Islamic Front and Al Nusrah Front promote 'liberation' of border crossing
In a series of posts on their official Twitter feeds, the Islamic Front and the Al Nusrah Front are promoting the "liberation" of the Quneitra border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights. The Islamic Front is a coalition of several rebel groups, including Ahrar al Sham, which is linked to al Qaeda. The Al Nusrah Front is al Qaeda's official branch inside Syria.
Both organizations have produced video tours of Quneitra, showcasing the defeat of Bashar al Assad's forces and their control over the area. The alliance of Islamist and jihadist groups launched a military offensive in Quneitra earlier this week.
The video shown above was released on one of Al Nusrah's official Twitter feeds. Toward the beginning of the video, a narrator says that "your brothers" in Al Nusrah will attack Quneitra because it is controlled by Assad's army and is a "strategic point" connecting Syria to the Golan Heights, which has been "occupied by the Jews" for nearly 50 years.
A montage of footage showing Al Nusrah's fighters assaulting Quneitra is then played. In one scene, a jihadist destroys a poster of Bashar al Assad. Al Nusrah's black banner is then raised over a Syrian government building.
About two minutes into the video an Al Nusrah Front leader, accompanied by several fighters, claims credit for the successful raid, referring to his organization as both Al Nusrah and as Al Qaeda in the Land of the Levant.
"We give the Islamic ummah news of the liberation of the Quneitra crossing, the Syrian-Zionist crossing, by the lions of monotheism from the Al Nusrah Front -- Al Qaeda in the Land of the Levant -- and their mujahideen brothers in other Islamic factions," the leader says, according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal.
Al Nusrah's "mujahideen brothers in other Islamic factions" include members of the Islamic Front. A separate video, released by the Islamic Front, offers viewers a two-minute, 14-second tour of Quneitra after its "liberation."
Just over two minutes into the video, a brief scene of what appears to be a UN peacekeepers' outpost is shown.
Syrian rebels captured 43 UN peacekeepers during the raid on Quneitra, but thus far the UN has not named the groups responsible for their detention. It is not immediately clear what the purpose of the Islamic Front's footage is. A screen shot of the scene can be seen immediately below.
Ansar Jerusalem beheads 4 Egyptians accused of being Israeli 'spies'
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A masked Ansar Jerusalem terrorist is shown standing behind four blindfolded Egyptian civilians, who were accused of being Israeli "spies." All four were beheaded later in the same video.
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Ansar Jerusalem, (also known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), has released a video displaying the graphic beheadings of four Egyptian civilians the group accused of being "spies" for Israel. According to Ansar Jerusalem, Israel has supposedly killed the group's members in cross-border drone strikes launched in the Sinai, including an alleged bombing on July 23. Egyptian government officials have denied Israeli involvement.
The video was first released on Ansar Jerusalem's official Twitter feed, which has since been taken down.
At the beginning of the video, a masked terrorist is shown reading a statement while standing behind the four civilians, who are kneeling and blindfolded. The video then cuts to images of slain Ansar Jerusalem members and a photo of a burned vehicle, which the group says was struck by an Israeli missile.
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A vehicle Ansar Jersualem claims was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.
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Much of the video is then devoted to showing the four men's "confessions." They say that they gave information to Israeli intelligence in return for payments. Their confessions are made under clear duress, and should not be accepted at face value.
After the footage of the four purported confessions is aired, the video returns to the scene of the masked terrorist and others standing behind them. The men are then beheaded and their decapitated heads are placed on their corpses.
In the past, Ansar Jerusalem has published videos showing members of Egyptian security forces and other alleged spies being executed. But the new video marks an escalation in the violent tactics the group is willing to broadcast in its propaganda.
The video comes just over one week after the Islamic State, which claims to rule over a "caliphate" stretching over large portions of Iraq and Syria, released a video featuring the beheading of American photojournalist James Foley.
Ansar Jerusalem's own execution video is comparable to the Islamic State's, and the group may have decided to release it after Foley's death received so much international attention.
Earlier this year, an Ansar Jerusalem leader voiced his support for the Islamic State. And the Egyptian press has published rumors that Ansar Jerusalem has sworn bayat (an oath of allegiance) to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the Islamic State's emir. But these rumors are, thus far, false. Ansar Jerusalem did not publicly endorse, let alone swear allegiance to, Baghdadi after his subordinates claimed in late June that he now rules as "Caliph Ibrahim." It is likely that some members of Ansar Jerusalem do support the Islamic State, but the extent of that support is unclear. And there are other indications that the group is allied with al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda avoids beheading videos
Al Qaeda has shied away from videos such as the ones produced by the Islamic State and now Ansar Jerusalem. In 2005, for example, Ayman al Zawahiri wrote a letter to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was then the head of al Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi was notorious for his barbaric executions, which were recorded for the world to see. But Zawahiri argued that such tactics, while they may be justified, were counterproductive when it comes to building popular support for the jihadist ideology.
"Among the things which the feelings of the Muslim populace who love and support you will never find palatable ... are the scenes of slaughtering the hostages," Zawahiri wrote to Zarqawi. Zawahiri continued: "You shouldn't be deceived by the praise of some of the zealous young men and their description of you as the shiekh of the slaughterers, etc. They do not express the general view of the admirer and the supporter of the resistance in Iraq, and of you in particular by the favor and blessing of God."
