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Islamic State gaining ground on Golan border

Oct 3, 2015 8:26 pm By Robert Spencer

They will advance even farther if Assad is removed. And as for the “moderate rebels,” they were never all that moderate. The Free Syrian Army has collaborated with al-Qaeda and terrorized Christians in Syria.

Syrian rebels8

“Islamic State gaining ground on Golan border as moderate rebels wither,” by Elhanan Miller, Times of Israel, October 1, 2015:

As Russian airstrikes on Wednesday and Thursday targeted rebel groups in central and northern Syria, many of them reportedly unaffiliated with the Islamic State, Islamist groups in the south are growing stronger, with IS fighters now operating openly near the border with Israel, an opposition spokesman said on Thursday.

Speaking to The Times of Israel from Jordan, where he serves from within the joint Western-Arab command center in Amman known as MOC, the spokesman of Free Syrian Army units active in the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra said that an estimated 500-700 Islamic State fighters are currently active in the towns of Jamlah and Ash-Shajarah, adjacent to the Israeli border in the southern Golan Heights.

Further east, moderate forces are attempting to push back IS fighters trying to occupy al-Lajjah, an area north of the town of Basr al-Harir.

Western training for moderate rebel fighters in Jordan has not taken place in five months, he added, and no ammunition or weaponry has reached the Free Syrian Army on the southern front in three months.

“The current situation is very bad,” the spokesman said. “No battles are taking place [with Assad forces] in our sector because there’s no ammunition.” While the Assad regime is maintaining its hold on the city of Daraa, near the Jordanian border, the surrounding villages are largely held by rebel forces.

In addition to the decline in ammunition, salaries have also been cut by 60 percent to Free Syrian Army fighters, the spokesman noted. An average FSA combatant earns just $70 a month, as compared to $300 earned by Islamist Nusra Front combatants or the salary of IS fighters, which can reach $500. The latter two organizations are classified as terror groups by the US and other Western states.

“The more Western states fall short in providing support to us, the more they help ISIS and Nusra,” he said. “If the donor states do not take a firm stand, within two months most fighters in the southern front will switch to Nusra or ISIS. The lack of salaries and ammunition is humiliating them, and they won’t take it much longer.”

Last year, an entire fighting faction, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, owning 40 tanks and armored vehicles, pledged allegiance to IS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he noted….

“The young fighters are attracted by these organizations, which claim to represent religion,” he said. “They believe that anyone speaking for religion is truthful and wants to liberate the country, when in fact the opposite is true. They merely use Islam as a guise but have no connection to it.”

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Israel, Syria Tagged With: al-Lajjah, Daraa, Quneitra


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Comments

  1. Kevin says

    Oct 3, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    And yet the official position of Israel is that Assad must be removed from power? Why?

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 3, 2015 at 10:56 pm

      Assad is pretty ugly, too, Kevin–and he has backed the murder of Israelis with his support of Hizb’allah.

      That being said, you are quite right that his Sunni Jihad opponents represent an even greater threat to Israel.

    • umbra says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 8:53 am

      Israel wants assad, iran, isis, al nusra and any other islamic jihad group out of syria. She wants syria to be another jordan. This is impossible either with assad or any realistic alternative (isis or another jihad group with the military muscle). The fsa is a feeble fighting force under the nominal command of the even more feeble secular syrian political opposition. Israel wants that secular opposition to take power in syria. However, with the power play of sunni gulf states (along with turkey) versus shia iran, only islamic jihadi groups (sunni and shia) plus assad’s forces are getting real arms and support. The syrian opposition and its fsa are both decorations. Neither will have a real future in syria as it stands today, even with joint Russian/US military intervention. The place is too islamic (too many fervent ROP types).

    • Sunshine says

      Oct 6, 2015 at 7:28 pm

      It’s all a big game. Israel is working with Assad under the table but can’t openly support him because of Iran’s implication and U.S. policy which is pro-Iran.
      Egypt is working with Israel, Jordan is working with Israel, Russia is working with Israel, Saudi Arabia is working with Israel and Assad is working with all of them.
      A big political game all around…

  2. Rick Ash says

    Oct 3, 2015 at 9:11 pm

    To keep from gassing another 200,000 of his own people for just one reason. There are dozens more. Search for his name, study his warped philosophies. He is a MAD MAN!

