Source: 600 Saudis Fighting Along with Al-Qaeda Terrorists in Syria


Source: 600 Saudis Fighting Along with Al-Qaeda Terrorists in Syria

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Six hundred Saudi nationals are fighting in Syria along with Al-Qaeda terrorists affiliate to the so-called Islamic Government of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), Syrian sources said.

The Saudis who are cooperating with Daesh (Arabic initial for ISIS), al-Qaeda and al-Nusra terrorists take active part in suicidal operations and field battles against Syrian state forces, the sources told Syria’s Al-Watan (the motherland) daily.

Meanwhile, informed sources have announced that a network involved in sending terrorists to Syria has been smashed.

The sources said that a network used for recruting fighters to be sent into Syria -- whose members’ ages were from 22 to 35 years -- was uncovered and its head, a 24 year old youth, was arrested in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris.

They said that three of the network’s members who have been arrested in that southern district of the French capital city are citizens of France, while the fourth one is from Morocco.

The ISIS (also known as ISIL) is al-Qaeda’s main branch in Syria, although al-Qaeda Chief Ayman al-Zawahiri recently ordered it’s disbanding. He said that al-Qaeda in Syria is to be represented only by the al-Nusra Front.

The al-Nusra Front, created in January 2012, joined al-Qaeda in December of that year and is on a US list of foreign terrorist organizations. It has carried out major attacks against the Syrian armed forces, including several suicide bombings.

Saudi Arabia has been one of the main supporters of rebel groups fighting the Syrian government, providing them with finance and arms.

It has long called publicly for arming the anti-government rebels and has bridled at US caution. It has been playing a more assertive role since September's US-Russian agreement on chemical weapons - which it saw as sparing the Syrian leader from US-led air strikes and granting him a degree of international rehabilitation.

Most Visited in World
Top World stories
Top Stories