Al-Qaeda-linked ‘rebels’ in Syria say they ‘love Israel’. USA gave them billions in weapons & support
The US spent billions over years arming and training militants in Syria, many linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The extremist “rebels” who took over the country told the Israeli media they “love Israel”.
Ben Norton
2024-12-06
The United States spent billions over years arming and training militants in Syria, many linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Current US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan admitted back in 2012 that “AQ [Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria”.
In December 2024, armed extremists overthrew the Syrian government and seized power in the capital Damascus, in an operation sponsored by NATO member Turkey.
This assault was led by a rebranded Al-Qaeda militia that espouses a fanatical Salafi-jihadist ideology.
Some of the Al-Qaeda-linked “rebels” who now rule Syria told the Israeli media that they “love Israel”. They vowed to establish a new pro-Western regime in the country.
Israel has for years given weapons and other forms of support to extremist “rebels” in Syria, including Al-Qaeda. They successfully toppled the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who had refused to recognize Israel and had provided military aid to resistance groups in the region.
Rebranded Al-Qaeda takes over Syria
The Salafi-jihadist militants who seized Syria’s second-biggest city Aleppo in late November, and subsequently took over Damascus on December 8, were portrayed sympathetically in Western media as “rebels”, but they were led by rebranded Al-Qaeda.
The main armed group that conquered Syria is called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which emerged out of the country’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra (also known as the Nusra Front). This was previously the largest branch of Al-Qaeda in the world.
HTS superficially distanced itself from Al-Qaeda as part of a Western-backed public relations campaign to depict itself as more “moderate”. Neoconservative think tanks in Washington have whitewashed HTS leaders as “diversity-friendly jihadists”, but they still maintain the same fascist ideology.
In fact, despite this cynical rebranding effort, the US government officially recognized HTS as a terrorist organization in 2018, adding the extremist group to its previous designation of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Terrorist designations like this, nevertheless, have not stopped the US and its allies in Israel, Turkey, and the Gulf monarchies from providing support to Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria.
HTS had previously established a de facto government in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, where it ruled with an iron fist, with direct assistance from NATO member Turkey.
The rebranded Al-Qaeda militia used Idlib as its base of operations to launch the assault on neighboring Aleppo in November 2024. Major French media outlet AFP reported that Syrian “opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey had given a green light to the offensive”.
After taking Aleppo, the extremists moved south and captured the capital, overthrowing the government.
Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit for the victory of the rebranded Al-Qaeda death squad.
Netanyahu proudly stated that the fall of Assad was “a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah”.
Jake Sullivan: “AQ is on our side in Syria”
The fact that Syrian Al-Qaeda has been allied with the West was acknowledged by none other than Jake Sullivan, who serves as national security advisor in the Joe Biden administration.
When Barack Obama was president, Sullivan was a top aide for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 2012, he used his State Department email to send Clinton a message — which was later made public by WikiLeaks.
“AQ is on our side in Syria”, Sullivan wrote, using an acronym for Al-Qaeda.
US CIA spent billions arming, training militants in Syria, linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Extremist "rebels" in Aleppo and Idlib "love Israel".
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