The Syrian conflict continues to provide an uncomfortable window into the minds of the Western establishment, as mainstream media eulogize a dead ‘moderate rebel’ commander despite evidence of his support for Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Abdel Baset Sarout, 27, was wounded last week fighting Syrian government forces, and died on Saturday at a hospital in Turkey. Sarout was quickly eulogized in Western press, with an AP profile highlighting his skills as a junior soccer goalie and calling him the “singer of the revolution,” while downplaying his ties to terrorists.

A Syrian rebel spokesman says a famous soccer goalkeeper who became an icon of the rebellion against President Bashar Assad has died of wounds suffered in a battle https://t.co/ltr88qUYOg — Bloomberg (@business) June 8, 2019

Sarout “became an icon of the rebellion against President Bashar Assad,” wrote Sarah el Deeb for AP, rehashing the myth of how the Syrian conflict began as “peaceful protests.” She paints a flattering portrait of Sarout as a hero of Homs, who “repeatedly denounced rebel infighting and called on Syrians to unite against government forces” and ended up leading a unit named after his hometown after losing his father and brothers in battle.

That story was then picked up far and wide. Left out, however, were some salient details of who exactly Sarout fought and sang for.

Western thought leaders are lionizing Abdel Baset al-Sarout who was killed fighting the Syrian army. They conveniently omit that he fought in a militia allied with al-Qaeda and pledged allegiance to ISIS. From my mini-documentary: The Syria Deception https://t.co/MpdkUbJkP7pic.twitter.com/vLThkIMZFB — Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) June 8, 2019

After the so-called Free Syrian Army disintegrated in late 2012, Sarout joined Jaysh al-Izza (Army of Glory), an Islamist group that would go on to ally with the Al-Nusra Front (an Al-Qaeda affiliate) and its subsequent rebranded incarnation Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The AP profile says that Sarout denied being a member of any radical groups in a 2015 video, but “like many rebels, he adopted more religious references in online videos after initially sticking to nationalist themes.”

Yet here is a video from prior to his evacuation from Homs in 2014, in which Sarout argues that Al-Nusra and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) “have the same goals as us” and are “working for God.”

#Syria/n jihadists & MSM journalists are mourning the death of Abdel Baset Sarout, a terrorist who at one point pledged allegiance to ISIS & was a commander of Jaish Al-Ezza, which is allied with Al-Qaeda. This video shows what kind of man he really was.pic.twitter.com/5X6zPokweF — Walid (@walid970721) June 8, 2019

Moreover, he vows to fight together with them against “Christians, Shia and apostates,” and adds that his fighters are not “scared of suicide belts and car bombs.”

Lebanese journalist Marwa Osman pointed out that Sarout had pledged allegiance to both Al-Qaeda and IS, even as people seeking to glorify him after his death were leaving out that inconvenient truth.

"Rumors"I can swear that you heard him with your own ears saying that he pledged allegiance to both AlQaeda and ISIS but you are too arrogant and too needy to admit it. Either way, Syria will get rid of those takfiri terrorists the same way it did with ISIS.Grieving much? https://t.co/CiQqDP0Aju — Marwa Osman (@Marwa__Osman) June 9, 2019

“He was both a popular figure, guiding the rebellion, and a military commander,” AP quotes Jaysh Al-Izza leader Jamil al-Saleh. “His martyrdom will give us a push to continue down the path he chose and to which he offered his soul and blood as sacrifice.”

Which path Sarout chose, Al-Saleh does not bother to explain. It becomes obvious from another video, in which the “songbird of the revolution” (as Salafist cleric Abdullah al-Muhaysini called him) leads fellow militants in a song glorifying Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Video shows Abdel Baset Sarout leading a chorus of terrorists singing a famous Al-Qaeda song which boasts about destroying the WTC and turning it into a pile of rubble on 9/11 and praises Osama Bin Laden. This is the same man who is being hailed as a hero by Western Media. #Syriapic.twitter.com/cZRmf0ZW1h — Walid (@walid970721) June 9, 2019

These, then, are the “moderate rebels” that Turkey has supported and continues to support in Syria, that the US supplied with anti-tank missiles and other weapons under the CIA’s “Timber Sycamore” program, and that AP has chosen to eulogize.

Yet the world is supposed to believe that the never-ending US war – which began in 2001 and set fire to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen so far – is all about fighting Al-Qaeda and radical Islamic terrorism.

Nebojsa Malic, RT

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