Is Al Qaeda Turning The Tide For The Rebels In Eastern Syria

Resistance ... members of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo. Photo: Reuters

Al-Qaida Turns Tide For Rebels In Battle For Eastern Syria -- The Guardian

In his latest exclusive dispatch from Deir el-Zour province, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets fighters who have left the Free Syrian Army for the discipline and ideology of global jihad

As they stood outside the commandeered government building in the town of Mohassen, it was hard to distinguish Abu Khuder's men from any other brigade in the Syrian civil war, in their combat fatigues, T-shirts and beards.

But these were not average members of the Free Syrian Army. Abu Khuder and his men fight for al-Qaida. They call themselves the ghuraba'a, or "strangers", after a famous jihadi poem celebrating Osama bin Laden's time with his followers in the Afghan mountains, and they are one of a number of jihadi organisations establishing a foothold in the east of the country now that the conflict in Syria has stretched well into its second bloody year.

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WNU Editor: More news and info on Al Qaeda in Syria can be read in this CNN report,
as well as in this New York Times report.

Update: Jihadists push for role in Syrian resistance -- Sydney Morning Herald