Al Qaeda Assassinates Rival Rebel In Syria

Abu Azzam - "The Godfather of Jihad"

Kamal Hamami

Friends, 

assassination is a key instrument for al-Qaeda (AQ). Abdullah Azzam was Osama bin Laden's (UBL) mentor and the "father of global jihad". Some analysts, oncluding myself, believe UBL had Azzam assassinated because he was rival to UBL's leadership and the fact that Azzam wanted the Arab fighters to return home to their native lands and end their participation in the fighting in Afghanistan.  He was assassinated on 24 Novemeber 1989.

Below is a link to the biography of Abdullah Azzam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Yusuf_Azzam

"The Lion of Panjshir"

Another key person that AQ assassinated was Ahmad Shah Massoud, "The Lion of Panjshir". Massoud was the charismatic leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. He was assassinated by AQ on the eve of 9/11 by Osama bin Laden. The assassination of Massoud is considered to have a strong connection to the September 11 attacks in 2001 on U.S. soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people. It appeared to have been the major terrorist attack which Massoud had warned against in his speech to the European Parliament several months earlier.

I believe Osama bin Laden (UBL) ordered Massoud's assassination to help his Taliban protectors and ensure he would have their co-operation in Afghanistan. The assassins are said to have entered United Front (Northern Alliance) territory under the auspices of the Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and had his assistance in bypassing "normal security procedures."

Now, to the latest assassination. The CIA’s premier fighting group inside Syria, al-Qaeda (AQ), has turned on the Free Syrian Army, the group supposedly preferred by the United States to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.

Kamal Hamami, a member of the FSA’s Supreme Military Council, was meeting members of a rival group “to discuss battle plans” when he was assassinated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Reports indicate he was personally shot by Abu Ayman al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s Emir of the coastal region of Syria.

Louay Mekdad, FSA Supreme Command Political Coordinator, said one of Hamami’s group was set free to pass on the message that the ISIL considers the FSA heretics and that the Supreme Command is now target in AQ sights.

ISIL is described as an umbrella organization consisting of several groups composed of and supported by the Mujahideen Shura Council, AQ, Jeish al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, and others.

“Syrian rebels said on Friday the assassination of one of their top commanders by AQ-linked militants was tantamount to a declaration of war, opening a new front for the Western-backed fighters struggling against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces,” The Globe and Mail reports today.

A senior FSA commander said on condition of anonymity that his group will “wipe the floor with them,” in other words the FSA has declared it will engage in sectarian conflict with other mercenary groups attempting to depose al-Assad.

This is at best a dubious claim due to the fact the FSA is largely ineffective in the proxy war against the Syrian government. It is overshadowed by AQ and other Islamic groups. In recent weeks, hundreds of its Western supported mercenaries have defected to al-Nusra, AQ and other Salafist groups that have vowed to establish an Islamic state in Syria if they ever manage to overthrow al-Assad and his powerful military.