Zawahiri did not argue that Zarqawi should spare his hostages; he simply didn't want Zarqawi to carry on with his over-the-top executions, which sicken the stomachs of even potential supporters.
"[W]e can kill the captives by bullet," Zawahiri wrote, because "[t]hat would achieve that which is sought after without exposing ourselves to the questions and answering to doubts." Simply put, Zawahiri argued, "We don't need this." Zawahiri comprehended that "more than half of" the jihadists' "battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media," and unspeakable acts of barbarism can be a liability, no matter how justifiable they are from the jihadists' perspective.
Al Qaeda and its various branches have executed hostages and they will continue to do so. In 2002, for instance, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed beheaded Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. And al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has executed hostages as well. However, al Qaeda's senior leaders do not think that graphic snuff videos are an effective means for promulgating their message.
The difference in tactics can be seen in how al Qaeda has handled the captivity of Warren Weinstein, an American who has been held by the group since 2011, and the recent release of Peter Theo Curtis by the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.
Earlier this month, al Qaeda released a message directed at Weinstein's family. "We are not interested in retaining the prisoner in our protection; we are only seeking to exchange him in return for the fulfillment of our demands that we have conveyed," the message reads. Al Qaeda did not threaten to behead Weinstein if its demands were not met. The organization encouraged Weinstein's family to "pressurize" the American government into bartering for his release.
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Al Qaeda has not threatened to kill Warren Weinstein, an American who has been in the group's custody since 2011.
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Al Qaeda's message was likely inspired by the success the Taliban had in exchanging Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for the top five Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo.
Interestingly, As Sahab, al Qaeda's official propaganda arm, included the hashtag #JamesFoley in one tweet that featured the message to Weinstein's family. Al Qaeda seemed to be inviting a comparison between Weinstein's captivity and Foley's.
And just days after the Islamic State released its video of Foley's execution, the Al Nusrah Front released Curtis from its custody. The deal to release Curtis was brokered by Qatar, which provides a permissive fundraising environment for Al Nusrah and other jihadist groups. Although the deal to free Curtis had been in the works prior to the release of the Foley execution video, the difference between Curtis' fate and Foley's says much about how the rival jihadist groups are approaching hostage operations.
Some supporters of the Islamic State, which is at odds with Al Nusrah, have even denounced Curtis's release on their social media accounts.
UN reticent about 'armed group' holding 43 Golan Heights peacekeepers
Yesterday the United Nations issued a statement deploring the fact that 43 of its Golan Heights peacekeepers have been captured in the southwestern Syrian province of Quneitra, and that the movements of 81 other peacekeepers nearby have been "restricted." The UN's press release alluded only generally to the group holding the 43 UN troops:
During a period of increased fighting beginning yesterday between armed elements and Syrian Arab Armed Forces within the area of separation in the Golan Heights, 43 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were detained early this morning by an armed group in the vicinity of Al Qunaytirah. In addition, another 81 UNDOF peacekeepers are currently being restricted to their positions in the vicinity of Ar Ruwayhinah and Burayqah. The United Nations is making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers, and to restore the full freedom of movement of the Force throughout its area of operation.
The few further details supplied by the UN included the facts that the 43 captured soldiers were Fijian, and that the 81 others were from the Philippines.
A UN spokesperson refused to identify the kidnappers:
We are dealing with nonstate armed actors.... The command and control of these groups is unclear. We're not in a position to confirm who is holding whom. Some groups self-identified as being affiliated with Nusra, however, we are unable to confirm it.
A statement from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said only that the kidnappers were "armed elements of the opposition," and called for the immediate release of the detained peacekeepers and the lifting of restrictions on the others.
It is highly likely that the peacekeepers have been seized by the al Qaeda's Syrian Branch, the Al Nusrah Front, which with the assistance of other Islamist groups, including the Islamic Front, this week wrested control of the Quneitra border crossing in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights.
The Wall Street Journal describes the UN presence in the area as follows:
The demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights was established in the months after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The zone, as well as the crossing, is monitored by more than 1,200 U.N. peacekeepers from six countries. No other military forces are allowed in the area.
There was no evidence the Syrian rebels were attempting to infiltrate Israel. The Nusra Front and other Islamists already control swaths of territory along the cease-fire lines between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights, an Israeli spokesman said on Wednesday.
The UN's reticence about the kidnappers' identity may reflect the desire for a non-terrorist negotiating partner, such as the Islamic Front (which, although it frequently fights alongside Al Nusrah and has senior leaders who are linked to al Qaeda, has avoided a terrorist designation so far).
Incidentally, while the Islamic State has been dominating the headlines with its onslaughts in Iraq and Syria illustrated by a steady flow of decapitation videos, Al Nusrah has been conducting negotiations with the Lebanese government over the fate of 28 kidnapped Lebanese security forces. The Islamic State, which also holds some Lebanese hostages, is also involved in the negotiations.
It is important to keep in mind that Al Nusrah, which seems to be positioning itself as a 'less violent' and 'more civilized' actor than the Islamic State, remains a mortal foe of democratic forces everywhere. The use of kidnapping victims as pawns has long figured in al Qaeda's playbook.
