Jihadi Sites Call on Mujahideen in Syria to Be Patient, Not to Carry Out Military Operations

On July 16, 2011, the jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam issued a communiqué in the name of five jihadi websites and media centers - namely itself, Al-Fida, Ansar Al-Mujahideen, Al-Yaqin Media Center, and Al-Ansar Mailing List - calling on the mujahideen in Syria not to carry out military operations in order not to play into the hands of the Ba'ath regime, which was perpetrating massacres against its own people and blaming them on imaginary Salafi groups.

The communiqué claimed that the Syrian regime hoped that its recent massive release of prisoners, which it said was part of a "general clemency," would encourage those released to carry out acts of vengeance against the regime, which would frighten the West over what was likely to happen in Syria should the Ba'ath regime there fall. It also claimed that the Syrian people would not support military operations carried out by any organization or group as long as it was adhering to the peaceful uprising. Therefore, the websites and media centers called on Syria's mujahideen to be patient and to act judiciously and in such a way as to bring about "the uprooting of the regime." ...