. and Syria also consulted closely on the Taif Accord, ending the civil war in Lebanon. In 1991, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad made a historic decision to accept then-President Bush's invitation to attend a Middle East peace conference and to engage in subsequent bilateral negotiations with Israel. Syria improved its relations with the United States by securing the release of Western hostages held in Lebanon and lifting the travel restrictions on Syrian Jews.

n the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the Syrian Government began limited cooperation with U.S. in the War on Terror. In one such case, Syrian intelligence alerted the U.S. of an Al Qaeda plan similar to the USS Cole bombing, which was to fly a hang glider loaded with explosives into the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.[3] Syria was one of the most common destinations for the U.S. to send captives outside of its borders to be tortured, a program known as "extraordinary rendition."

Extraordinary rendition, also called irregular rendition or forced rendition, is the government-sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another that has predominantly been carried out by the United States government with the consent of other countries.

Minority Alawites and Christians are being increasingly targeted by Islamists and other groups fighting in the Syrian civil war. I understand therefor why Alawites, Assyrian-, Chaldean and Maronite Christians, Druze, Kurds, Armenians (Christians too), Yazidis, Circassians, Albanians, Bosnians, Georgians, Greeks, Persians (Shia Muslim Iranians), Pashtuns (from Afghanistan and Pakistan) and Russians (Orthodox christians) fear the Sunni Muslim Arab majority who support the Free Syrian army; the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood; Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS); Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) The Levant Front (Jabhat al-Shamiyah) (formerly known as the Islamic Front) and other domestic and foreign Islamist Jihadist Salafist groups.

The Levant Front's membership includes the major Sunni Islamist groups operating in northern Syria, representing a spectrum of ideologies from hardline Salafism to apolitical factions linked to the Free Syrian Army. The group imposes Sharia law where murder and apostasy in Islam are punishable by death. In Aleppo, media activists accusing the Levant Front of corruption and otherwise criticizing the group have received threats and faced reprisal attacks. Courts affiliated with the group have also been accused of summary killings by Amnesty International.

Al Qaida in Syria


People mourning after 500 people were killed in cold blood, mutilated and many burnt outside Damascus in Jdaydit Artooz.

Following the mass protests that took place later in 2011 demanding the resignation of al-Assad, al-Qaeda affiliated groups and Sunni sympathizers soon began to constitute the most effective fighting force in the Syrian opposition.[211] Until then, al-Qaeda's presence in Syria was not worth mentioning, but its growth thereafter was rapid. Groups such as the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS; sometimes ISIL) have recruited many foreign Mujahideen to train and fight in what has gradually become a highly sectarian war. Ideologically, the Syrian Civil War has served the interests of al-Qaeda as it pits a mainly Sunni opposition against a Shia backed government. Viewing Shia Islam as heretical, al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist Sunni militant groups have invested heavily in the civil conflict, actively backing and supporting the Syrian Opposition despite its clashes with moderate opposition groups such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).


New recruits join the Free Syrian Army

Rifts within the al-Qaeda subgroups were also exposed by the war. Amongst the various Iraqis fighting in Syria's opposition are Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also issued a video tape that said his group had merged with the Nusra Front in order to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. However, Nusra Front disavowed the claim, while al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ordered them to be separate groups. al-Baghdadi then issued another video tape in which he rejected al-Zawahiri's ruling.


Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (Daesh/ISIS/ISIL)

n June 2013, a recently promoted Jordanian Air Force captain was reported to have taken leave from his job and traveled to Turkey in order to fight for the Nusra Front. Yemenis have also fought for both sides in the Syrian battle; Palestinians have also fought for both sides of the conflict with Hamas being more supportive of the opposition and the PFLP-GC supporting the government. A leading Mauritanian jihadist ideologue, Sheikh Abu al-Mundhir al-Shinqiti, has called for support for the Nusra Front. Most recruits are Arabs (Lebanese, Iraqis, Jordanians, Palestinians, Kuwaitis, Tunisians, Libyans, Algerians, Egyptians, Saudis, Sudanese and Yemenis). The largest contingents of about 500-900 fighters come from Syria's neighbors: Lebanese, Iraqis, Palestinians and Jordanians, many of whom fought U.S. forces in Iraq. The second-largest contingent is from other Arab countries in North Africa: around 75-300 fighters from Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri also called for a jihad in Syria with the main target of message said to be Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

