Islamic Front no answer for Syria conflict
The ascendance of the Islamic Front, while contributing to the recent military defeats of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), may also be a setback for Geneva II and a political solution to the conflict.
ALEPPO, Syria — Another extraordinary week in Syria, which has seen the fortunes of the once powerful Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) take a sharp turn for the worse, sparking a bloody and bitter interfactional war among Islamist groups for supremacy over rebel territories in the north. So what prompted the allies of yesterday to commit "jihadist fratricide" today? What of the timing of these unprecedented, coordinated attacks across many fronts on ISIS positions, effectively catching them by surprise in a sucker punch that unseated them from many former strongholds?
Make no mistake, this is not a “resurgence” of the Syrian revolution, nor is it another popular uprising against a different tyrannical oppressor, as the Syrian people are now too split, demoralized and war-weary to attempt any of that.
It is simply a cutthroat struggle for power, between jihadist groups of similar ideology, distinct only in name and the identity of their backers, albeit with slightly differing methods of imposing their doctrines on the ground.
ISIS went for complete domination by force, eradicating any resistance to its authority, whether it came from civil activists, other militias or nosey journalists. Their main weapon was terror. Torture, grisly executions and ominous statements sowed fear into the hearts of the populace, which cowed and fell silent about the mounting abuses. Videos of the tortured, bound and executed bodies of opposition media activists and captured rebel fighters taken after ISIS was ousted from their headquarters in a hospital in Qadi Askar, Aleppo, illustrate vividly their mentality and ways of doing business.
