Al-Qaeda launches PR offensive by hosting a 'FUN DAY' in Syria featuring tug-of-war and children's party games

Shameless public relations exercise held in the warn-town capital Aleppo

Activities included a tug of war, hands-free cream-eating competition

The girls took part in a Koran readings

Iraq Islamists joined forces with Syrian counterparts to form group



In an shameless public relations exercise to gain support in war-town Syria, Al-Qaeda has hosted a 'fun day' in the capital Aleppo.

The terrorist group's Syrian arm organised a friendly Ramadan festival with a tug of war and a hands-free cream-eating competition.



According to the Middle East analysis site EA World View, the group 'is attempting to win over local hearts and minds.'

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Hands-free cream-eating competition: In a shameless public relations exercise to gain support in war-town Syria Al Qaeda has hosted a 'fun day' in the capital Aleppo

Desperate: The terrorist group's Syrian arm swapped sectarian violence and mass murder for a friendly Ramadan festival

No cheating: The adjudicator hurries away the man that was helping one of the boys

Islamists from Iraq joined forces with some Syrian counterparts to form the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham earlier this year and organised the day in an attempt to appeal to locals.

Video of the activities have been posted on YouTube, although several of them have now been taken down.



One of them shows a n Al-Qaeda fighter acting as an adjudicator encouraging two boys in a competition to eat a bowl of cream without using their hands.

Show of strength: Another activity was a tug of war watched by an excited crowd

Events: As the males took part in the activities, the girls attended Koran readings

Supporters: An avid crowd watch the event unfold cheering from the sidelines

When a supporter comes along and forces a boy's head into the ice-cream in a bid to speed him up, the adjudicator pushes him away.



The girls took part in a Koran readings.

Another video shows a group of men taking part in a tug of war competition in front of a captive audience.

Meanwhile yesterday forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 15 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in a rocket attack on a rebel-held refugee camp on the southern edge of Damascus, opposition activists said.

Palestinian militia from the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) as well as Syrian army and intelligence troops have been surrounding the camp for months.

On Saturday they launched a ground infantry assault backed by tanks and multiple rocket launchers to capture the camp but were being met by stiff resistance, opposition sources said.

'The rockets hit a residential and shopping area way behind the front line.

Devastation: A Syrian man stands amidst the rubble of the Othman mosque, in Syria's eastern town of Deir Ezzor

Practice: Syrian members of the forces of order and security perform military maneuvers in an unknown area in Syria

Battle: Assad's forces have been fighting against rebels for two and a half years in a civil war that has killed at least 100,000 people

'The victims were civilians,' activist Rami al-Sayyed from the Syrian Media Centre opposition monitoring group, said from the area, adding that 45 people were wounded.

The report could not be independently confirmed. The Syrian government restricts access to journalists.

The Yarmouk Camp Coordination Committee said two Grad missiles fired by PFLP-GC militia hit the Hamdan Bakery area. Five women and five children were killed. One family living in the area, Fadlon, had five members killed, the organisation said.

Video footage taken by activists, which could not be immediately verified, showed one destroyed building and extensive damage to surrounding structures. People collected body parts from the rubble. A hand was placed into a transparent plastic bag.

Attack: A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his weapon as he takes a defensive position next to a fellow fighter inside a kitchen in a house in Deir al-Zor

Tension: A Free Syrian Army fighter aims fires through a wall

Defence: A Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover behind sandbags inside a room in a house in Deir al-Zor

Assad's forces have been fighting against rebels for two and a half years in a civil war that has killed at least 100,000 people.

Located at the southern entrance of Damascus, the sprawling camp was home to hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians before the uprising against the 13 year rule of Assad.

Yarmouk links the large rebel held Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods of Hajar al-Aswad and Asali with the capital and its capture is a key objective for loyalist forces seeking to regain control over southern Damascus, opposition sources said.

Syrian rebels aided by Palestinian fighters who had joined the revolt captured Yarmouk at the start of this year and took the PFLP-GC headquarters in the camp.

