LATEST: Saudi Arabia Accuses Islamist State of Iraq of Asssassinations Plot

MONDAY FEATURE

Week Past, Week Ahead: Regime “Wins” in Homs, But “Loses” Elsewhere

Amid the first week of campaigning for Syria’s June 3 election, President Assad’s office has hailed the “civilized…transparent democratic and pluralistic atmosphere”.

The Presidency said the atmosphere is “a reflection of the culture of respecting the other and appropriate expression of opinion of which the Syrians have a deep-rooted history”.

It also asked Syrians not to tear down or deface any placards or banners of the candidates.

Bashar al-Assad is facing a nominal challenge from two other candidates in the first multi-candidate election of his reign or that of his father, who took power in 1970.

Billboards for Assad are appearing throughout regime-controlled areas of Syria. One in Damascus “by citizens of Syria” declared “We won’t close our eyes until we have said yes to the ophthalmologist,” a reference to Assad’s initial career.

Another asserted, “Our Bashar, we will not accept a president other than you. We have chosen you, you have our loyalty.”

MP Maher Hajjar and businessman Hassan al-Nouri, a former Minister of State, were also approved to run out of 23 applicants by a Constitutional Court.


Saudi Arabia Accuses Islamist State of Iraq of Asssassinations Plot

Saudi authorities claim local recruits of the Islamic State of Iraq plotted the assassinations of leading religious figures and security officials.

The alleged plan, and another involving Al Qa’eda’s Yemen branch, were behind the arrests of 62 suspects in Saudi Arabia.

Thirty-five of those arrested had completed the kingdom’s rehabilitation program for militants, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al Turki said on Sunday.

If the allegations are true, this would be the first ISIS plan for an attack inside Saudi Arabia.

“This organization that we followed actually is very much related to Da’esh ISIS),” al-Turki said.

Islamist State of Iraq Rejects Al Qa’eda Call to Leave Syria, Says Movement is “Illegitimate”

The Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham has apparently rejected the call of Al Qa’eda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to leave Syria.

ISIS broke from Al Qa’eda this winter, after the Pakistan-based movement had tried for a year to get the Iraqi group to reconcile with the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra.

ISIS had claimed leadership of the jihadist insurgency in Syria, but Jabhat al-Nusra that it was the faction working with local Syrians. Al-Zawahiri eventually ruled in Jabhat al-Nusra’s favor.

In a claimed audio posted on jihadist forums on Sunday, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urged al-Zawahiri to remove the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra Abu Mohammed al-Jolani:

Sheikh Osama (bin Laden) gathered all the mujahideen with one word, but you divided them and tore them apart….

Either you continue with your mistake and remain stubborn, and the division and fighting among the mujahedeen will continue, or you confess to your mistake and correct it.

You make the mujahideen sad, and make the enemy of the mujahideen gloat because you support the traitor (al-Jolani), and you make the heart bleed — you are the one who instigated the strife, and you have to extinguish it.

Adnani said the call for ISIS to withdraw to Iraq was “impossible because it is unreasonable, unrealistic and illegitimate”.

Video: Insurgents Evacuate “Human Shield” Civilians in Zahra in Northwest Aleppo

Insurgents move civilians who had been caught up in fighting amid the opposition advance in Zahra in northwest Aleppo:

The opposition fighters claim they were moving civilians out of the line of regime fire, as Syrian forces and Hezbollah were effectively using them as human shields.

Insurgents say they subsequently seized the regime positions.

Pictures: State Media Declares “Reconstruction” in Homs

HOMS RECONSTRUCTION

HOMS RECONSTRUCTION 2

Clashes Between Insurgents, Kurdish Militias, and Islamic State of Iraq Continue in Eastern Syria

Fighting between insurgents and the Islamic State of IRaq and as-Sham continues throughout Deir Ez Zor Province in eastern Syria, including Jadeed Agaidat, with each side claiming victories. A “monitoring group” is putting around unconfirmed claims of hundreds of casualties and more than 100,000 peoples leaving the area.

The opposition Shaam News Network