Leaked documents confirm Syrian regime’s infiltration of Al-Qaeda offshoot

2,500 trained Shia ‘volunteers’ ready to join ISIS and other ‘Sunni’ terrorist groups  

Internal Syrian state security documents leaked to the media have provided further proof that some Islamist terrorist groups fighting in Syria, particularly the Al-Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS), have been coordinating with the Syrian regime and serving its agenda against other Syrian opposition factions.

One important document is a letter signed by colonel Haydar Haydar, the head of the ‘security committee’ in the town of Nabl, near Aleppo, and addressed to major-general Ali Mamlouk, the head of National Security Office. It reveals arrangements for training and arming hundreds of Shia volunteers, who are said to be “ready to fight on frontlines or join the ranks of Islamist groups.”

“We already have 150 especially trained volunteers,” the letter says, “in addition to 600 hundred who underwent [normal] military training while serving their military service.”

A list of the names of over 200 fighters from the predominantly Shia towns of Nabl and Zahraa is enclosed with the letter.

“Volunteers keep coming to defend their homeland,” the letter adds. “We expect their number to reach 2,500 when weapons are made available.”

The trained volunteers are said to be “ready to carry out any task assigned to them within these [Islamist] groups, particularly in light of the good results that this method has achieved in our area recently, which is implemented in coordination with the concerned parties in the northern areas.”

Nabl and Zahraa occupy a strategic location because they allow regime forces and the militias fighting alongside them to control the Aleppo highway. This, according to the letter, enables them to “go in and out of Iraq, in coordination with our allies on the Iraqi side, to move fighters and equipment.”

Significantly, the leaked letter reveals that the Syrian regime’s security apparatus had deeply infiltrated and used Islamist armed groups as a counter-revolution tactics.

“We now have many members and strong leaders within the [Islamic] State in Iraq and Shaam in the northern region in general,” the letter says. “They can facilitate our new volunteers’ joining the ranks of the group by recommending them and guaranteeing that no suspicions about them are raised.” This, the letter adds, “will guarantee detailed and constant information about the armed men’s movements, their numbers, equipment and plans.”

“Over the past period, through our communication within the group and in coordination with the concerned parties in the area, we have been able to stop some operations by the [opposition] armed men against military locations. [This is due to] the group’s dominance among armed groups in the areas outside the state’s control.”

The letter then highlight the difficulty that Iraqi pro-regime fighters are facing when joining Islamist groups because of their names and religious sect (Shia). So the letter requests a number of Syrian ID cards as a solution, in addition to requesting that the salaries of the volunteers are raised and that they are provided with all sort of weapons and vehicles.

Source: http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&issueno=12911&article=767159

Read also our report on how the Iranian regime has been facilitating al-Qaeda’s activities in Syria:
http://www.naameshaam.org/en/is-the-iranian-government-supporting-both-sides-of-the-war-in-syria/
and how this compares to the Iranian regime’s public discourse on Syria:
http://www.naameshaam.org/en/al-qaeda-syrias-civil-war-and-the-iranian-media/

See also this informative interview by Al-Hayat with a Free Syrian Army commander about the relationship between ISIS and the Syrian regime, about the former’s trading grains stocks and oil with the latter and other important issues: http://tinyurl.com/pneorf2

EDITOR’S COMMENT:
If there is anyone who still believes that the ongoing war in Syria is a religious one (between the Shia and the Sunna or whatever) please open your eyes and read these reports. The Syrian and Iranian regimes don’t give a toss about religion. They are just use it, as they’ve always done, to serve their unpopular political agendas.

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