Syrian terrorists are uniting with al-Qaeda

The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on April 9 announced the unification with the Syrian Jabhat an-Nusra movement ("Victory Front") for the purpose of a "holy war" (Jihad) to create an "Islamic State of Iraq and Sham" (Sham is Syria's ancient name).

"The time has come to announce to the people of Sham and the whole world that Jabhat an-Nusra is nothing more than a continuation of the Islamic State of Iraq. This is part of it," said al-Baghdadi. According to him, from now on the "Islamic State of Iraq" will be renamed as the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria", and Jabhat an-Nusra will be part of al-Qaeda.

The fact of integration with al-Qaeda was confirmed by Muhammad al-Julani - head of the Islamic Jabhat an-Nusra terrorist group, which is the core of the Free Syria Army (FSA) being at war against the Syrian authorities. In his appeal on the Internet he said that his subordinate Mujahideens took an oath on the Koran to be subordinate to the current leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

According to the Syrian military, in the ranks of the Islamic Jabhat an-Nusra terrorist group more than six thousand militants are fighting, the backbone of which are foreign mercenaries from Arab countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Turkey and a number of European countries. An essential part of militants are Palestinians, citizens of Russia and former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Mujahideens of the "front" are characterized by the greatest cruelty not only in relation to their opponent - the Syrian government army, but also in relation to the civilian population of the country. Hostage taking, demolition of civilian objects, mockery of the living and the dead are the favorite forms of action to intimidate the Syrian government forces and civilian population.

It should be noted that in December 2012, the U.S. DOJ has enrolled the Jabhat an-Nusra group on the list of terrorist organizations, closely connected with the al-Qaeda international organization. However, turning a blind eye to this fact, the American officials in the Department of State are increasingly making statements about the need to increase military-technical assistance to the Syrian opposition.

According to Arab political observers, the formal statement on the Syrian opposition's integration with al-Qaeda will not cause any significant reaction from the United States and its European partners, who have embarked on radical change of the political regime in Syria, and are willing to use any means to achieve goals. Removal from power of the president Bashar al-Assad and his supporters would certainly undermine Russian influence in this country, as in the Middle East in the whole. Which is actually sought by Washington.