New Names Change Nothing about Nature of Terrorists: Syrian Analyst
DAMASCUS (Tasnim) – Takfiri groups remain criminal terrorists no matter what they are labelled, a Syrian political analyst said after the al-Nusra Front terrorist group’s announcement of changing its name, saying that would not change anything about the group’s ideology and criminal acts.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency in Damascus, Wael Al-Imam said terrorist groups continue to commit crimes in Syria and destroy its infrastructures on the basis of their Takfiri ideologies.
“We do not care about changes in their names, because the people of Syria know that they are terrorists,” he said.
The analyst also noted that al-Nusra Front’s decision to break from al-Qaeda and change its name does not seem to have been made on its own, but has been orchestrated from outside as part of a plan to serve the interests of the US, Israel, and some Persian Gulf Arab countries.
On Thursday, al-Nusra Front announced its break from the parent terrorist group, al-Qaeda, in an apparent bid to gain more support from foreign powers.
The Takfiri terrorist group was formed months after the outset of the Syrian crisis in 2011. The group first enjoyed generous support from Daesh extremists, but broke from them in 2013 and paid allegiance to al-Qaeda terror network.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), currently controlling parts of it.
According to a new report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
