As the Syrian military continues to push its offensive around Damascus, surrounding rebel-held suburbs and sieging them, two new deals were made this weekend to see rebels evacuated out of those areas and given passage further north.
The evacuations saw rebels agreeing to hand in their heavy weapons to the government before getting passage to the north. The larger of the two areas was the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan al-Shih, in which an estimated 12,000 people live.
Perhaps the more unique deal was in al-Tal, however, as while the deal will see the armed rebels all evacuated from the area, the military has agreed not to enter the town even after this so long as the area remains free of heavy weapons in the future.
Syria has completed several previous deals in the area, as the once significant collection of rebel territory around Eastern Ghouta has shrunk, and the government could soon find itself without major rebel presences anywhere immediately around the capital city’s metro area.
At the same time, all these deals are shipping large numbers of rebels into the Idlib Province, already controlled by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front. This appears to be greatly increasing the size of their coalition, and reducing the chances that this area will be recovered militarily any time soon.
Actually would be an easier task of defeating them if you gather them all in one place…it’s better than playing whack-a-mole across the whole country…
Tottaly agree. They are already (in Idlib) fighting each other. Some groups are starting to realize that with the core Al-Nusra being slowly defeated by theit territory being divided and shrunk that they will not have either organizational or financial support — and will lose ability to arm themselves. Now they are firmly hemmed in by Turkey on one side, Kurds and Syrian Army on the other. Some goups want to join Turkey to fight against Kurds while other want to surrender. Al-Nusra has already hit some of the disenters — and Russian airstrikes are hitting Al-Nusra in Idlib already. But it is even more important that the communities reconcile — they sign reconciliation agreement and then manage local government with or without presence of Army. There are already over 500 such agreements signed. In fact Army prefers when local communities are capable of managing local governents — and retains presence only if a community feels still endangered. This practice of removing militants and empowering local governments has freed up the army and allowed the reconstitution of local police deparments. What most people do not know about Syrian conflict is the role of massive exodus of Sunnis from Iraq to Syria following the fall of Saddam Hussein. The sudden loss of jobs and loss of security resulted in the millions moving out of Iraq. That created a strain on Syrian economy and the opportunity for Saudi Arabia to see the Shia numbers in Syria decline relative to Sunni. The help for refugees came along with Wahhabi indoctrination and religious leaders. Poor and angry they were easily convinced to become “true believers” — or Salafis. It did not take long for conflicts to manifest themselves between Syrians and Iraqi “true believers”. The Arab Spring provided the opportunity to arm Salafi groups. And at that time many Syrian Sunnis became radicalized. The radicalization started to have all the characteristics of cult behavior. And this also
explains the attraction of the cult to young, angry, marginalized or mentally disabled. It promises simple living, dedicated to religion and fighting for faith. The same method of spreading cult has been used in Checnya, Bosnia and Kosovo. Today in Kosovo
practically all mosques are converted to Salafism from Turkish Sufism. Problems there have not started yet — but are sure to follow in Due course. Egypt has millions of Salafis who were the cause of Morsi’s removal. The spread of the cult under our very nose – and possibly with our help — is now the real danger to Europe. Millions of refugees and economic migrants from as far as Afghanistan and Africa. The disruption to European communities will provoke reaction and the refugees — many already radicalized — will be a threat for years to come. It does not help that the bureaucratized Europe has no response. The only sanity is coming from places like Hungary — but bureaucrats are doing everything possible to stem the return to politics of national interest. Globalist goals are in danger — the danger they brought upon themselves toying with the “birth pangs” of the new Middle East. M