Syria: Iraq, Yemen and Afghan Jihadists join war against Assad

Damascus: Hundreds of international fighters have flocked to Syria to join the war against Bashar al-Assad’ government.

Some are fresh-faced idealists driven by hatred for Assad, while some are jihadi veterans from Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan. According to the Guardian, to reach the country, foreign fighters have crossed borders with forged passports and dodge secret services. The fighters have been dispersed among different jihadi organisations, including Ahrar al-Sham ("the Free Men of Syria") and Jabhat al-Nusra ("the Front for the Aid of the People of the Levant"). These fighters are also secretive, especially when dealing with the Free Syria Army. "This is my duty," one fighter said, adding: "Originally I was from Palestine. I know what this [Syrian] regime did to the Palestinians, shelling the camps in Lebanon, assassinating the commanders. Half of the miseries of our nation are because of Israel and the other half are because of the Syrian regime”. "Many Arab men I know want to come and fight. Some lack the means and others the energy, but so many people hate this regime. For 20 years the regime has destroyed the Arab world," he added. According to the report, one Syrian, breathing hard, said that he had fired three times at the tank and the RPG didn`t go off. "Our work has to focus on IEDs and snipers," he told the gathering, adding: "All these roofs need fighters on top and IEDs on the ground. You hunt them in the alleyways and then use machine-guns and RPGs around corners. "The problem is not ammunition, it`s experience," one said, adding: "If we were fighting Americans we would all have been killed by now. They would have killed us with their drone without even needing to send a tank. "The rebels are brave but they don`t even know the difference between a Kalashnikov bullet and a sniper bullet. That weakens the morale of the men,” he said. The fighter said that it is obvious the Syrian army is winning this battle, but we don`t tell [the rebels] this. We don`t want to destroy their morale, the report added. ANI