Syria air strikes must target all 'groups considered as terrorists': Fabius

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: AFP

Syria air strikes must target all 'groups considered as terrorists': Fabius

Paris (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that air strikes in Syria must target Islamic State militants but also other groups "considered as terrorists."

Fabius said a statement by President Francois Hollande on Friday that Russian air strikes must target "Daesh and only Daesh (the Arabic acronym for IS)", did not exclude other groups like the Al-Nusra Front.

"Of course, it is a concise formulation, it is Daesh and groups considered as terrorists," Fabius told Europe 1 radio in an interview, referring to Hollande's statement.

Moscow, which has launched more than 70 air strikes in Syria since last Wednesday, has come under fire for targeting Western-backed moderate opposition and IS fighters alike in their bid to bolster President Bashar Al-Assad.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-air-strikes-must-target-groups-considered-terrorists-075355170.html

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Earlier:Russian FM Lavrov said: "If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist, right?"

[pampango]

1. Russian Foreign Minister: "U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army rebels not a terrorist group"

http://news.yahoo.com/lavrov-says-russia-does-not-consider-free-syrian-153750858.html

Most believe ISIS to be the biggest terrorist threat in Syria. ISIS is fighting with al-Nusra and other terrorist and non-terrorist groups. If defeating ISIS is the #1 goal then bombing its opponents does not make sense. If protecting Assad is the #1 goal then bombing ISIS' opponents does make sense since ISIS' opponents are also fighting with Assad's forces.

[aceofblades]

2. I'm not surprised

Also, US airstrikes have reportedly hit Al-Nusra, and Ahrar ash-Sham targets along with ISIS

[Jesus Malverde]

3. Got something to back that up?

Thank you in advance.

[oberliner]

4. US-led air strikes kill seven Al-Nusra members in Syria: monitor

Beirut (AFP) - Seven militants from Syria's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, including commanders, were killed in US-led air strikes Wednesday in the northwest of the conflict-riven country, a Britain-based monitoring group said.

The US-led raids in Syria, which began last September, have mainly focused on the Islamic State group (IS) but its rival Al-Nusra has also been the target of some strikes.

"Seven Al-Nusra members, including commanders, were killed in at least five coalition air strikes against the group's bases and a vehicle in Idlib province," the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-led-air-strikes-kill-seven-al-nusra-225008264.html

[Jesus Malverde]

7. Then there is this...

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has no credibility. I prefer Fisk.

Think again. Read the words of the Qatari Foreign Minister, Khaled al-Attiyah, in an interview with Le Monde last month. “We are clearly against all extremism,” he stated, “but, apart from Daesh [Isis], all [sic] these groups are fighting to overthrow the [Assad] regime. The moderates cannot say to the Nusra Front ... ‘We won’t work with you’. You have to look at the situation and be realistic.”

In other words, al-Nusra’s sole aim is to destroy the Assad regime and, ergo, it is on the same side as the “moderates” and worthy of the same military assistance. If the “moderates” can’t say to al-Nusra, “We won’t work with you”, then how could the US?

Intelligence reports to the French government have been recording US air strikes against Isis that have avoided endangering positions held by al-Nusra. When Isis arrived in its thousands to assault Palmyra last month – for the most part, in broad daylight – not one US plane appeared in Syrian skies. And all this when US pilots have been returning from almost 75 per cent of their missions against Isis with bombs still on board because they couldn’t find targets.

You don’t have to be a reporter, let alone a conspiracy theorist, to see the warning lights around the “war on terror” story in Syria. Because some of the terrorists are soon going to be our terrorists – as long as they fight the even more horrible terrorists and the Assad terrorists at the same time. All they need is more cash and more weapons. And I bet you they’ll get them, courtesy of the ol’ US of A. Just don’t mention the word conspiracy

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/america-siding-with-terrorists-like-al-nusra-its-not-a-conspiracy-theory-10319370.html

[Jesus Malverde]

8. and this

The rebel leader touted as the West’s last hope to stem the tide of extreme jihadist groups in Syria has said he will not fight against al-Qa’ida, and openly admits to battling alongside them.

