An American from California traveled to Syria to join the jihadist rebels in the civil war fight against the Bashar Assad Syrian regime. He tells the interviewer, “What America hates, I love. What they love I hate. They love Dunya (meaning earthly life). I hate the Dunya.” He continues, “They love life. I love death.”
The narrator then turns to a Canadian man named Jamal, who is in Syria as well. The narrator claims Jamal is a student from Montreal who plans to never return to Canada.
Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that opposition forces, supported by the Obama administration, in Syria are “growing stronger by the day.” Kerry stressed:
“The opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting constitution, which will be broad-based and secular with respect to the future of Syria.”
However, Reuters is reporting that numerous intelligence reports contradict Kerry’s assertions:
U.S. and allied intelligence sources and private experts on the Syrian conflict suggest that assessment is optimistic.
While the radical Islamists among the rebels may not be numerically superior to more moderate fighters, they say, Islamist groups like the al Qaeda-aligned Nusra Front are better organized, armed and trained.
Additionally, Reuters reported that the deputy director of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, David Shedd, estimated that there were “at least 1,200 different Syrian rebel groups and that Islamic extremists, notably the Nusra Front, were well-placed to expand their influence.”