Syrian rebel groups dominated by Islamists

Radicalized force presents a tough challenge for US






This is the landscape President Obama confronts as he considers how to respond to growing evidence that Syrian officials have used chemical weapons, crossing a red line he had set. More than two years of violence has radicalized the armed opposition fighting the government of President Bashar Assad, leaving few groups with both a political vision the United States shares and the military might to push it forward.

Among the most extreme is the notorious Al Nusra Front, the Al Qaeda-aligned force declared a terrorist organization by the United States, but other groups also share aspects of its Islamist ideology in varying degrees.

‘‘Some of the more extremist opposition is very scary from an American perspective and that presents us with all sorts of problems,’’ said Ari Ratner, a fellow at the Truman National Security Project and former Middle East adviser for the Obama administration. ‘‘We have no illusions about the prospect of engaging with the Assad regime — it must still go — but we are also very reticent to support the more hard-line rebels.’’





The religious agenda of the combatants sets them apart from many civilian activists, protesters, and aid workers who hoped the uprising would create a civil, democratic Syria.

When the armed rebellion began, defectors from the government’s staunchly secular army formed the vanguard. The rebel movement has since grown to include fighters with a wide range of views, including Al Qaeda-aligned jihadis seeking to establish an Islamic emirate, political Islamists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, and others who want an Islamic-influenced legal code like that found in many Arab states.

“My sense is that there are no seculars,’’ said Elizabeth O’Bagy, of the Institute for the Study of War.





In the oil-rich provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasaka, Nusra fighters have seized government oil fields, putting some under the control of tribal militias and running others themselves. ‘‘They are the strongest military force in the area,’’ said the commander of a Hasaka rebel brigade reached via Skype. ‘‘We can’t deny it.’’

But most of its fighters joined the group for the weapons, he said, not the ideology, and that some left after discovering the Al Qaeda connection.

“Most of the youth who joined them did so to topple the regime, not because they wanted to join Al Qaeda,’’ he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

As extremists rose in the rebel ranks, the United States sought to limit their influence, first by designating Nusra a terrorist organization, and later by pushing for the formation of a Supreme Military Council that is linked to the main exile opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition.