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Veteran Lebanese Fighter Trains New Generation of Jihadis - Against Syria's Assad
(Christian Science Monitor) Nicholas Blanford - Mustapha, a veteran of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, is using his past military experience to train dozens of Lebanese volunteers eager to cross the nearby border with Syria to join the armed opposition against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The Lebanese recruits are not the only non-Syrians to volunteer for the struggle against the Assad regime. Other foreign fighters include Jordanians, Tunisians, Algerians, and Saudis. Their presence is effectively turning the country into a new theater of jihad pitting a predominantly Sunni opposition against an entrenched regime elite drawn mainly from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Khaled joined the Free Syrian Army a year ago after being trained by Mustapha. He insists that there is no al-Qaeda presence in Syria and that the foreign volunteers are simply devout Muslims engaged in jihad. "I am a Muslim on jihad to defend Muslims. If the West cannot understand that and thinks I'm al-Qaeda, then the West has a problem."