The Jim Bakker Show

Philippines’ Duterte threatens to close mines that support rebels

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday threatened to shut down any mine that supports Maoist rebels waging a protracted guerrilla war to overthrow the government.

The Philippines has been in on-again, off-again peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the communist movement, since 1986 to end a rebellion that has killed more than 40,000 people and stunted growth in resource-rich rural areas.

In a speech honoring soldiers who fought pro-Islamic State militants for five months in the southern city of Marawi, Duterte said that attacks from the Maoist rebels had been on the rise, forcing him to end negotiations, and that he would declare the guerrilla group a terrorist organization.

“If I go against the communists, then everybody has to reconfigure their relationship with the New People’s Army,” he said, referring to the communists’ armed wing. “If you support them financially, I will close you down.”

Duterte said some mines were paying “revolutionary taxes” to the rebels in exchange for allowing their operations in remote areas to continue. He did not name any companies.

Mines in the Philippines, many with foreign partners, are digging for gold, nickel, copper, chromite and coal. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau said the country had estimated $840 billion worth of untapped mineral wealth as of 2012.

The rebels are also engaged in small-scale mining, like gold panning in the south.

Mining companies shared the president’s position, Ronald Recidoro, executive director at the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said.

“We do not condone any member supporting the New People’s Army through the payment of revolutionary taxes,” Recidoro told Reuters.

“This is clearly against the law and they really should be prosecuted if they are found to be supporting these organizations. And if closure is warranted, that is within the prerogative of the president.”

The Chamber of Mines groups 20 of the country’s 43 operating mines. Recidoro said some mining firm members had experienced some of their equipment being burned by the NPA because of their refusal to pay the taxes.

“I am fighting a rebellion… I have to build a strong army,” Duterte said, adding the military would next year acquire 23 attack helicopters to boost counter-insurgency capability.

Military spokesman Major-General Restituto Padilla said the Philippines already had approval for the purchase of attack helicopters but had not decided what type or where to source them.

($1 = 50.6 pesos)

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato and Manolo Serapio; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Philippine army says taking fire from women, children in Marawi battle

Smoke billows from a burning building as government troops continue their assault on its 105th day of clearing operations against pro-IS militants who have seized control of large parts of Marawi city, southern Philippines September 4, 2017.

By Manuel Mogato

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – Philippine troops fighting Islamic State-linked rebels in a southern city have encountered armed resistance from women and children, the military said on Monday, as troops make a final push to end a conflict that has raged for more than 100 days.

Ground forces were braced for higher casualties amid fierce fighting in Marawi City on the island of Mindanao, where the field of battle has shrank to a small area in a commercial heart infested with snipers, and littered with booby traps.

“We are now in the final phase of our operations and we are expecting more intense and bloody fighting. We may suffer heavier casualties as the enemy becomes more desperate,” Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, who heads the military in Western Mindanao, told reporters.

He said the number of fighters was diminishing and a small number of women and children, most likely family members of the rebels, were now engaged in combat.

“Our troops in the field are seeing women and children shooting at our troops so that’s why it seems they are not running out of fighters.”

More than 800 people have been killed in the battle, most of them insurgents, since May 23 when the militants occupied large parts of the predominantly Muslim town.

The battle is the biggest security challenge in years for the mostly Catholic Philippines, even though it has a long history of Muslim separatist rebellion in Mindanao, an island of 22 million people that has been placed under martial law until the end of the year.

The protracted clashes and resilience of the rebels has fanned fears that Philippine groups loyal to Islamic State, and with ties to Indonesian and Malaysian militants, have formed an alliance that is well-organized, funded and armed, and serious about carving out its own territory in Mindanao.

Citing information provided by four hostages who had escaped from the rebels, Galvez said there were some 56 Christian hostages – most of them women – and about 80 male residents may have been forced to take up arms and fight the military.

The fighting was concentrated in an area around a mosque about a quarter of a square kilometer. He said soldiers were taking control of an average 35 buildings a day and at that rate, it could be three weeks before the city was under government control.

AIR STRIKES

Fighting in Marawi was intense on Monday, with heavy gunfire and explosions ringing out across the picturesque, lakeside town, the heart of which has been devastated by near-daily government air strikes.

