Report: Washington Admits Al-Nusra Front in Aleppo, What’s Next?

AhlulBayt News Agency - The US officials have officially admitted that al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, is present in the north Syrian city of Aleppo. This Americans’ admission means that the West has lost the justification to challenge the upcoming attack of the Syrian army and its allies against the large terrorist-held city. According to the Syrian ceasefire terms as well as the Security Council’s resolution, the terror group al-Nusra Front could be a target for the anti-terror assaults.

Commenting on the possibility of start of Syrian army's assaults on the armed groups in Aleppo with a Russian assistance, Colonel Steven Warren, the spokesman for US operations in Iraq, has said that everybody was aware that the Syrian government was mobilizing its combat forces with a Russian back-up around Aleppo. Colonel Warren said that it was reported that Al-Nusra Front was a leading force in control there. “Al-Nusra Front is not included in the agreement to cease the fire,” Colonel Warren continued.

The truce took effect in Syria since February 29 between the warring sides as a result of a US-Russia deal and after the allies of two sides accepted the terms of the deal. According to the agreement, al-Nusra Front and ISIS terrorist groups are excluded from the deal and thus present a legitimate target for the attacks launched by the two sides.

It seems that the remarks of the US officials on al-Nusra Front in Aleppo did not appeal to the analysts of Western institutes which are under Saudi Arabia’s sway. Kyle Orton, a Syrian affairs analyst at Henry Jackson Society, in a Twitter post has lashed out at Colonel Steven Warren for his remarks, saying that Pentagon’s spokesman implied that the US supported Russian airstrikes on Aleppo. Emil Hakim, a senior fellow for Middle East security in the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has wondered if the US army thought that al-Nusra Front was in control of Aleppo. Hakim also questioned the accuracy of Warren’s remarks.

Since Russian anti-terror intervention in Syria, the Western media as well as officials have brought under fire Russia’s military campaign, arguing that the Russian strikes targeted the moderate Syrian opposition groups.

The American officials’ remarks on presence of al-Nusra Front in Aleppo are coming while in past few days there have been reports asserting that the Syrian army's units and its allies are bracing for resume military operations in Aleppo. Wall Street Journal website has quoted the US officials as saying that the Russian artillery units have been moved to northern Syria positions- a step showing that Damascus’ and Moscow’s armed forces were preparing the ground to launch a full-scale offensive against the armed groups fighting the forces of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The reposition of Russian forces in Syria takes place amid arrival of Iran’s army forces in Syria, according to Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, highlighting that it was difficult to draw lines between al-Nusra Front and other armed groups in Syria, the US Secretary of State John Kerry, in an interview with the New York Times, has said that Moscow could soon begin raids on Aleppo due to existence of al-Nusra Front terrorists in the city.

Kerry also talked about an American and Russian agreement for round-the-clock supervision of ceasefire process. Kerry added that Washington suggested that a line must be drawn, an absolute line which said where the sides could go and where they cannot go and everything between these lines could be a legitimate target for attacks (of Russian fighter jets and Syrian army). John Kerry added that the Russians were weighing up the proposal and that very likely the two sides would agree on it next week.

Aleppo is now divided between the Syrian government’s forces and the terrorist fighters. The city, before eruption of the devastating crisis, was the Syrian economic capital and the country’s largest city. This is the reason behind it having great symbolic and psychological significance. Taking full control of it means emerging as winner of the over-five-years-old war of Syrian government with the foreign-backed terror groups.




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