The US and the EU Should Support the Free Syria Army and the Egyptian Army

There is significant military action in both Syria and Egypt, largely ignored by international media that are focused on the US-Russian Syria chemical weapons deal. FIRST -- CNN and AP have reported that al-Qaida-linked militants were on the verge of capturing a strategic border gate between Turkey and opposition-controlled northern Syria late Wednesday night. Jihadist-islamist fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) advanced toward the Turkish border hours after they pushed more moderate Syrian rebels out of the nearby Syrian town of Azaz. CNN talked with Abu Rashid, a commander from the Northern Storm Brigade, a rebel contingent from the opposition Free Syrian Army. "We are trying to bring reinforcements to make sure that the border crossing is not lost to the ISIS," he said. The Northern Storm Brigade has controlled Azaz and the Syrian side of the Oncupinar-Bab el Salama border crossing with Turkey for the past year after it wrested control of the town from the government of Bashar al-Assad. This is the gate through which much of American and western humanitarian aid flows. It was also where Senator John McCain crossed from Turkey into Syria this summer. ISIS aims to form a radical-islamist state including Iraq and Syria.vISIS fighters in Syria czome from Iraq, North Africa, Lebanon, and Turkey. SECOND -- There is continuing infighting among rebel groups in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq, and in the north where al-Qaida fighters from the ISIS and their allies in the Nusra Front have been battling Kurdish anti-government rebels for months. The infighting increased after ISIS jihadists tried to arrest a German doctor, who was a volunteer in the region, for photographing them. The doctor escaped but the two rebel factions began fighting. There are video reports of gathering groups of ISIS pickup trucks with mounted artillery gathering near the Iraq border. THIRD -- The Egyptian military has retaken Dalga, the southern Egyptian town where I reported attacks on Christians and pillaging of Churches by Moslem Brotherhood islamic militants. But, Dalga Christians are not feeling secure yet. For example, Brotherhood members on motorbikes are driving by Sameer Hanna Tanyous's home in this southern Egyptian town making a menacing gesture — running their fingers across their throats. Others, he says, shout warnings that security forces won't be there forever to protect him and other Christians. This week, a large contingent of Egyptian army troops and police rolled into Dalga, backed by helicopter gunships, breaking the hold of islamist hardliners who seized control of the town of 120,000 in early July in a spasm of violence after the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. Their grip terrorized the town's Christians, as Brotherhood radicals torched and looted their homes, businesses and churches. The town's estimated 20,000 Christians fear the troops will stay only long enough to make some arrests and once they're gone, the backlash from militants against them will be even worse. The predicament of Dalga's Christians reflects that of the minority community across the country especially in the rural communities of the south, where religious conservatism is prevalent among Moslems and radical Brotherhood islamists wield considerable influence. Egypt's Christians have long complained of discrimination, but their situation dramatically worsened during Morsi's year in office, when islamists were freed to terrorize Christians. After the military ousted Morsi on July 3, his Brotherhood supporters unleashed a backlash of violence that largely targeted Christians, whom they accused of pushing for his removal. Christian homes and businesses around the country were attacked, particularly in provinces of the south, like Minya, where Dalga is located Security forces that retook control of Dalga on Monday have detained at least 130 militants. The local police station is now houses a half dozen police generals and hundreds of policemen, with police in full riot gear milling around. To Dalga's islamists, the assault by the security forces on their town is another crime by military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, whom they accuse of overturning the democratic process by removing Morsi following mass protests demanding his ouster. ~~~~~ Dear readers, one of the negative aspects of the current bickering in Geneva over the August 21 Syrian chemical attack is that public attention has been diverted from alarming activities on the ground in Syria, where radical-jihadists are increasingly in control of strategic points in rebel-held territory and are attacking Free Syria Army units to reduce their territorial influence. But, in Egypt, despite today's CNN characterization of what is happening as "chaos on Egyptian streets," it is not chaos but the Egyptian army's effort, which now seems to be more organized and determined, to halt the continued Moslem Brotherhood assaults on Egyptians who do not want a Brotherhood presence in their communities. America and Europe should not lose sight of the need to support both the Egyptian army and the moderate Free Syria Army.