Syria rebels claim split from opposition group
The video message poses a new setback for international efforts to unify Assad’s enemies.
beirut » Several dozen rebel groups in southern Syria have broken with the main political opposition group in exile, a local commander said in a video posted Wednesday, dealing a potential new setback toWestern efforts to unifymoderates battling President Bashar Assad’s regime.
TheTurkey-based SyrianNationalCoalition, the political arm of the Free Syrian Army rebel group, has long struggled to win respect and recognition from the fighters. It is widely seen as cut off from events on the ground.
In the video, a rebel in fatigues reads a statement with about two dozen fighters standing behind him, some holding a banner with FSA emblems. FSA spokesman Louay Mikdad said the video is authentic and identified the man speaking as a captain in one of the rebel groups, Anwar al-Sunna, which posted the video.
The rebel in the video says political opposition leaders have failed to represent those trying to bring down Assad.
“We announce thatwewithdrawourrecognition from any political group that claims to represents us, first among them theCoalitionandits leadership, whichhave relinquished the principles of thehomeland and the revolution,” he says in the video.
He names 66 groups that he says support his statement. The man suggests rebel groups would reorganize, saying, “We are unifying the forces of the revolution militarily and politically,” but he does not explain further.
It could not be confirmed independently whether all the groups named in the video support the statement. Noah Bonsey, an expert on Syrian rebels at the International Crisis Group think tank, said one of the larger groups named in the video did not post the statement on its Facebook page.
Nevertheless, FSA spokesman Louay Mikdad said the video should serve as a wake-up call to the Coalition.
“We respect what (the rebels) are saying,” he said. “We think our brothers in the Coalition … should listen to the people inside, and they should open a direct dialogue with them.”
He said the FSA commander, Gen. Salim Idris, would try to speak to some of the groups named in the video. Coalition spokesmanKhaled Saleh did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
Hundreds of groups of fighters operate in Syria, often with considerable local autonomy. Shifting alliances are commonin a chaotic battlefield. Rebel groups with a strong Islamic orientation, from moderates to hardliners, “appear to be aligning themselves politically, much more closely than they have previously,” said Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center.