On February 2, 2014, al-Qaeda distanced itself from ISIS and its actions in Syria, but ISIS and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front are still able to occasionally cooperate with each other when they fight against the Syrian government. The Saudi/Turkish-backed al-Nusra launched many attacks and bombings, mostly against targets affiliated with or supportive of the Syrian government. In October 2015, Russian air strikes targeted positions held by al-Nusra Front. In early 2016, a leading ISIL ideologue described al-Qaeda as the "Jews of jihad".

The Syrian Al Qaida branch

Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (Arabic: هيئة تحرير الشام‎‎, transliteration: Hayʼat Taḥrīr al-Shām, "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham and abbreviated HTS, is an active Salafist jihadist militant group involved in the Syrian Civil War. The group was formed on 28 January 2017 as a merger between Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front), the Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. After the announcement, additional groups and individuals joined. The merger is currently led by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and former Ahrar al-Sham leaders, although the High Command consists of leaders from other groups. Many groups and individuals defected from Ahrar al-Sham, representing their more conservative and Salafist elements. Currently, a number of analysts and media outlets still continue to refer to this group by its previous names, al-Nusra Front, or Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

Some analysts reported that the goal of forming Tahrir al-Sham was to unite all groups with al-Qaeda's extreme ideology under one banner, and to obtain as many weapons as possible. They also reported that many of the former Jabhat Fateh al-Sham fighters still answered to al-Qaeda, and held an increasing amount of sway over the new group. It has also been claimed that despite the recent formation of Tahrir al-Sham, the new group secretly maintains a fundamental link to al-Qaeda, and that many of the group's senior figures, particularly Abu Jaber, held similarly extreme views.

Analysts have also reported that the group continues to maintain many of al-Nusra Front's al-Qaeda ideologies. It was also reported that a large portion of Tahrir al-Sham's fighters from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham still refused to disengage from al-Qaeda, and continued to hold a large sway over the group, despite the public re-branding of the group. Tahrir al-Sham continues to harbor the former al-Nusra Front's goal of turning Syria into an Islamic Emirate, run by al-Qaeda. If such a governing entity were declared, it would be similar to ISIL's declaration of a Caliphate.

Lebanon

Mostly Lebanese fighters tend to have their own groups and militias. Members of Fatah al-Islam and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades were also present though they were fighting under independent banners. Many Lebanese fighters for the opposition come from the Sunni stronghold of Tripoli. The city's Sunni cleric Sheik Masen al-Mohammed said: "The struggle for freedom in Syria is our own struggle for freedom. We Lebanese are part of the Syrian revolution, part of the rebellion. If Syria gains its freedom, then we will also win in Lebanon." He also said of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he was an "infidel...It is the duty of every Muslim, every Arab to fight the infidels. There is a holy war in Syria and the young men there are conducting jihad. For blood, for honor, for freedom, for dignity. We know of Palestinian, Libyan and Yemen fighters who are active there."

Liwaa al-Umma


Official logo of Liwa al-Umma

Liwaa al-Umma (Arabic: لواء الامة‎‎ Liwāʼ al-Ummah, meaning "Banner of the Nation") is a paramilitary group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war. The group was founded by Mahdi Al-Harati, an Irish-Libyan who led the Libyan rebel Tripoli Brigade during the Battle of Tripoli. Harati stepped down as the group's leader after six months, leaving Syrians in charge. In September 2012, it aligned itself with the Free Syrian Army.


The flag of Liwaa al-Umma

By January 2014, Liwaa al-Umma had joined with other rebel groups in Hama governorate, including Liwa al-Haqq and Jund al-Aqsa, into a Salafist and jihadist coalition called the Muhajirin wa-Ansar Alliance (not to be confused with the Chechen-led Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar).


