The leaders who deposed Assad and forced him to flee to Moscow made noises about being respectful and not extremist, but, already
Report: Syrian Rebels Execute Opponents, Impose Sharia, Threaten Kurds
Syrian rebels who overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday are reportedly executing their opponents, imposing Islamic sharia law, and threatening non-Muslim minorities, including the Kurdish population in the north.
Videos are circulating on social media showing Syrian rebels killing people associated with the regime — some of whom may have been part of the state security services, and others who appear to have been ordinary employees.
The New York Times reported Tuesday:
Islamic State forces on Tuesday killed 54 people in the Homs region in central Syria who had been part of the Syrian government’s military and fled during the collapse of the Assad regime, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group. The killings highlight the chaos in Syria as various rebel factions operate in different regions.
One video also shows thousands of smashed bottles of liquor at the duty free store of the Damascus airport, where Islamist rebels apparently enforced the Islamic ban on alcohol by force, as Islamists did in Lebanon in the 1980s.
How much further will this go? Time will tell. Will they dive down into being a fundamentalist nation like Iran? Or further like Afghanistan? Will they be a threat to the region like we see from the Palestinians and Houthi? Will they be more open like many of the Gulf nations?
Western nations should softly work to make inroads with Syria, limiting their Islamist impulses, driving them from China and Russia and Iran.
Meanwhile, the Times is also reporting
Fierce fighting was underway on Tuesday between rebels supported by Turkey and U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces near Kobani, a town in northern Syria with historic and symbolic significance for American involvement in the region.
The fight illustrates how, even as rebels try to build a government after taking Damascus, armed groups with competing interests are still fighting for territory and power, trying to fill the vacuum left by a collapsed regime and, in this case, pitting proxies of the United States and Turkey against each other.
So, our NATO ally is working against the interests of the U.S., trying to kill Kurds. Why is Turkey still in NATO?
Read: Is Syria Already Going Down The Road To Being An Islamist Extremist Country? »