Turkey and Al Qaeda gangs behind Syrian rebels

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

SYRIAN army units are moving to finish off the last remaining pockets of rebel resistance in Aleppo while continuing operations to against imperialist-backed rebel gangs in other parts of the country. Meanwhile the “Free Syrian Army” said it was responsible for the bomb that exploded in central Damascus on Wednesday near several military buildings and a hotel housing UN observers, wounding three people and sending a pillar of black smoke into the sky above the Syrian capital.

No UN staff were hurt in the blast, which the Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad said showed: "the criminal and barbaric nature of those who carry out these attacks — and their backers in Syria and abroad”.

Last week a captured terrorist admitted that he had received intelligence training at a secret camp run by the Turkish army. Suibeh Kanafani had travelled from Canada to join the “Free Syrian Army” in Turkey where he was trained by FSA instructors supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

And Libyan rebels who took part in the assault on Colonel Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli a year ago are now fighting alongside the Muslim Brothers and the Al Qaeda gangs in Syria.

Hussam “Sam” Najjar, whose mother was Irish, is a trained sniper who went to Libya to fight for the Nato-backed rebels under the command of another Irish-Libyan, Mahdi al Harati.

Najjar was part of the rebel unit that stormed Colonel Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli a year ago, led by Mahdi al-Harati, a militia chief from Libya’s western mountains. Najjar has now joined Harati who leads a rebel gang in Syria that includes 20 members of his Libyan unit.

A group of 50 terrorists linked to Al Qaeda were flown to Turkey in a Saudi plane this week. According to the Turkish daily Aydinlik, the Al Qaeda gunmen were then transported in two buses to “Free Syrian Army” camps on the border with Syria.

Turkish MP Mevlüt Dudu, a member of the opposition social-democratic Republican People’s Party, has denounced the Turkish government’s flagrant interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

His party has long blamed the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for fomenting the Syrian unrest that has led to the killing of thousands of civilians in the county.

Dudu, who has recently toured the border area with Syria, says that the Syrian rebels have safe houses along the Syrian-Turkish border and their members move freely across the frontier under the protection of Turkish army and intelligence. Dudu also claims that arms that Turkish ambulances are being used to smuggle arms into Syria.

The Turkish MP called upon the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reveal Turkey’s secret role in Syria, adding that the Syrian people have the right to know all facts about what is taking place in Syria and the activities of these groups in Turkey and across the border with Syria.

Last week a Turkish lawyer who defended Al Qaeda suspects in Turkey was killed when Syrian forces overran rebel positions in Aleppo. Osman Karahan was the founder of Association for the Protection of Human Law (IHADER) and had defended Lui Sakka, an alleged high-ranking al-Qaeda member. Karahan was detained in 2006 in Turkey for aiding and abetting al-Qaeda but charges were dropped due to lack of evidenc