Helicopters circled above to provide air cover for ground troops as fighting raged, with bursts of smoke rising above the skyline as bombs landed on rebel positions.

Galvez said intelligence showed the rebels’ military commander, Abdullah Maute, may have been killed last month in an air strike.

Postings on Facebook and chatter over the past two days on Telegram, a messaging application used by Islamic State and its sympathizers, had carried tributes to Abdullah, referring to him by one of his pseudonyms, he said.

“There is no 100 percent confirmation until we see his cadaver but this is enough to presume he died already,” he said.

The military has contradictory statements about the status of the rebel leaders over the past few months.

Abdullah Maute and brother Omarkhayam are the Middle East-educated leaders of a militant clan known as the Maute group that has gained notoriety in the past two years due to its ability to engage the army for long periods.

Under the name Dawla Islamiya, the Maute group has formed an alliance with Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a pro-Islamic State faction of another group, Abu Sayyaf.

Galvez said the army’s intelligence indicated both Omarkhayam and Hapilon, Islamic State’s anointed “emir” in Southeast Asia, were still in the Marawi battle.

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Colombia’s FARC rebels turned in more than 8,000 weapons: U.N.

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos greets a driver carrying the last container with surrendered weapons delivered by FARC rebels to a UN observer in La Guajira, Colombia August 15, 2017. Colombian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s Marxist FARC rebel group handed in more than 8,000 weapons and nearly 1.3 million pieces of ammunition as it demobilized after a peace deal with the government, the United Nations said.

The disarmament process officially concluded on Tuesday as the UN, which was supervising the hand-in, removed the final shipment of weapons from a demobilization camp in Fonseca, La Guajira province, one of more than two dozen zones where the FARC have been living since the start of the year.

“Our mission has, up to today, gathered 8,112 arms in these containers and destroyed almost 1.3 million cartridges,” UN mission chief for Colombia Jean Arnault said at an event to mark the shipment.

That is more weapons than the 7,132 the UN had originally reported in June.

The weapons will be used to make three monuments celebrating the peace accord, agreed last year between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.

Roughly 7,000 FARC fighters have demobilized under the accord, which allows the group 10 unelected seats in Congress through 2026 and grants amnesty to the majority of ex-fighters. Rebels convicted by special courts of human rights violations will avoid traditional prison sentences, instead performing reparations work such as removing landmines.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Syrian army steps up strikes on capital’s last rebel enclave

A boy sits near rubble of damaged buildings in Arbin, a town in the Damascus countryside, Syria. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – The Syrian army stepped up shelling and air strikes on the last rebel-held enclaves in the Syrian capital on Monday, its heaviest bombardment in a two-month campaign, rebels and witnesses said.

From the strategic Qasyoun Heights that overlooks Damascus, elite units of the army pounded Jobar district, some 2 km (1.2 miles) east of the Old City wall and Ain Terma just to the south.

The army’s offensive has dented a Russian-sponsored ceasefire announced two weeks ago in the Eastern Ghouta area to the east of Damascus.

Moscow has said it is negotiating with mainstream rebel groups in several areas across Syria to create new de-escalation zones and calm fighting.

Rebels and residents said Moscow had already begun deploying some military police in certain checkpoints that border the rebel-held northern Homs countryside and in southwestern Syria where “de-escalation” zones have been announced.

Residents and rescuers say the Syrian army has intensified shelling of civilian areas in the Eastern Ghouta region where rebels are holed up, many in underground tunnels, out of frustration at the lack of progress.

At least 15 civilians have been killed and scores of others injured in three days of sustained bombardment.

The U.K. based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors the conflict said at least 20 army soldiers were either killed, injured or taken prisoner in the past 24 hours, confirming rebel estimates.

Less intense shelling has hit Zamalka, Harasta and Kafr Btna, also in Eastern Ghouta. Social media videos downloaded by activists showed sorties of jets pounding areas in Ain Tarma and Jobar, with fire erupting in places and large plumes of smoke rising into the air.

