Tuesday, April 05, 2016

The long reach of the 1980s

Wall Street Journal report on the death (apparently via US air strike) of Jabhat al-Nusra leading figure Abu Firas al-Souri --

He was believed to be in his late 60s and a native of the Damascus countryside. He served as an officer in the Syrian army in the 1970s and later took part in the Islamist-led insurrection against Hafez al-Assad, Mr. Assad’s father and founder of the regime. As that rebellion was crushed in the early 1980s, Mr. Alsouri moved to Afghanistan, where he trained jihadists fighting Soviet occupation at the time.

From the Al-Assad military to the brutally repressed Muslim Brotherhood rebellion to fighting in Afghanistan to fighting the against the Al-Assads and Putin in his native land.

The world is still paying the price for decades of blind eye to Hafez al-Assad, and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

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