The Pakistani Taliban have set up camps with hundreds of men in Syria, on the side of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported. The announcement was made on Sunday, in Pakistan, in an effort to forge a front with the al-Qaida leadership.
Saying hundreds of fighters had already left for Syria to fight alongside their “Mujahedeen friends,” senior commander told Reuters, “When our brothers needed our help, we sent hundreds of fighters along with our Arab friends.”
Following which the Reuters writer quipped: The announcement further complicates the picture on the ground in Syria, where rivalries have already been on the boil between the Free Syrian Army and the Islamists.”
The more burning issue is, of course, who, in the end, will be the recipient of the mass shipments of weapons from the U.S. and the EU? Is there anyone fighting today on Syrian soil who has anything at all in common with Western values such as democracy and tolerance?
Worse yet, will America and the EU repeat the dreadful mistake of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, whose CIA assembled and trained the nascent al-Qaida Mujahedeen, to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Are the Western weapons being delivered to Syria’s “opposition” going to be used by al-Qaida and the Taliban to kill Western soldiers, if not civilians?
Another Taliban commander in Pakistan told Reuters the decision to send fighters to Syria came at the request of “Arab friends.”
“Since our Arab brothers have come here for our support, we are bound to help them in their respective countries and that is what we did in Syria,” he said, adding, “We have established our own camps in Syria. Some of our people go and then return after spending some time fighting there.”
According to the Iranian Press TV, on July 12, Mohammad Amin, a Taliban operative and “coordinator of the Syrian base,” said that the Taliban base was set up in Syria some six months ago. He added that it sends “information and feedback” on the situation in Syria.
The Iranian outlet is convinced “Western powers and their regional allies including the Israeli regime, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are partners in supporting anti-Syria militant groups, including al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, to destabilize Syria and overthrow the Syrian government.”
Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban Ahmed Rashid told Reuters: “The Pakistani Taliban have remained a sort surrogate of al Qaeda. We’ve got all these foreigners up there in FATA who are being looked after or trained by the Pakistani Taliban. They are acting like global jihadists, precisely with the agenda that al Qaeda has got. This is a way, I suppose, to cement relationships with the Syrian militant groups … and to enlarge their sphere of influence.”
And so, it’s official, Syria is fresh out of good guys. Shipped European and American weapons will eventually be used to kill Europeans and Americans. Good luck to all of us.