BEIRUT // During a key battle in the rugged mountains of northern Idlib province this month, US-backed Syrian rebels collapsed before an assault by Al Qaeda fighters. Some surrendered their weapons. Others outright defected to the militants.
Accounts of the battle from opposition activists underscore how the moderate rebels that Washington is trying to boost to fight groups such as Jabhat Al Nusra and ISIL are instead haemorrhaging on multiple fronts.
They face an escalated assault by the Islamist extremists, which activists say are increasingly working together to eliminate them. At the same time, a string of assassinations has targeted some of their most powerful commanders. “This is the end of the Free Syrian Army,” said Alaa Al Deen, an opposition activist in Idlib, referring to western-backed rebel groups. “It’s the beginning of an Islamic emirate.”
Thousands of Syrian rebels have died fighting ISIL this year, a war that has overshadowed and undermined the struggle to topple president Bashar Al Assad. Now Al Nusra – Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, which previously was also fighting against ISIL – has turned on more moderate factions.
Opposition figures said last week that Al Nusra had gone so far as to agree to work together with ISIL, which had been shunned by other Islamist rebel groups because of its brutality against its opponents and those it deems heretics. Hoewever, Al Nusra and ISIL forces have not been seen together on the ground so far.
Al Nusra’s pivot in part is in response to US-led airstrikes that have targeted the Al Qaeda branch in addition to ISIL, activists said. Al Nusra has been hit three times in strikes the US said were aimed at a secret cell of high-ranking Al Qaeda militants plotting attacks against the West. The strikes have ignited tensions between western-backed groups and more extreme factions, who feel that the Americans are hitting everyone except Mr Al Assad’s forces.
Earlier this month, Al Nusra drove US-backed factions almost completely out of Idlib, where they had been the predominant force. Two of the strongest western-backed forces, the Hazm Movement and the Syrian Revolutionary Front, were defeated and several other allied groups simply vanished.
The Syrian Revolutionary Front, headed by Jamal Maarouf, oversaw groups ranging from village-based militias to factions with hundreds of men. He is estimated to have had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters under his command.
The fighting began when a group of men in the village of Bara defected from a faction loyal to Mr Maarouf and joined Ahrar Al Sham, an ultraconservative Islamist force.
Mr Maarouf first sent his nephew to Bara to retrieve the men’s weapons but that mission failed. He then ordered his fighters to surround and shell Bara, according to accounts from a local journalist and activists.
Ahrar Al Sham asked Al Nusra for help, and the conflict quickly spread. Other Islamist factions, Jund Al Aqsa and Suqour Al Sham, took Al Nusra’s side.
The Hazm Movement got involved when its fighters at a checkpoint halted Al Nusra militants trying to reach the battle. The Nusra fighters chased the Hazm men back to their stronghold, the nearby town of Khan Sunbul, which the extremists then overran. At least 65 Hazm fighters defected to the Al Qaeda branch.
Within days, Mr Maarouf’s men and Hazm fighters were routed, with most fleeing into neighbouring Aleppo province. Around seven other allied factions melted away.
The groups were identified as western-backed because they possessed TOW anti-tank missiles, which only US-supported groups have.
Washington announced this summer that it intended to arm moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIL, but it is awaiting congressional approval. The US has only acknowledged giving non-lethal aid to rebels, but the CIA has said it is running a training programme in Jordan, and officials have said third parties have provided US-made weapons to factions vetted by Washington.
“There was hope that they might prove to be an effective force in the crackdown on the Al Qaeda presence in Syria – but that has been dashed,” said Aymenn Al Tamimi, an expert on rebel groups. “They are not strong enough.”
Western-backed groups are also being eroded in other ways. There has been a series of mysterious slayings targeting powerful rebel leaders fighting ISIL.
The extremist group – and to a lesser extent Al Nusra – are probably behind most of the killings, but the Assad regime has also increased pressure on moderate rebels since the start of the US-led air campaign, said Torbjorn Soltvedt, a Middle East analyst at the risk advisory firm Maplecroft.
Most recently, Ayman Abdul-Rahman, commander of the Liwa Tawheed group, was shot dead in an internet cafe in the northern town of Hreitan on October 23, said Ibrahim Saeed, an activist in Aleppo. Abdul-Rahman was one of the first commanders in the Free Syrian Army to fight against ISIL.
Now many rebel commanders are laying low, Mr Saeed said. “We don’t know where they live or where they go or where they sleep.”
* Associated Press.
Bio
Age: 25
Town: Al Diqdaqah – Ras Al Khaimah
Education: Bachelors degree in mechanical engineering
Favourite colour: White
Favourite place in the UAE: Downtown Dubai
Favourite book: A Life in Administration by Ghazi Al Gosaibi.
First owned baking book: How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson.
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Abu Dhabi card
5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,400m
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 2,200m
6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
The National selections:
5pm: Valcartier
5.30pm: AF Taraha
6pm: Dhafra
6.30pm: Maqam
7pm: AF Mekhbat
7.30pm: Ezz Al Rawasi
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
SQUADS
South Africa:
Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada
Coach: Ottis Gibson
Bangladesh:
Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed.
Coach: Chandika Hathurusingha
Also on December 7 to 9, the third edition of the Gulf Car Festival (www.gulfcarfestival.com) will take over Dubai Festival City Mall, a new venue for the event. Last year's festival brought together about 900 cars worth more than Dh300 million from across the Emirates and wider Gulf region – and that first figure is set to swell by several hundred this time around, with between 1,000 and 1,200 cars expected. The first day is themed around American muscle; the second centres on supercars, exotics, European cars and classics; and the final day will major in JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars, tuned vehicles and trucks. Individuals and car clubs can register their vehicles, although the festival isn’t all static displays, with stunt drifting, a rev battle, car pulls and a burnout competition.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
US PGA Championship in numbers
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
