Al-Nusra-Al-Qaeda links ‘serve Assad regime’

BEIRUT: Main opposition group the Syrian National Coalition yesterday expressed concern at jihadist Al-Nusra Front’s pledge of fealty to Al-Qaeda, warning it would serve the goals of President Bashar Assad’s regime.
“The Syrian Coalition is deeply concerned about recent statements regarding the affiliations and ideologies of particular factions of the rebel forces,” the group said.
“Such initiatives only serve the goals of the Assad regime and harm the progress of the revolution,” it added, calling on Al-Nusra “to stay within the ranks of nationalistic Syrians.”
Al-Nusra has long been suspected of links to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but the announcement of an alleged merger between the groups and its pledge to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri have raised hackles among some in the Syrian opposition.
Rebel fighters and activists have been reluctant to criticize the group publicly, unwilling to alienate one of the fiercest fighting forces battling the regime.
When the United States designated the group a “terrorist” organization last December, the Syrian National Coalition and other opposition groups criticized the decision.
But there has been discomfort with both Al-Nusra’s tactics, including suicide bombings, and its explicit calls for the establishment of an Islamic state in Syria, which Zawahiri also called for in an audio message last week.
“We stand against any forces that may inhibit the Syrian people’s choosing of their own future,” the Coalition said. “The Syrian Coalition vows to support the Syrian people in their continued struggle for freedom and to stand against any forces that counter the noble objectives of the Syrian revolution.”
Meanwhile, Assad’s forces destroyed the minaret of the historic Omari mosque where Syria’s uprising erupted two years ago in the southern city of Daraa, opposition activists said yesterday.
In amateur video footage the activists uploaded to YouTube, the mosque can be seen at the end of a street, its towering minaret toppling over after apparent shelling and crumbling into rubble and dust. Other videos posted online show the mosque, which is thought to date back to the 7th century, had been targeted in shelling for several days.
“This regime of unrestrained barbarism targeted with tanks the minaret of the Omari mosque, a place full of symbols of civilization and spirituality and humanity,” said the opposition Syrian National Council.
“The minaret of this mosque, which was build by Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab, is the first in the whole of the Levant, and has been destroyed by the soldiers of the tyrant,” it added, referring to President Assad.
The Council noted the mosque had played a pivotal role in the beginning of the uprising against Assad, which sprung in large part from the city of Daraa after the arrest and torture of two boys.
“It was the first place that embraced the Syrian revolution during its infancy, the first wave of demonstrations of pride and dignity came out through its doors,” said the Council.
“The first martyrs fell on its walls and the first wounded were treated on its floors.”
The Local Coordination Committees activist network condemned the destruction of the minaret as a “barbaric act... which adds a new crime to the list of Assad’s crimes.”
“It is not just stones that are destroyed but also religious and historic heritage cherished by the Syrian people,” said the LCC.
As Syria’s conflict continues into a third year, an increasing number of the country’s key heritage sites, both religious and cultural, are being damaged in the fighting.
International authorities including UNESCO have expressed concern that numerous sites in the country, including some classified as World Heritage sites, are being seriously damaged.
Separately, an airstrike killed at least 16 people in a majority Kurdish village in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakeh yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
“Sixteen people were martyred after a warplane targeted the village of Haddad, which is majority Kurdish... including at least three children and two women,” the Britain-based group reported.
Video footage uploaded by activists on YouTube showed the aftermath of an initial attack, with women and children screaming as they rushed out of a badly damaged house.
As men arrived to help carry the injured, the sound of another explosion can be heard and dust rises up around the building.
Several women carrying children emerge from one home, outside which at least two bodies can be seen, at least one apparently that of a child, a pool of blood next to his head.