Mahdi al-Harati, former commander of the Tripoli Brigade during the Libyan Civil War

Harati decided to form the group following discussions with supporters of the Syrian opposition during a fact-finding mission to Syria in early 2012.



According to Harati, about 90% of its 6,000+ members are Syrians, with the remaining 10% a mixture of Libyans, Egyptians, Palestinians, Sudanese and other Arabs. Harati also says that most of the Syrian fighters are former members of other rebel groups who decided to join Liwaa al-Umma, whilst others have joined as individuals. He also says that most of the Libyans are former members of the Tripoli Brigade, which received training from Qatari Special Forces in the town of Nalut during the Libyan Civil War. Syrians in Liwaa al-Umma say that, compared to most other rebel groups in Syria, the group is seen as better organized and more disciplined.



Many Tunisian fighters fought alongside the Syrian opposition fighters. In early 2012, Tunisia also withdrew recognition of Syria. Tunisians have been killed or captured in Syria, with at least five deaths from the town of Ben Guerdane, from where many fighters departed Tunisia for Syria. The Syrian government informed the United Nations of the arrest of 26 alleged al-Qaeda militants, 19 of whom were Tunisian. Tunisians are reportedly a large percentage of the foreign Arab fighters in the country.

Azerbaijan has a largely non-observant Shia population country with a Sunni minority. Some Sunni citizens of Azerbaijan have joined terrorist organizations in Syria. The estimated number of Azerbaijanis in Syria ranges from 200 to 300.

According to Georgia's State Security Service, around 50 Georgian citizens, principally from the Kist (Chechen)-populated Pankisi Gorge, had joined the Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq as of June 2016. By June 2017, at least 25 citizens of Georgia have died in these conflicts. A veteran of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War and a former sergeant in the Georgian Army, Abu Omar al-Shishani, served as a commander for the Islamic State in Syria. Another one is Muslim Shishani.


Omar al Shishani in an image made from undated video posted June 28, 2014.

Murad Margoshvili, also known by his nom de guerre Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani (taken from the Saudi fighter Abu al-Walid), is the commander of Junud al-Sham in Syria. While Margoshvili is a Georgian national, he's also a Kist, a Chechen subethnos living mostly in the Pankisi Gorge.


Murad Margoshvili, the commander of Junud al-Sham in Syria

Junud al-Sham (Soldiers of the Levant) was a group of Chechen and Lebanese Sunni fighters that fought in the Syrian Civil War.[2] By early 2016, Junud al-Sham had reportedly weakened significantly, with its leader Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani reproaching other insurgent groups in Syria for not providing assistance, and with many of its members leaving the group to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[7]

In late 2016, the group dissolved, whereupon many of its Chechen fighters joined Ajnad al-Kavkaz.

Ajnad al-Kavkaz



Ajnad al-Kavkaz (transl. "Soldiers of the Caucasus"; short: AK) is a Chechen-led Jihadi Islamic fundamentalist rebel group active in northern Syria, primarily in the mountainous, forested areas of northern Latakia Governorate. Although formed by former Caucasus Emirate fighters and tentatively linked to the organization, Ajnad al-Kavkaz operated fully autonomous from the beginning and later cut its links with the Caucasus Emirate. By September 2016, Ajnad al-Kavkaz had become "the largest of the Muslim factions from the former Soviet Union fighting in Syria."


Ajnad al-Kavkaz men in Northern Syria

Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria


Flag of the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria

The Uyghur militant group Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria (TIP) sent a large number of its fighters, operating in a unit called the "Turkistan Brigade" (Katibat Turkistani), to take part in the Syrian Civil War. They have taken part in numerous battles in Syria, including the 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive. The leader of TIP (ETIM) in Syria was Abu Rida al-Turkestani.

Turkistan Islamic Party is allied to Al-Qaeda. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham included Abu Omar al-Turkistani. The death of Abu Omar al-Turkistani happened on 19 January 2017. The death of Al-Turkistani was confirmed by JFS. Iran and Russia were attacked by the Turkistan Islamic Party.


Jihadists from the Turkistan Islamic Party fighting in the Al Ghab plain

Former Yugoslavia


Hundreds of Muslim Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania are reported to have gone to pursue jihad, along with Bosniak Muslims.