    • Don McKellar says

      Oct 3, 2015 at 9:24 pm

      The claim that Assad gassed his own people in 2013 was a lie, a mere proclamation from the US State Department to justify war, exactly like the mere proclamation that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

      Now what?

    • Kevin says

      Oct 3, 2015 at 10:30 pm

      Have you never heard of a false-flag? Not only was there never any evidence presented to prove that Assad gassed his own people – it would have been a suicidal move on the part of Assad after Obama drew his red line. If there had been any evidence Assad was behind the attack Obama would not have hesitated to take him out but he knows that rebels obtained chemical weapons from Libya.

      • The Other Ron says

        Oct 4, 2015 at 8:36 am

        Do you really believe that? Obama’s record on military followthrough seems questionable to me.

    • Sunshine says

      Oct 6, 2015 at 7:30 pm

      I agree with Don McKellar.

  3. mortimer says

    Oct 3, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    When Mohammedans take up arms, they become more Mohammedan by imitating Mohammed, his depravity, his amorality and his atrocities.

  4. gravenimage says

    Oct 3, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    Islamic State gaining ground on Golan border
    ………………………….

    Well, this is terrifying–putting Israel under even more threat.

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 9:23 am

      Well, this is terrifying–putting Israel under even more threat.

      Remember that it was just a few short years ago that the Knesset was seriously contemplating the idea of ceding the Golan back to Syria in exchange for peace. Apparently the Jews had learned a lesson from giving back the Sinai, the Gaza and the West Bank. The formula is simple: concede land to Moslems and you get peace in return. So why not?

      • Harry_the_Horrible says

        Oct 4, 2015 at 1:17 pm

        You forgot the /sarcasm tag.

        • gravenimage says

          Oct 5, 2015 at 5:56 am

          APF don’t need no stinking sarc tag–that’s not how he rolls.

          But yes–he is definitely being ironic here.

          But it *is* true that Israel under Shimon Peres was talking about ceding the Golan Heights to Syria back in 2011–imagine how much worse things would be right now if they had:

          “Peres Says Israel Willing To Cede Golan to Syria”

          http://matzav.com/peres-says-israel-willing-to-cede-golan-to-syria/

          Just like the madness of ceding Gaza….

      • Dr. Divinity says

        Oct 4, 2015 at 9:56 pm

        Come on Israel…take back everything God promised you.

      • dajjal says

        Oct 5, 2015 at 6:13 am

        Unholy Koranus 9.29, 7.157, 13.41, 2.180… Land or not; no peace while the world is infested with Islam. Koranimals do not want peace, they demand conquest.

  5. Angemon says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 1:17 am

    Western training for moderate rebel fighters in Jordan has not taken place in five months

    One can not train what does not exist.

  6. Buraq says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 2:07 am

    To be honest, if any of these clowns attack Israel, they will regret it. Look what happened to Hamas in Gaza. In fact, in a funny sort of way, I hope ISIS make the gigantic error of taking on the IDF. Few will survive to tell the tale.

    • Kevin says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 4:01 am

      “few will survive to tell the tale”

      And this is what makes ISIS (and Jihadists in general) so dangerous. They don’t care if they “live to tell the tale”. Death is what they seek – Islam is a death cult – they are all after their 72 virgins.

      What would happen to Israel if Assad was toppled and ISIS and its army of suicidal jihadists took over Syria? Fortunately this seems less likely now that Vladimir has come to the rescue.

      • umbra says

        Oct 4, 2015 at 9:04 am

        The real bonus for the IDF in any military action against isis is that there will be no pallywood factor. Hence, the IDF can pound isis any which way it sees fit – no warning, anytime, anywhere. Effective and efficient jihadi liquidation machine.

  7. Jeremiah says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 2:31 am

    When will they realize that we are fighting Islam?

  8. dlbrand says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 2:46 am

    “The more Western states fall short in providing support to us, the more they help ISIS and Nusra,” he said. “If the donor states do not take a firm stand, within two months most fighters in the southern front will switch to Nusra or ISIS.”

    Can we all say blackmail? Can we all say, and of course fork out and pay, Jizyah?