Eastern Ghouta has been under opposition control for much of the six-year conflict. Jobar is in northeast Damascus and borders the Eastern Ghouta district of Ain Terma.

The army is also using more elephant rockets – inaccurate and improvised munitions often made from gas canisters and fired on a high trajectory – insurgents said.

“The elephant rockets are not having mercy on us. We have dug tunnels and fortified our positions so they are unable to advance,” said Abu Obada al Shami, a commander from Failaq al Rahman, the rebel group whose fighters are drawn from the area.

The rebels, for their part, are trying to hang on to their last foothold in Damascus following the loss earlier this year of Qaboun and Barzeh districts, located north of Jobar.

Before the war began in 2011, more than half a million people lived in Eastern Ghouta, a sprawling mix of towns and farmland.

Two residents said Ain Terma was now a ghost town, with only a few hundred families taking shelter in basements after most former residents fled to other towns in Eastern Ghouta.

“Life is non-existent. Permanent terror and people are not coming out of their basements,” said Abdullah al-Khatib, a former electrician, who lives there with his eight-member family.

Rebels accuse the Syrian army and its Iran-backed allies of breaking the Russia-brokered truce in Eastern Ghouta to throw its full weight against Jobar and Ain Terma.

The government has said it will abide by the truces which Russia has brokered but says it continues to target Islamist militant factions not covered by the agreement.

“This truce is a lie. The regime has not implemented it. They are shelling us without interruption using all types of weapons,” Abu Hamza, another rebel fighter said.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi, editing by Richard Balmforth)

Syrian rebels launch second Damascus attack in three days

A view shows an empty street near the Abbasiyin area in the east of the capital Damascus, in this handout picture provided by SANA on March 20, 2017, Syria. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels stormed a government-held area in northeastern Damascus on Tuesday for the second time in three days, sources on both sides said, pressing the boldest assault on the capital by opposition fighters in several years.

The spokesman for one of the main insurgent groups involved in the attack told Reuters the new offensive began at 5.00 a.m., targeting an area rebel fighters had seized from government control on Sunday before being forced to retreat.

A Syrian military source told Reuters rebel fighters had entered the area, setting off a car bomb at the start of the attack. The source said a group of rebels that had entered the area had been encircled and were “being dealt with”.

The rebel groups have launched the assault from their Eastern Ghouta stronghold to the east of the capital. Government forces have escalated military operations against Eastern Ghouta in recent weeks, seeking to tighten a siege on the area. The rebel assault aims partly to relieve that pressure.

The fighting has focused around the Abassiyin area of the northeastern Jobar district, some 2 km east of the Old City walls, at a major road junction leading into the capital.

A witness near the area heard explosions from around 5.00 a.m., followed by clashes and the sound of warplanes overhead.

Wael Alwan, the spokesman of rebel group Failaq al Rahman, told Reuters: “We launched the new offensive and we restored all the points we withdrew from on Monday. We have fire control over the Abassiyin garages and began storming it.”

The Syrian military source said: “They entered a narrow pocket – the same area of the (previous) breach – and now this group is being dealt with.”

BOMBARDMENT

The government says the attack is being carried out by fighters of the Nusra Front, a jihadist group that was al Qaeda’s official affiliate in the Syrian war until it declared they had broken off ties last year. The Nusra Front is now part of an Islamist alliance called Tahrir al-Sham.

The intensity of the Syrian army’s counterattack had forced the rebels to retreat from most of the areas they captured in the first attack.

The rebels have lost ground in the nearby areas of Qaboun and Barza.

A rebel commander said the Syrian army was intensifying its shelling on areas they had advanced in Jobar and towns across Eastern Ghouta.

“The bombardment is on all fronts … there is no place that has not been hit … the regime has burnt the area by planes and missiles,” said Abu Abdo a field commander from Failaq al Rahman brigade.

The Syrian government appears to be employing the same strategy it has used to force effective surrender deals on rebels elsewhere around the capital through escalated bombardment and siege tactics.

Rebel fighters have been granted safe passage to insurgent-held areas of northern Syria under such agreements.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said at least 143 air raids were conducted by the Syrian army on rebel held eastern parts of Damascus, mostly targeting Jobar, since the rebels launched their offensive.

