Strikes in Syria concern rebels

BEIRUT – When the United States opened its aerial campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria this week, its first salvo also hit an al-Qaida cell it says was planning terror attacks – a move that has injected more chaos into the conflict and could help President Bashar Assad.

Amid fears they could be targeted next, two rebel factions already have evacuated their bases, and residents in areas under the control of other Islamic brigades cower at home, wondering whether their districts will be hit.

While al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front, is considered a terrorist group by the United States, among the Syrian opposition it has a degree of support and respect because its fighters are on the front lines alongside other rebels battling Assad’s forces.

To them, the U.S. strikes appeared to signal an American move to take out any rebel faction that adheres to an Islamic ideology – a large segment of the rebellion against Assad.

U.S. officials say the strikes were aimed at a cell of hardened jihadis within the Nusra Front called the Khorasan Group, which Washington says poses a direct and imminent threat to U.S. and Western interests.

But many in the Syrian opposition are skeptical.

While U.S. and Western officials view both the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front as a threat, on the ground, Syrians make a huge distinction between the two – despite their shared history.

The Nusra Front was created with financing, manpower and military hardware provided by the Islamic State when the Islamic extremists still were known merely as the Islamic State in Iraq. The Nusra Front and its patron eventually had a falling out in 2013 for ideological as well as strategic reasons.

The reverberations of the U.S. decision to strike the al-Qaida affiliate were being felt as far away as the opposition-held Damascus suburb of Douma, where rebels have held out against relentless shelling from Syrian government forces.

“Does the coalition think the Islamic Union in Damascus is a terrorist? Is it going to be bombed?” said activist Hassan Taquleden, referring to his small rebel faction.

“Honestly, we are barely handling the strikes by Assad,” Taquleden said via Skype.