Speaking from a safe house on the outskirts of the Turkish town of Antakya, Jamal Maarouf, the leader of the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF) told The Independent that the fight against al-Qa’ida was “not our problem” and admitted his fighters conduct joint operations with Jabhat al-Nusra – the official al-Qa’ida branch in Syria.

The admission could have significant implications for Western involvement in the Syrian conflict. While the US and UK have been vocal in their support for rebels fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad, they have been reluctant to follow through with material support – such as heavy weaponry – over fears it would fall into the hands of extremist groups who might target the West.

Maarouf and his brigades are viewed as relative moderates in a loosely affiliated rebel army that is increasingly dominated by radical groups, and the SRF and similar groups are presented as the West’s best bet to fight both the Assad regime and extremists. His willingness to work with rebel groups the West deems unpalatable is a symptom of a war in which allegiances frequently change and all actors within it have been forced to compromise in order to survive.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=771296

[Jesus Malverde]

9. or this...

Among the groups whose bases were overrun in the assault was Harakat Hazm, the biggest recipient of U.S. assistance offered under a small-scale, covert CIA program launched this year, including the first deliveries of U.S.-made TOW antitank missiles. The group’s headquarters outside the village of Khan Subbul was seized by Jabhat al-Nusra overnight Saturday, after rebel fighters there surrendered their weapons and fled without a fight, according to residents in the area.

Hussam Omar, a spokesman for Harakat Hazm, refused to confirm whether American weaponry had been captured by the al-Qaeda affiliate because, he said, negotiations with Jabhat al-Nusra are underway.

Harakat Hazm, whose name means “Steadfastness Movement,” had also received small arms and ammunition alongside non-lethal aid in the form of vehicles, food and uniforms from the United States and its European and Persian Gulf Arab allies grouped as the Friends of Syria alliance. Scores of its fighters had received U.S. training in Qatar under the covert program, but it was also not possible to confirm whether any of those fighters had defected to the al-Qaeda affiliate.

Another Western-backed group, the Syrian Revolutionary Front, on Saturday gave up its bases in Jabal al-Zawiya, a collection of mountain villages that had been under the control of the pro-American warlord Jamal Maarouf since 2012. A video posted on YouTube showed Jabhat al-Nusra fighters unearthing stockpiles of weaponry at Maarouf’s headquarters in his home town of Deir Sunbul.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-backed-syria-rebels-routed-by-fighters-linked-to-al-qaeda/2014/11/02/7a8b1351-8fb7-4f7e-a477-66ec0a0aaf34_story.html

[oberliner]

10. Syria: Airstrike kills 15 al-Nusra militants in Aleppo

At least 15 suspected al-Nusra militants were killed in a coalition airstrike on the al Qaeda affiliated group’s headquarters in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo Wednesday, Aleppo’s civil defense unit said.

According to the civil defense, the U.S.-led international coalition planes targeted two buildings of the al-Nusra Front in the western village of Tawama.

Many vehicles were also left destroyed under the collapsed headquarters, it added.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/syria-airstrike-kills-15-al-nusra-militants-in-aleppo/45212

[Jesus Malverde]

11. No DOD press releases...

This war is a joke on all of us. I half expected someone to dig out a we hit the No2 commander of al nursa communique. Guess it hasn't happened.

[oberliner]

12. You asked for evidence of US-led forces striking al-Nusra

I provided two separate sources and you dismissed and/or laughed at each of them.

Not really fair to request information and respond so flippantly when it is provided.

[sulphurdunn]

5. In the Middle East,

moderate is a relative term used to describe today's ally of convenience. We can thank neoconservatism for getting us stuck in that tar-baby. If not stopped soon the neocons will start WWIII. Presently, they are the gravest threat faced by the sane people of the world.

[bemildred]

6. Or what? nt