Syrian rebels cling to bullets and hope

While the west looks elsewhere, President Bashar al-Assad's regime is exploiting sectarian divisions

Martin Chulov in Jebel al-Zawiya
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 May 2012

"....."They are cruel and they are evil," he says of his enemy. "And they will never stop killing and lying. To them and those who blindly back them, we are Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Brotherhood is al-Qaida. Both claims are dishonest."

At this base and all the others the Guardian visited during five days in Syria, a television was playing in the background. Each set of hosts would insist on showing the Syrian state TV channels, then the rebel-backed TV and pan-Arab networks.

On state television, the al-Qaida line is relentless. The narrative has become essential to the regime's bid to hold on to power. Rallying support for state repression is easier when people believe it is needed to combat a global jihadist "terrorist" plot against a secular Arab nationalist state.

"They are always talking about al-Qaida," said Abu Hamza of the state coverage. "They are stopping at nothing to make us look like devils when they know very well that the Free Syria Army are no more than men who have seen the light. Have you seen their claim that there are 3,000 foreign Arabs fighting here with us? There is not one."

Rebel groups across Jebel al-Zawiya sense that the regime's narrative of al-Qaida-backed groups taking a lead in the insurgency is starting to prevail – in the western psyche, in particular.

And they bristle at what they regard as both the indignity of the claim and the consequences. While foreign fighters and weapons from Libya and Tunisia have made it to the western Syria rebel heartland near Homs, rebels around Idlib insist that neither men nor military supplies have reached them.

"They are not welcome here, and they have not tried to come here," said a rebel colonel, also named Abu Hamza. "You need to understand this society to know it would be impossible for groups like this to come here and operate," he said. "Everyone would know about it very quickly. They would need to be received by the community and there is no way around this......"