How terror fanatics are becoming a more formidable force than the ISIS ‘TV terrorists’ in Syria
Many Syrian army commanders say they now face a far more brutal opponent when fighting Al Qaeda's splinter unit the Al Nusra Front
Al Qaeda are becoming a much more powerful force than the ISIS 'TV terrorists' in Syria, it has been reported.
Syrian government commanders say they now face a far more effective and tactically astute opponent in Al Qaeda's splinter unit, the Al Nusra Front.
They have apparently been allowed to take a stranglehold on areas of the country while government and Western-backed forces focus on destroying ISIS.
Speaking to Robert Fisk for The Independent, one Syrian commander described the jihadists as mere 'television terrorists'.
The suggestion being that their horrific execution videos shock the West far more than their soldiers on the battlefield.
Al Nusra, meanwhile, are understood to have been bolstered by support from other allies in the Middle East.
Reporting from Aleppo, where government forces are laying siege to Syrian rebels, Mr Fisk wrote: "Although Syrian troops have been executed en masse by ISIS, new arms shipments – paid for and transported, the Syrians believe, by Qatar – have made Nusrah a far more formidable force."
Although government forces had encircled ISIS and Al Nusra rebels in the western sector of Aleppo, Al Nusra have proved a force to be reckoned with elsewhere around the strategic city.
Related stories
Mr Fisk added: "South-west of Aleppo, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were swept out of their front-line positions west of the old Aleppo-Hama international highway, losing 13 of their men.
"The Iranians' own local contingent of Afghan forces, a ragbag of Shi'ite Hazara Afghans forced into battle to acquire refugee status for their families sheltering in Iran, also suffered six dead but others are believed – understandably, given their wretched circumstances – to have fled the battle."
It came as fierce shelling continued to pound Aleppo which has faced a near-constant bombardment in the five-year civil war that has killed around 280,000 people.
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is supported by Moscow, which launched air strikes in September, as well as Iranian fighters and Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah has said it sees Aleppo as the most important battle in Syria, equating it with the defence of the capital Damascus.
Assad's allies say they are battling the Al Nusra Front in Aleppo.
But to add to the chaos, Western-backed nationalist insurgents loosely grouped under the banner of the Free Syrian Army say they control the rebel-held part of the city.