    • dajjal says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 4:20 am

      A ‘slime’s a ‘slime for alla’ that; who cares what color is his hat? Sunni & Shia hate us more than they hate each other. Regardless of tribe and sect, they are all ‘slimes, duty bound to kill and torment infidels. Whatever aid we give any of them will eventually be used against us.

      How deftly they play the good rebel/bad rebel game and whipsaw our feckless ‘leaders’ who could not fight their way out of a wet paper bag if they wanted to.

      We are long overdue for a leader who recognizes the enemy and the damnable doctrines that motivate is. Let us see to it that our nominee and next President will throw PC to the winds and take effective action to destroy their Iman. We need a leader who will show the ‘slimes that Allah is not God,. Moe was a false prophet and they are destined for the fire, not the garden.

      • roger Woodhouse says

        Oct 4, 2015 at 4:35 am

        Amen to that!

      • dlbrand says

        Oct 5, 2015 at 1:24 am

        “dajjal” stated: “Whatever aid we give any of them” (followers, or any color, of Muhammad’s traditions), “will eventually be used against us.”

        Indeed indeed.

        But, why, my dear friend, should that stop us, from, by the truck load, with our crap-loads, of our jizyay, “laying” our treasures on the line, for the chance of, therewith, purchasing Islamic friendship—speaking there as the fool I am far from–???

        Dajjal stated: “How deftly they play the good rebel/bad rebel game and whipsaw our feckless ‘leaders’ who could not fight their way out of a wet paper bag if they wanted to.”

        Indeed, indeed, my friend.

        “We are long overdue for a leader who recognizes the enemy and the damnable doctrines that motivate is [sic: IS].”

        Amen and amen to that, dajjal, and to your statements above, across the board.

        • dajjal says

          Oct 5, 2015 at 4:14 am

          Poor vision and worse typing skill. I meant it, not is.

  9. Rikki H says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 3:22 am

    Isn’t anyone freaked out that the US are training extremists, the onetthing we have going for us is that they do not know how to fight effectively as our armies do. Training them with our tactics is as bad as giving up intel and military secrets to the enemy. Even if they’re presenting themselves as moderate, or even if they ARE moderate (which we have seen can quickly change in a split second) is a bad idea. The last thing we need is an enemy that’s infiltrating our society and we’re going to be fighting for the rest of the century, knowing US marine and Army fighting tactics for the love of God!

    • Kevin says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 3:50 am

      People should be freaked out unfortunately most people swallow the propaganda that is fed to them by the mainstream media and the treasonous politicians on the left and right (e.g. Obama / McCain) . Too few people have asked the question “what is a “moderate” rebel”. The answer is a “moderate” rebel is a SUNNI Muslim Jihadist who is trying to topple a secular leader – who is a member of a religious minority (Alawites) and who has protected up to 2 Million Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities inside Syria.

  10. Baucent says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 3:35 am

    “The young fighters are attracted by these organizations, which claim to represent religion,”

    This is the key point. The “moderates” really don’t have an ideological issue with Islamic State. They haven’t ruled out the possibility of joining them if it’s pragmatic to do so.

    And people like John McCain want to send surface to air missiles to these rebel factions. What the West needs to understand is they may be a friend now but later they could be an enemy.

  11. cs says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 5:24 am

    At the moment these goat hampers do not worry me at all, the pales are much more of a concern. Israel would spray them with white phosporus without even having second thoughts.

  12. duh_swami says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 6:07 am

    A ‘Moderate’ Mahoundian is an apostate..It would be fine to arm and train apostates if you can find any…They often have a short life span…

  13. Baucent says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 6:36 am

    That ISIS is creeping along the border with Israel and potentially recruiting from other Islamist groups raises the stacks significantly. Under what circumstances would ISIS launch an attack on Israel and what might be the Israeli response to such an attack?
    Saddam Hussein used the Israel card in the first Gulf war, launching Scud missiles in an attempt to break the coalition of Arab countries away from the Western nations.
    Imagine ISIS firing rockets into Israel. That could put a cat among the pigeons. If Israel retaliated with a strike on Syrian territory all hell could break loose.

    • judi says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 6:57 am

      Gd forbid. That would be the catalyst for WW3.

