Islamists Rivalry Intensifies in the Battle for Azaz. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times reports on the battle for Azaz, a strategic city near the Turkish border.
“The conflict over the town, Azaz, has shuttered a Turkish border crossing long used to supply the rebel movement and heightened tensions between rebels who seek the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and extremists who want to erase Syria’s borders and establish a transnational Islamic state,” Hubbard writes.
“The Qaeda group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, routed local rebels to take control of Azaz two weeks ago and has since set up checkpoints around the town and taken over the bases of other rebel groups. Rebels who oppose the ISIS jihadists have collected their forces at the Bab al-Salameh border crossing a few miles away and are preparing to protect it should the jihadists advance.”
The regional news website Al Monitor describes it as a fight to establish an ISIS emirate, governed by its strict Islamist ideology. Within the Islamist rebel rivalry, Salafists have emerged as the middle ground, the Financial Times reports.
Assad Says Turkey Will “Pay Dearly” For Supporting Rebels. Beirut’s Daily Star quotes an Assad interview with Turkey’s Halk TV, in which he barks back at the Turkish government. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken a strong stance against Assad, allowing his country to become a major operating base for rebels of all stripes, among them Islamist fighters who now migrate across the Turkish-Syrian border.
“In the near future these terrorists will have an impact on Turkey. And Turkey will pay very dearly for its contribution,” the Syrian president said.
“It is not possible to use terrorism as a card and put it in your pocket. Because it is like a scorpion which won’t hesitate to sting you at any moment.”
In that same interview, Assad says it’s “too early” to say if he’ll run for president in the re-election race slated for next year.
Chemical Weapons Deal Reopens Kurdish Wounds. Isabel Coles of Reuters reports on Kurdish fears that the chemical weapons deal between Assad, Russia and the U.S. essentially lets the Syrian president off the hook.
“Kurds in both Syria and Iraq fear that Assad, unpunished for the poison gas attack, has been let off the hook, and that in the changing fortunes of Syria’s war, his chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist insurgents.
“The wound of our town has been re-opened in Syria,” Hamida Hassan Mohammed told the newswire as she recounted what happened in her hometown of Halabja, Iraq, 25 years ago.
“We feel as though Halabja has been attacked again.’”
Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team:
The Guardian: “Progress” on Chemical Weapons Inspections
New York Times: In Syria, Doctors Beware
Al Jazeera: A House of Healing for Those Wounded in Syria
Foreign Affairs: A Phony Farewell to Arms
The New York Times: Russia Redraws Lines of Diplomacy
Carnegie Moscow: Russia is Defending Its Own Interests With Stance on Syria
The Guardian: Uneasy Stalemate – Syria Caught in Deadlock as War of Attrition Drags On