Not many could believe the terrifying pictures of two human heads placed in a cooking pot in Syria– just one of the countless atrocities of al-Qaeda. The two victims are Saudis, killed in the fight betweent the competing al-Qaeda branches in Syria: the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front.

The horrible pictures reveal yet another hideous act practiced by these two groups which only succeeded at one thing: obstructing the Syrian opposition from fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime. They spend their entire time fighting one another. Meanwhile, Assad sleeps comfortably in his bed in the Qasyoun Mountain, pleased at how he transformed those idiots into brigades working for him for free!

Foreign fighters

How do young men from Saudi Arabia end up in a cooking pot like those murdered?

They sneak out of their houses and escape to Syria to help the persecuted and to get quick ticket to paradise. They either end up killed in Syria by one of the many branches of groups fighting or they end up in a cooking pot! There is another evil and mysterious world in Syria that has nothing to do with what they've heard or read about in their country.

Syria is like many other countries which have witnessed wars. There are millions of persecuted people who live day to day without knowing whether they will die under rubble as a result of the Russian explosive barrels which Syrian jets throw everyday on their areas or whether they will be killed by Hezbollah's militias as they run for their lives.

Those who came from outside Syria alleging that they will save the Syrian people from the Assad regime's tyranny are no less evil than Assad himself. Abdulrahman al-Rashed

They don't know if their houses will become their own tombs after Assad forces shell them or whether they will starve to death before making it to the border as they try to escape into a neighboring country.

Death from multiple fronts

It's a tragedy which is difficult for anyone to imagine and understand. Those who came from outside Syria alleging that they will save the Syrian people from the Assad regime's tyranny are no less evil than Assad himself. I refer here to organizations like the ISIS and Nusra Front.

He who says that ISIS is the hideous face of extremist groups is only attempting to embellish the other hideous face -- Al-Nusra Frnt. The latter has killed and maltreated people in the name of religion. This week, it destroyed religious shrines in Aleppo, a move which angered those who initially welcomed the group believing it would protect them from Assad’s forces. Now, they've realized that Al-Nusra has come to destroy tombs and harm people!

Meanwhile, no day passes without hearing news of atrocious acts of murder carried out by ISIS. Al-Qaeda, the mother organization, issued a statement condemning the acts. A released video showed an American "mujahid" from al-Qaeda who condemned ISIS because it assassinated a leader of Ahrar al-Sham, which is affiliated with it in Aleppo.

However, the criticism was about acts against the organization’s leaders – not Syrian citizens. Think about this situation: the murdered man is Syrian from al-Qaeda and those who killed him are from ISIS - perhaps from the Gulf, Libya or Britain - and the one condemning the crime is an American man from al-Qaeda!

There are thousands of murderers and millions of frightened Syrian citizens. The number increases and not the other way around. So after all these crimes have been committed, does U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry still think America should appease the Iranians and the Russians in Syria?

Does he think that he's curbing terrorism by obstructing others from supplying moderate Syrian opposition groups, the Free Syrian Army, with advanced weapons? What a terrible, historic mistake.

This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on March 25, 2014.

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Abdulrahman al-Rashed is the General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel. A veteran and internationally acclaimed journalist, he is a former editor-in-chief of the London-based leading Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, where he still regularly writes a political column. He has also served as the editor of Asharq al-Awsat’s sister publication, al-Majalla. Throughout his career, Rashed has interviewed several world leaders, with his articles garnering worldwide recognition, and he has successfully led Al Arabiya to the highly regarded, thriving and influential position it is in today.

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:41 - GMT 06:41