President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian army, along with allied Russian, Iranian and Shi’ite militia forces, have the upper hand in the war for western Syria, with a steady succession of military victories over the past 18 months.

For rebels, however, their first such large scale foray in over four years inside the capital has shown they are still able to wage offensive actions despite their string of defeats.

(Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Tom Perry and Alison Williams)

Russia halted Syrian army, rebel clash in northern Syria: sources

rebel fighters gather around truck carrying food

By Laila Bassam and Humeyra Pamuk

BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Russia intervened to halt a clash between Syrian government forces and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels in northern Syria, sources on both sides said on Friday, the first confrontation between them as both sides fight Islamic State in the area.

Islamic State is under attack from separate campaigns in northern Syria by Russian-backed government forces and Turkey-backed rebels. The clash on Thursday near the IS-held city of al-Bab underlined the risk of the parallel offensives igniting new fighting between the government and its rebel enemies.

Russia and Turkey have backed opposing sides in the war but recently started cooperating over Syria, brokering a truce between government forces and rebels and working together to try to revive peace talks.

Rebel officials said the clash took place in a village southwest of al-Bab. An official in a military alliance fighting in support of the Syrian government confirmed a clash had taken place. “The Russians intervened to control the situation,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Bashar al-Assad is supported in the war by the Russian military and an array of Iranian-backed militias.

Two rebel officials accused the government forces of provoking the incident. One of them said the government forces had moved towards their positions in tanks. “Rebels shot to warn them not to get any closer, but the tank responded and a clash erupted,” said the first rebel official.

“Later on Russia intervened to calm down the situation,” said the rebel official. “This whole incident felt like a test.”

A second rebel official, a commander in the al-Bab area, added: “They opened fire. Fire was returned.”

Both rebel officials said an armored vehicle had been captured from the government forces.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russian air strikes accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers on Thursday in northern Syria. It was not immediately clear whether the confrontation described by the sources had taken place in the same area as the air strike.

Turkey and its FSA rebel allies have carved out a de facto buffer zone in northern Syria in territory captured from Islamic State since August in their “Euphrates Shield” operation. They have been battling to capture al-Bab since December, but escalated their attack this week, seizing the city’s outskirts.

The Syrian army meanwhile mounted its own, rapid advance towards the city in the last few weeks, advancing to within a few kilometers (miles) of its southern outskirts.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier this week that clashes with the Syrian forces had been avoided thanks to international coordination, including between Turkey and Russia.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and expressed his condolences over the air strike, blaming the incident on poor coordination between Moscow and Ankara.

The Kremlin spokesman said on Friday the air strikes were based on coordinates provided to Russia by the Turkish military..

(Writing and additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Turkish-led forces advance into outskirts of Syrian city

Syrian forces gather to fight Islamic State

By Humeyra Pamuk and Tom Perry

ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military have captured the outskirts of the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in northern Syria, the Turkish government and rebel sources said on Wednesday.

The advance threatens an important Islamic State stronghold, whose fall would deepen Turkish influence in an area of northern Syria where it has created a de facto buffer zone.

Syrian government forces have also advanced on al-Bab from the south, bringing them close to their Turkish and rebel enemies in one of the most complex battlefields of the six-year-old conflict.

But Turkey said international coordination was under way to prevent clashes with the Syrian forces.

“The al-Bab operation must be completed immediately in the period ahead … In recent days our special forces and the Free Syrian Army (rebels) have made serious progress,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference.

In a sign of Turkish momentum and confidence, the government said its next target would be the Syrian city of Raqqa, de facto capital of the embattled Islamic State group which has also been partly dislodged from its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.

The U.S. military, which is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, said it expected Raqqa to be “completely isolated” in the next few weeks.

COORDINATION WITH RUSSIA

Al-Bab has been a major target of a Turkish offensive launched in northern Syria last August to drive Islamic State away from the border and prevent further gains by U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that are also fighting the jihadist group. The city is just 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border.

A Free Syrian Army rebel commander speaking to Reuters from the southeastern outskirts of al-Bab said Syrian government planes and helicopters were visible to the west of his position, saying there was now an “indirect frontline” between the sides.

