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al-Qaida is also present in Syria in the form of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, previously Nusra Front. They have Afghan veterans in their ranks, but do not have the sam
by jacobr 9y ago
al-Qaida is also present in Syria in the form of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, previously Nusra Front. They have Afghan veterans in their ranks, but do not have the same level of sofistication and standardization as the Islamic State.
It's not obvious exactly why the IS is different, but I doubt it has anything to do with American influence. Other rebel groups in the Syrian civil war has had direct American training but they were highly undisciplined and ineffective.
- varjag 9y agoIf anything they were Iraqi army veterans trained by Soviets. But guess complaining about Russian imperialist overreach is unfashionable.
- azernik 9y agoThe big difference is that ISIS descends from Al-Qaida's Iraqi franchise, which picked up a lot of professionalism from demobilized Iraqi Army officers. ISIS was expelled/quit AQ when it started moving in from Iraq and muscling in on Nusra's turf, but they do have common origins.