Syria's Little Lion: 11 Year-Old "Killing Machine"

[georgephillip]

Full disclosure: This article is four months old. I don't know if this little lion still roars.

"Mohammed Afar is 11 years old. The modified AK-47 assault rifle he carries stretches to nearly two-thirds his height.

"Over the top of his faded yellow jacket a Free Syrian Army vest holds three extra clips, each full with live ammunition, and a walkie-talkie. An FSA badge sits on one side and a rendering of the Islamic Shahada, in Arabic calligraphy, on the other.

"He says he does not miss school or want to stay at home with his mother and two sisters.

“'I want to stay as a fighter until Bashar is killed,' he says, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The fighters surrounding him, all claiming to be from Liwa al-Tawhid, pass him a sniper rifle and offer to take him to a frontline, so he can demonstrate his shooting.

“'He is a great shot,' says his father, Mohammed Saleh Afar. 'He is my little lion.'”

 

[georgephillip]

"Mohammed quickly disengages his magazine and presents it, before skillfully reinserting it, but not chambering a round. The older fighters surrounding him— some of whom are little more than boys themselves —praise his speed and mirror his father’s earlier statements, calling him a “good shot.”

"He says he admires the fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra—composed of hardline Islamists subscribing to Takfiri ideology—and recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. Al-Nusra have proven effective in battle, winning itself scores of supporters.

"Many of its fighters previously cut their teeth on other frontlines of the global jihad —notably Iraq and Afghanistan, but also throughout Central Asia and the Middle East."

Rhymes with rich: The greatest purveyor of violence on the planet calling an 11 year-old a terrorist.

The Little Lion: Syria?s 11-Year-Old Killing Machine | VICE United States

 

[Trajan]

and?


do I need to post links to hamas and fatah marches with 3-4 year olds dressed in armed garb or suicide vests?

Or hey, lets all tune in for the latest installment of ' Joo Doctors gone wild' as they harvest organs from live arab donors

its nuts no matter who does it, whats your point?

 

[georgephillip]

and?


do I need to post links to hamas and fatah marches with 3-4 year olds dressed in armed garb or suicide vests?

Or hey, lets all tune in for the latest installment of ' Joo Doctors gone wild' as they harvest organs from live arab donors

its nuts no matter who does it, whats your point?

Maybe Wesley left Gaza off his short list?

"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan."

What's really nuts is killing Muslim children for book sales and market share.

Wesley Clark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Well, at least dey's fightin' each other...

It's Terrorist Against Terrorist in the Widening Syrian War
May 28, 2013 – As Syria’s civil war increasingly spills across its borders, a weekend speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah marked one of the most significant developments in the conflict so far: The world’s foremost Shi’ite terrorist group effectively declared war on the world’s leading Sunni terrorist movement.

Nasrallah committed his Lebanon-based group to defending Syrian President Bashar Assad, but directed much of his vitriol towards radical Sunni “takfiris,” including al-Qaeda, whom he said were “dominating” the anti-Assad opposition. (“Takfiri” is a term used to describe Muslims who accuse other Muslims of apostasy; al-Qaeda and other radical Sunnis regard Shi’ites as apostates. Assad is an Alawite, a Shia sect.)

In his address by video-link to supporters gathered in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, Nasrallah characterized “the resistance” – that is, Hezbollah – as defending not just its ally in Syria but also Lebanon and “Palestine” against a U.S.- and Israeli-backed “takfiri” conspiracy. “What future do you expect in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine with the presence of these takfiris?” he asked. “Syria is the resistance’s main supporter and the resistance cannot stand still and let [takfiris] break its backbone.” “If Syria falls in the hands of the takfiris and the U.S., the resistance will be trapped and Israel will enter Lebanon,” Nasrallah continued, according to Hezbollah’s official account on the speech. Dozens of Hezbollah fighters have reportedly been killed in the fighting around Qusair, a strategic rebel-held town near the Syria-Lebanon border where the Syrian army and Hezbollah launched an assault on May 19.

The increasingly messy and widening Syrian conflict has drawn in not just Hezbollah but also Shi’ite fighters from Iran and Iraq on the side of the regime. Last Wednesday in Jordan, a senior State Department official accompanying Secretary of State John Kerry cited Free Syrian Army (FSA) chief Gen. Salem Idris as saying that “thousands” of Hezbollah, Iranians and Iraqi Shia were fighting in Syria. Meanwhile al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists are regarded as some of the most effective fighters on the rebel side. Therefore, two U.S.- designated “foreign terrorist organizations” have emerged as key armed players on either side of the Syrian conflict. Arab and Western countries, including the U.S., are providing various levels of support to opposition elements including the FSA, while trying to ensure the aid doesn’t benefit the extremists.

In his speech, Nasrallah said Hezbollah and its adversaries should restrict their fighting to Syria, and not let it spread to Lebanon. His remarks referred to the situation in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, where at least 29 people have been killed in fighting between supporters and opponents of the Assad regime. But a day after the speech the violence came even closer to home when two rockets fired by unidentified elements landed in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The spillover in Lebanon comes just weeks before the country’s voters are scheduled to elect a new government on June 16. With key political parties including Hezbollah and the “March 14 alliance,” which supports the anti-Assad opposition, the campaign will be deeply affected by the conflict. U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday the Syrian civil war has already become “a regional conflict.”

MORE

 

[georgephillip]

The Sunni/Shia killing in Syria today was set in motion ten years ago by the US invasion of Iraq, at least according to this early May RT interview:

"RT:Would handing more self-rule do anything to stop the violence?

"CB: I don’t think it would stop the violence. I don’t think the people carrying sectarian attacks particularly the targeting of Shia are motivated by the issue of creating an autonomous region for the essentially majority of Sunni population. They are motivated by sectarianism, let’s be honest about this. Even if they were granted the autonomy inside Iraq, they are going to use that as continuation for that kind of sectarian killings. As I said they are spurred on by what is happening in Syria, which is increasingly a sectarian conflict, my answer is no- that would not stop sectarian killings. I think, unfortunately they are only likely to get worse.

"RT: Where would the line be in allowing more freedom to self-govern and the country's disintegration?

"CB: Yes, the country is disintegrating. As I say, Americans have to take the blame for that because of the system they imposed in Iraq, giving independence to Kurds in the North, who of course were allies with them against Saddam Hussein, and then they are suggesting they would split the Shia alliance in the rest of Iraq and that opened up a Pandora’s box, which really is almost impossible to stop now. But this is not going to stop sectarian violence. I think people across the world should be absolutely clear the responsibility for that does lie on Americans and what they did in 2003 and the subsequent occupation of that county."

?US opened Pandora?s box in Iraq, regional sectarian violence almost impossible to stop now? ? RT Op-Edge

On to Tehran?