  14. sidney penny says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 8:44 am

    “The more Western states fall short in providing support to us, the more they help ISIS and Nusra,” he said. “If the donor states do not take a firm stand, within two months most fighters in the southern front will switch to Nusra or ISIS. ”

    Oh,how convenient!

    Sounds like blackmail to me.

  15. Mirren10 says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 8:54 am

    OT:

    http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/first-hajj-stampede-bodies-arrive-in-iran/ar-AAf3MMX

    Has such a thing ever happened at Lourdes, or Canterbury ?

    Nope.

    Even when they’re on a supposed ‘pilgrimage’, they can’t stop murdering each other. What a curse to the human race they are.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 5, 2015 at 6:03 am

      Yeah–and it’s not just stampedes, Mirren. Sometimes Muslims on “pilgrimage” just murder each other outright:

      “402 Die in Clashes of Saudis, Iranians : Killings at Shrine in Mecca Trigger Attacks on Four Embassies in Tehran”

      http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-02/news/mn-971_1_saudi-arabia

  16. John Smith says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 10:56 am

    ‘The lack of salaries and ammunition is humiliating them, and they won’t take it much longer’…sounds like they are more mercenary than ‘freedom fighters’ to me.

  17. Enfant Terrible says

    Oct 4, 2015 at 7:08 pm

    ““If the donor states do not take a firm stand, within two months most fighters in the southern front will switch to Nusra or ISIS……..“The young fighters are attracted by these organizations, which claim to represent religion,” he said. “They believe that anyone speaking for religion is truthful and wants to liberate the country, when in fact the opposite is true. They merely use Islam as a guise but have no connection to it.” –

    So, what motivates these “moderate” fighters, “freedom” fighters? What’s the basis of their conviction? Surprise ! It doesn’t seem to be “democracy,” or what Westerners associate with “freedom.” (So much for the “Arab Spring.)

    • dajjal says

      Oct 4, 2015 at 8:18 pm

      “My arse should be on the throne; the whole damn works be my own.” The same motivation most rebvels have: powerlust. A ‘slime’s a ‘slime for alla’ that! ‘Slime is just a religious beard for powerlust.

  18. Mark A says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 1:32 am

    Can’t say the Free Syrian Army inspires much confidence if many of their people are willing to desert to ISIS, al-Qaeda or al-Nusra.

    If an entire FSA unit like “the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, owning 40 tanks and armored vehicles” is willing to desert to ISIS with all its equipment, including those 40 tanks and armoured vehicles, they don’t seem like a great bet for us to be backing.

  19. Geia says

    Oct 9, 2015 at 10:17 am

    It is Islamic ideology ITSeLF that is the root cause of terrorism and violence in the world, helped by the likes of Obama and his ilk, who are either total morons, immoral asprofis from oil trump everything! West mus become independent of fossil fuels and make Muslim oil, which finances terrorism, irrelevant in our lives.

    Also, start using mosques for inviting jihad and creating soldiers for a!la

  20. dumbledoresarmy says

    Oct 11, 2015 at 7:19 am

    Behind the scenes, I bet everybody with a milligram of common-sense, all over the Intelligence services and defence forces of the entire Infidel world, is devoutly thanking G-d/ the gods/ whatever, that A/ Israel is in command of the Golan Heights – the Military High Ground in that part of the relevant geography, having annexed it rather than doing some suicidal ‘land for peace’ deal with Syria; and B/ that Israel blew an enormous hole in Syria’s little nuke project, not so long ago.

    If Islamic State try to make a move, it is ISRAEL that commands the high ground.

    And that nuke project is not there for Islamic State to take over and use. Sure there might be some bits and pieces here and there…but not what they would have been able to seize, had Israel NOT carried out their devastating little raid a few years ago.

    Same goes for *Saddam Hussein’s* incipient nuke project, which Israel *ALSO* killed a-borning, even longer ago. Nobody now has to worry about Islamic State getting hold of *that*, either.

    It’s just a terrible, terrible pity that way back when everybody first began to get an inkling that *Iran* had a nuke project, that the USA didn’t assist Israel to blow *that* into a great big smoking hole in the ground – or series of smoking holes in the ground. The world would be a much safer place now, if that had been enabled to happen.

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