Logo Wide

Maarouf: Al-Qaeda Entered Syria to Keep Assad in Power

Opposition groups prioritized fighting the FSA instead of the regime
Maarouf: Al-Qaeda Entered Syria to Keep Assad in Power

The commander of the Syrian Rebel Front, Jamal Maarouf, has told Elaf that the regime is currently relieved, as some enemies in the Syrian revolution are preventing its fall.

 

Maarouf was commenting on the assassination of the leader of the SRF, Mohammed al-Akhras, this week in the Turkish city of Mersin, after he was kidnapped, tortured and fatally stabbed in his back and face.

 

"If we look back to 2011 to mid-2012, we will see that the regime was in a very bad situation; the Free Syrian Army managed to liberate more than half of Syria – the liberated area now under the control of ISIS and Nusra. Within a year and a half, after 2012, the flags of Al-Qaeda were raised in some of the liberated areas, where these organizations founded their training camps and participated in the battles for the Free Syrian Army under the pretext of supporting the Syrian people", Maarouf said.

 

"The big surprise was that when these fundamentalist organizations became stronger, they denied the FSA participation in their battles. They accused the FSA of being an agent for the regime and an apostate – they actually prioritized fighting the FSA instead of fighting the regime. They started to liberate the already liberated areas, and they did not carry out any military actions against the regime, except in some areas that fell due to sieges imposed by the FSA.

 

“For example, in Wadi ad-Daif, where the FSA besieged regime forces for more than a year and destroyed its tanks. The FSA had sacrificed more than 500 martyrs on the outskirts of Wadi ad-Daif, and then Nusra liberated it. We didn’t see the bodies of regime troops or pictures of dozens of tanks stationed in the region, or pictures of the prisoners. Where are those prisoners? Where are the five million liters of fuel?” Maarouf asked.

 

Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer

Helpful keywords