But an official in a military alliance backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the city was being left to Turkish control, in what appeared to be part of a de facto deal with Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said clashes with the Syrian forces had been avoided.

“As a result of coordination between coalition forces, the Turkish air force and Russia, necessary measures are being taken to prevent any unpleasant incidents or clashes,” Yildirim said.

Assad has been backed in the war by the Russian air force and an array of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias. The Syrian army advance towards al-Bab is aimed at preventing deeper Turkish advances and safeguarding the city of Aleppo, 50 km (30 miles) to the southwest.

“PROGRESS IS FAST”

The Turkish military said in a statement that 58 Islamic State militants had been killed in air strikes, artillery fire and clashes. Four Turkish soldiers had been killed and at least a dozen wounded. The advancing forces had captured strategic hilltops around al-Bab, the army said.

A Syrian rebel fighter reached by Reuters said he was speaking from inside al-Bab where he said Islamic State lines were collapsing. “Praise God, the progress is fast,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that reports on the war, cautioned that it was not yet clear if Islamic State had collapsed entirely in the city. It said at least six people had been killed and 12 more wounded in the latest shelling there.

The organization says Turkish bombardment has killed scores of people since December. Turkey says it has been careful to avoid civilian casualties.

Islamic State is being fought by three separate military alliances in northern Syria, including the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces which incorporate the Kurdish YPG militia.

U.S. support for the YPG has angered Turkey, which views it as an extension of a Kurdish militia that is waging an insurgency in Turkey.

A spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had presented a detailed plan to drive Islamic State out of Raqqa and discussions on the issue were under way.

Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told broadcaster NTV there had been better coordination with the U.S.-led coalition on air strikes in the last 10 days and Ankara’s priority was to establish a safe zone between the Syrian towns of Azaz and Jarablus, which are just over the border.

The safe zone is an important goal for Ankara because it would mean that civilians displaced by the conflict could be provided for in Syria, rather than crossing into Turkey.

Turkish sources said Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call overnight to act jointly against Islamic State in al-Bab and Raqqa.

The White House said in a statement that Trump spoke about the two countries’ “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms” and welcomed Turkey’s contributions to the fight against Islamic State, but it gave no further details.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Suleiman al-Khalidi, Nevzat Devranoglu, Gulsen Solaker, Ece Toksabay and Orhan Coskun; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Dominic Evans)

Duterte pleads with Philippine rebels to rebuff Islamic State advances

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday pleaded with the country’s Muslim separatist groups to deny sanctuary to militants with links to Islamic State, warning a war would ensue that would put civilians in danger.

His appeal comes a day after his defense minister said foreign intelligence reports showed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group was getting instructions from Islamic State to expand in the Philippines, in the strongest sign yet of links to the Middle Eastern militants.

Duterte said he could no longer contain the extremist “contamination” and urged two Muslim separatist rebels groups – the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front – to rebuff Islamic State’s advances.

“I am earnestly asking, I am pleading to the MNLF and the MILF, do not provide sanctuary to the terrorists in your areas,” he told troops at a military camp in Mindanao, his home region.

“Because if that happens, then we will be forced to go after them within your territory, and that could mean trouble for all of us. I don’t want that to happen.

“The government is going after them, they have done wrong, they killed a lot of innocent people.”

The south of the predominately Christian Philippines has for decades been a hotbed of Muslim insurgency but Duterte is worried some smaller groups and splinter factions that have pledged allegiance to Islamic State could host IS fighters being driven out of Iraq and Syria.

They include the Maute group in Lanao del Sur province and the Abu Sayyaf in the Sulu Archipelago near Malaysia.

Abu Sayyaf, which means “bearer of the sword”, is notorious for piracy and kidnapping and for beheading foreign hostages for whom ransoms are not paid.

It has used the Islamic State flag in hostage videos posted online.

(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Expectations low as Syria’s warring sides meet

By Olzhas Auyezov and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

ASTANA (Reuters) – Syria’s warring sides met for talks for the first time in nine months on Monday, with frosty initial exchanges suggesting chances of a significant breakthrough were slim as the country’s six-year-old conflict ground on.

