Syria Opinion: The Danger of Confusing "Islamists" and "Jihadists" (Khan)

Mass demonstration last month in Raqqa, soon after the city was taken by insurgent forces including Islamists

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EA Video Analysis: The "Al Qa'eda Myth" and Syria

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The commander --- a Dutch dentist of Syrian origin who called himself simply ‘Doctor’ --- was a member of the Ahrar al-Sham, the most powerful Islamist group in the vast array of factions fighting against the Syrian regime. His was a common perspective amongst the Salafi Islamists I met in northern Syria: measured, well-thought out and intellectually consistent, drawing on the realities of a war inexorably descending into factional chaos. Syria is on a knife’s edge, they told me. The regime will fall but most didn’t expect the fighting to end there. They feared a larger sectarian war and were practically begging the international community to help them prevent it.

It was a stark contrast to the few jihadists I encountered, whose only cerebral quality seemed to be their proficiency with weapons. Those men, aligned with the al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al -Nusra, spoke in terms familiar to a Western audience: global jihad, the re-establishment of the Caliphate, and, most frighteningly, perpetual war until their rule over Muslims is achieved.

Conflating the two groups is like mixing Christian fundamentalists with the Amish. And yet, Western governments continually cringe at the thought of Islamists, particularly Salafis, gaining a foothold in the various revolutions playing out in the so-called Arab Spring.

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Syria Live: Insurgent Attacks in Central Aleppo

1825 GMT: Death Toll Rises. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 75 people have been killed so far today:

36 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 11 martyrs in Quneitra; 11 in Aleppo; 6 in Homs; 4 in Daraa; 6 in Idlib; and 1 in Raqqa.

See update 1308 for a details on the casualty figures posted by the LCC.

1544 GMT: Devastation in Deir Ez Zor. Deir Ez Zor, in the east of Syria, is usually out of the international spotlight, but what's happening there is significant. Rebel groups, led by the Islamist Jabhat al Nusra, have captured most of the city. The airport, however, and a string of bases dug into the mountains, allow the regime to pummel the city. These targets have proven hard for the rebels to capture, despite their overwhelming firepower in the region.

The Guardian's Mona Mahmoud interviewed a member of Jabhat al Nusra today. He gave several interesting pieces of information about daily life there. He also commented on Syria's larger political situation, exposing a rift between Al Nusra and the main group of Syrian leadership:

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Syria 1st-Hand: Life in Islamist-Controlled Raqqa (Abouzeid)

Mass demonstration in Raqqa last Friday

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Raqqa City was once dubbed the “hotel of the revolution” because it became home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced from fighting elsewhere who sought refuge in a place considered firmly in the grip of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Earlier this month, however, the city in north central Syria, which was late to the anti-government revolt, became known for something else: It is the first and only provincial capital that Assad’s regime has completely lost — with the rebels taking control of it within the span of a week.

The regime will likely lose the entire province within days. There are only three remaining regime outposts in this vast eastern tribal area that extends all the way to the Turkish border: there’s Division 17 a few kilometers outside the city; the military airport at Tabqa about 40-to-50 kilometers away, and Brigade 93 in Ain Issa, some 70 kilometers away. All three positions are under heavy rebel attack and government counter-attack.

But here in Raqqa city, some 100 kilometers from the Turkish border crossing of Tal Abyad, the scars of war are faint. Warplanes still rumble in the air, mainly to aid the men besieged in Division 17, but, despite reports from earlier in the month, airstrikes and artillery shelling in the city are now rare.

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Syria Feature: "Hundreds" of Saudis --- and Lots of Money --- for the Insurgency (Erlich)

Footage of a Saudi fighter in Syria

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Following a circuitous route from here up through Turkey or Jordan and then crossing a lawless border, hundreds of young Saudis are secretly making their way into Syria to join extremist groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Global Post has learned.

With the tacit approval from the House of Saud, and financial support from wealthy Saudi elites, the young men take up arms in what Saudi clerics have called a “jihad,” or “holy war” against the Assad regime.

Based on a month of reporting in the region and in Washington, over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels, but the government denies any sponsoring role.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Insurgents Establish a "Buffer Zone"

Insurgents celebrate the seizure of a regime checkpoint near Ma'arat al-Numan in Idlib Province in Syria

See also Syria Analysis: Have Insurgent Victories Broken The Stalemate?
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live: Regime Advances in Homs, But Insurgents Take Key Town

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2003 GMT: Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has acknowledged responsibility for a drone aircraft shot down last weekend after flying about 55 kilometres into Israel.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the drone was Iranian-made and was shot down near the Dimona nuclear reactor.

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