Muslims from the Balkans have joined the opposition in fighting against the Syrian government, and some have been killed. Many recruits came from Serbia's Muslim-inhabited Sandžak region, particularly the city of Novi Pazar. Several hundred come from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia. Many of the recruits were Salafists and, though denied by some Salafist leaders, Rešad Plojović, the deputy leader of the Sandžak muftiate, said that "some organisations and individuals [are recruiting Balkan Muslims]. There are centers or individuals who probably have connections with certain organisations, and they are motivating people.


A group of Muslims from Sandzak named “Insha’Allah” in Syria

Fighters from Russia

The Russian security agency Federal Security Service in July 2013 estimated that about 200 Russian citizens were fighting for the Syrian opposition, while it expressed fears the fighters could carry out militant attacks upon returning. In December 2013, the Russian media estimate for Russian citizens fighting for the rebels was increased to 400. Although often cited as Chechen, due to the widespread use of the Arabic moniker al-Shishani, foreign fighters came from a wide variety of ethnic and sub-ethnic groups. At least some also came from Diaspora communities.

In November 2014, five people were jailed in Jordan for three to five years for "promoting... terrorist organisations" in reference to ISIS. Two others were also on trial as part of a crackdown on militants.

Israeli-Arabs were also found to have traveled to Syria and fought for the rebels. At least one returnee, who was reportedly asked to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, was convicted of "endangering national security." Judge Avraham Yaakov said at a session of the trial at Lod district court that "there's no legal guidance regarding the rebel groups fighting in Syria."

Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War

Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War refers to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria that began in March 2011, as well as active foreign involvement. Most parties involved in the war in Syria receive various types of support from foreign countries and entities based outside Syria. The ongoing conflict in Syria is widely described as a series of overlapping proxy wars between the regional and world powers, primarily between the U.S. and Russia as well as between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The Syrian Ba'athist government is politically and militarily supported by Iran and Russia, actively supported by Lebanese Hezbollah party and by Syrian-based Palestinian group PFLP-GC and others.

The Syrian opposition, politically represented by the Syrian National Coalition, receives financial, logistical, political and in some cases military support from major Sunni states in the Middle East allied with the U.S., most notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. From early stages of the civil conflict in Syria, major Western countries such as the U.S, France, and the UK provide political, military and logistic support to the opposition as well as rebel groups in Syria that are not designated by them as terrorist.

The predominantly Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the main armed service of the Kurdish Supreme Committee, the government of Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), have received military and logistic support from Iraqi Kurdistan and air support by U.S., Canada, British and French air force.

The Salafist groups are partially supported by Turkey, while the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant received support from several non-state groups and organizations from across the Muslim World.

As a significant part of Syria′s territory is since 2014 claimed by the Islamic State (ISIL), an entity internationally recognised as terrorist, a number of Western and other countries, most notably the U.S., Russia and France, participate in direct military action against ISIL in the territory of Syria.

Main source: Wikipedia

[pieter]

The Pro-Syrian Palestinians





Anti-Assad Palestinians

[pieter]

I am not a fan of Hezbollah Leader Sayyed Nasrallah, but sometimes he speaks the truth in his speeches. There is realism, some honesty and pragmatism in his speeches. He lacks the hollow propaganda, hollow frases, Arab theatre (theatrical dramatic attitudes), and heroic symbolism some Arab movements, parties and groups use in their propaganda video's. In the video's you see that he is a wise, tactical, strategic and responsible leader.

Again I am not a fan of Sayyed Nasrallah and Hezbollah, but I consider Hezbollah as slightly less terrible than for instance the Daesh (Islamic State/ISIS); Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (the Al-Nusra Front = Al Qaida in Syria) The Levant Front (Jabhat al-Shamiyah) (formerly known as the Islamic Front) and other domestic and foreign Islamist Jihadist Salafist groups. And maybe Hezbollah is slightly less bad than Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP (the armed wing of the PFLP, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades which carried out terrorist attacks inside Israel, killing civillians), and the radical Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Fatah al-Islam.