They sat opposite each other at a round table in a hotel conference room before a day of negotiations – sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana – got under way.

Both delegations said the focus was on the country’s ceasefire, a fragile precursor to a wider political solution.

But Bashar al-Jaafari, the head of the delegation representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said negotiators for the rebel forces had been rude and unprofessional, accusing them of defending “war crimes” committed by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as Nusra Front.

A rebel source said opposition representatives planned to negotiate with the government side only via intermediaries.

Mohammed Alloush, the head of the opposition delegation, told delegates he wanted to stop “the horrific flow of blood” by consolidating the shaky ceasefire and freezing military operations, saying Iran-backed militias had to leave Syria.

Russian news agency TASS cited a draft communique in which Moscow, Ankara and Tehran would commit to jointly fighting Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and set up a mechanism for trilateral monitoring of the ceasefire, which took effect on Dec. 30.

But fundamental divisions also remain between pro-Assad Russia and Turkey, which has supported anti-Assad rebels – including whether Syria’s president should stay in power or, as the rebels are demanding, step down.

There were no senior government figures among the delegations in Astana and Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said it expected the meetings to be over by midday on Tuesday.

OVERSEEING CEASEFIRE

Some observers said the talks, which UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is attending, could help jump-start U.N.-led negotiations that were suspended in late April.

De Mistura said it was crucial to get a mechanism to oversee and implement a nationwide ceasefire in place to build confidence.

“That by itself … would be a major achievement,” he said, adding he hoped Astana could pave the way for direct talks between the government and opposition in Geneva next month.

The Astana talks pointedly exclude the West, though Kazakhstan, with the backing of Moscow and Ankara, extended an invitation to the new U.S. administration last week, which Washington declined.

Iranian officials have said they strongly oppose U.S. involvement, though George Krol, the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, attended as an observer.

Turkey and Russia – each for their own reasons – both want to disentangle themselves from the fighting. That has pushed them into an ad hoc alliance that some people believe represents the best chance for progress towards a peace deal, especially with Washington distracted by domestic issues.

The opposition arrived in Astana aware that the fall of their former urban stronghold, Aleppo, has shifted the momentum in the fighting in favor of Assad.

On Sunday, war planes bombed rebel-held areas of western Syria, killing 12 people in one location, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while insurgent shelling of Aleppo killed six.

“The ceasefire is clinically dead, but the Russians and Turks want to keep it alive to send a message to the international community that they are the ones in charge of the Syrian situation,” said Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman.

(Additional reporting by John Irish, Denis Dyomkin and Kinda Makieh in Astana, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in Dubai and Thomas Perry in Beirut; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov/Christian Lowe/Andrew Osborn; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Syrian rebels bitterly divided before new peace talks

By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents appear more divided than ever as they prepare for peace talks next week, demoralized by their defeat in Aleppo and unable to unite into a single force to defend their remaining territory.

The new diplomacy led by Assad’s Russian allies has exposed yet more splits in a rebellion that has never had a clear chief, with rebel factions long fractured by regional rivalries, their ties to foreign states, and an ideological battle over whether to pursue Syrian national or Sunni jihadist goals.

Several leaders have became prominent only to be killed in the nearly six-year-old conflict and numerous military and political coalitions have come and gone. After the rebels’ defeat in Aleppo last month, the latest effort to unify the jihadist and moderate wings of the insurgency collapsed.

By contrast Assad is as strong as at any time since the fighting began, his Russian and Iranian backers committed to his survival while the differing agendas of foreign states backing the rebels have added to their divisions.

The delegation of rebels that will attend the talks with the Syrian government starting on Monday in the Kazakh capital Astana represents only part of the moderate opposition that has fought Assad in a loose alliance known as the Free Syrian Army.

Most are from groups fighting in northern Syria with the backing of Turkey. Other rebel groups seen closer to the United States and Saudi Arabia have been left out.

The delegation will be led by Mohammad Alloush, the politburo chief of the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, which is at the more moderate end of the Sunni Islamist spectrum and has its main stronghold near Damascus.

