Sunni Extremists May Be Aiding Al Qaeda\u2019s Ambitions in Syria, Analysts Say
\nBy ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER – 15 February, 2012 – NYT<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Sunni extremists, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda\u2019s franchise in neighboring Iraq, are likely responsible for two big recent bombings in the Syrian capital as well as attacks on Friday in Aleppo, the country\u2019s largest city, American officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
As the violence in Syria escalates, several analysts said, Al Qaeda is seeking to exploit the turmoil and reinvigorate its regional ambitions after being sidelined in the initial popular uprisings of the Arab Spring a year ago.<\/p>\n
The precise role of the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda in Syria is unclear. Some intelligence officials and diplomats in Washington, Baghdad and Beirut, Lebanon, said the Qaeda franchise was responsible for the deadly bombings in Aleppo last week and in Damascus, the capital, on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6, which killed scores of people. But they acknowledged that they did not have the forensic or electronic intercept evidence to prove it.<\/p>\n
Other officials said Sunni fighters loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda but not directly controlled by the terrorist group may also have been involved, operating in common cause with but independently of pro-democracy forces seeking to topple the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears to be a very complicated mixture of networks that are fighting the Syrian government, including individuals associated with Al Qaeda in Iraq,\u201d said Seth G. Jones, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation and the author of the coming book \u201cHunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of Al Qa\u2019ida Since 9\/11.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other experts agreed, saying Sunni extremists \u2014 some of whom have returned from Iraq to fight in Syria \u2014 also have the expertise to carry out large-scale bombings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of people with that kind of know-how in Syria,\u201d said Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of a recent book on Syrian-American relations. \u201cThe Assad regime helped invent the car bomb, and they have used it brilliantly to pursue their foreign policy goals. It could be Al Qaeda or simply those with a similar background carrying it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or as Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it during Senate testimony on Tuesday, \u201cThose who would like to foment a Sunni-Shia standoff \u2014 and you know who they are \u2014 are all weighing in in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Syrian government has always argued that it was fighting foreign terrorists, including some from Al Qaeda, a charge dismissed as propaganda by the Syrian activists leading the uprising. …more<\/a><\/p>\n