Only the jihadists will win in Syria

Reports from the Syrian battlefronts indicate that the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, have now joined their al-Qaida allies in the Syrian rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.

The Sunni fighters will be ranged against the Shi’ite forces of Assad which are receiving support from the Lebanese Hezbollah.

This development will probably be welcomed with glee by some in the West. Terrorist groups fighting each other, what could be better? Let’s hope they kill each other off.

Sober analysis suggests exactly the opposite. Now the West loses whoever wins this civil war – and it also loses if no-one wins and if the war drags on.

All the current combatants are getting access to sophisticated weaponry. On Assad’s side it comes from Russia desperate to keep its only Middle East ally in power, while the rebels are being supplied and bankrolled by Sunni Arab states that see this as a holy war against the hated Shi’ite oppressors.   

If the war ends the victors will keep their weapons and the vanquished will probably be able to withdraw with theirs. Then all well-armed and battle-hardened jihadists can get back to their core business of attacking the infidels.  

An indefinite conflict also bodes ill for the West. Tehreek-e-Taliban commanders in Pakistan say they have already set up camps in rebel-held Syrian territory where inexperienced volunteers receive their military training before being sent to the front. They also act as rest and recreation areas and field hospitals for treating the wounded.

Such a sophisticated operation means that increasing numbers of young people from all over the Muslim world will find their way to Syria. Already there are reports of Indonesians either fighting, or ready to fight there.  A good percentage of these volunteers will become permanently radicalised and the West will be in their sights.

Speaking to Reuters, a prominent Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban, Ahmed Rashid, said Tehreek-e-Taliban was now acting like a global jihadist with the same agenda as al-Qaida.

“This is a way, I suppose, to cement relationships with the Syrian militant groups and to enlarge their sphere of influence,” Rashid said.

And caught in the middle are millions of Syrian civilians, helpless as their country and their futures descend into dust.