Alloush, who lives outside Syria, has not been appointed to the role because he wields influence over the rebellion as a whole — he does not. He was chosen because he is a member of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), an alliance set up with Saudi and Western support in 2015.

The HNC itself, the broadest opposition body formed since the war began, has not been invited to Astana.

Its chairman, former prime minister Riad Hijab, is the nearest thing the moderate opposition has to “a face”. But his role is closer to that of a spokesman for the myriad groups on the ground and he will not be in Astana either.

The HNC has said it hopes the Astana talks will be a step towards new peace talks in Geneva. But while Russia says Astana aims to supplement Geneva, some in the opposition fear Moscow is trying to supplant the U.N.-backed process with its own and wants to increase divisions in the rebel camp.

“Going to Astana has more danger than going to Geneva,” said

Mohammad Aboud, a member of the HNC.

“In Geneva, there was a political front for the opposition

that had gained international recognition while in Astana there

is a lot of ambiguity and with Russia sponsoring this and being

an occupying force and not a mediator.”

He said “polarisation may increase” in the opposition and

added: “This is perhaps one of the real goals of the Russians –

to increase the division.”

WIDENING DIVISIONS

Russia’s peace moves have also exacerbated the split between the moderate and jihadist wings of the insurgency, fuelling tensions that have spilled into confrontation in Idlib, the rebels’ main remaining foothold.

A ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey last month has excluded the main jihadist group in northwestern Syria, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, while a spate of air strikes targeting its leaders have increased mistrust in the rebel camp.

All this plays further to Assad’s advantage, as his Russian and Iranian allies want to lead diplomacy over Syria, with Donald Trump indicating he will cut backing for the moderate Syrian opposition as U.S. president.

The rebels going to Astana say the meeting must focus on shoring up the ceasefire and will resist political discussions although Assad has said he is open to such talks.

“If Astana is just about a mechanism for a ceasefire, and humanitarian access, then it is positive. But it won’t be good if they discuss political affairs in Astana because that will amount to the marginalization of the other political forces,” said one FSA commander.

After years of failed international diplomacy, Moscow says it wants to advance peace by dealing directly with rebels fighting on the ground. It says the aim of the talks, which Iran will also attend, is to consolidate the ceasefire.

Turkey, which backs the revolt against Assad, is also behind the new peace drive and is widely believed to have put pressure in the rebels to go to Astana.

This reflects its shifting goals in Syria, where its priorities are now shaped around combating Kurdish militia and Islamic State near its border.

UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK

The outlook for the moderate rebels is more uncertain than ever as Trump has signaled he will cut American support for rebels who have been armed under an aid program backed by the United States, Arab states and Turkey.

An invitation to Astana has been sent to the United States, but Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been left out.

The rebel divisions have long worked in Assad’s favor in the conflict, which grew out of protests against Assad and his government in March 2011 and is estimated to have killed several hundred thousand people.

Assad’s foreign allies have had a critical role in helping to shore up his control over a rump state in western Syria, even as large swathes of territory in the east and north remain in the hands of Kurdish militia and Islamic State.

Many of the rebels fighting Assad in western Syria have themselves fought Islamic State, and at times the Kurds. While they are in retreat, they still hold significant territory including nearly all of Idlib province in the northwest.

Jihadist groups such as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, were left out of the latest ceasefire. Adding to the tensions among the rebels, Fateh al-Sham’s leaders have been targeted in a spate of recent U.S. air strikes, fuelling accusations of treachery among rebel groups.

Fateh al-Sham launched an attack on another powerful Islamist group, Ahrar al-Sham, in Idlib province on Thursday. Until recently both sides were at the heart of the merger talks.

Sheikh Abdullah al-Mohaisany, a Saudi Islamist cleric who has played a prominent role in Syria mobilizing support for the insurgency, called the failure of the merger talks a “saddening, regrettable” moment that left Idlib vulnerable to attack.

“If the attack on Idlib starts … the people will say ‘come on, let’s merge’,” he said in comments to an Islamist media outlet on YouTube after the rebels were dislodged from Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city and economic hub before the conflict.

“But it will be too late.”

(Writing by Tom Perry, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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