Well, whaddya know. Al Qaeda appears to have attacked Syria and it looks like its affiliate has also attacked in Thailand. Syria is astonished and outraged. The Telegraph reports the protestations of its ambassador to the US:

'"We have been doing our best against al-Qa'eda," he said. "We share the same enemy [as America]. We aid the US in its fight against al-Qa'eda and terrorism." '

Phooey. The fact is that Syria is one of the major sponsors of terror, not least in the continuing war being waged against the US in Iraq; and yet it now seems to be itself in the line of fire from the global jihad. Some are sceptical. A report in the Jerusalem Post suggests that Syria may have staged the attack itself to deflect pressure on it to stop sponsoring terror:

'The still unexplained attacks in Damascus Tuesday night were a fabrication of Syria's Baath Party hoping for a carte blanche for a crackdown on the regime's opponents, claimed the dissident Reform Party of Syria (RPS) Wednesday. RPS noted that the attack had little of the telltale markers of an al-Qaida strike, usually a well coordinated, high-potent attack using a combination of suicide bombers and gunmen. Given al-Qaida's predilection for larger attacks, and its use of Syria as a base for operations casts doubt that the Wahabi group was involved, said RPS.'

On the other hand, Syria has a history of fighting Islamic opponents, notably when it massacred thousands of people in Hama in 1982. And the recent attack on Saudi and the attempted chemical attack on Jordan suggest that Al Qaeda's theatre of war is expanding within the Muslim world.

Meanwhile in Thailand, at least 100 Muslim terrorists have been killed after attacking police bases in the Muslim-dominated south of the country. This follows battles over the past few months in which at least 100 other Muslim terrorists have been killed. The Thai prime minister has sought to blame the problem on local crime, but others suspect an international link:

'One of the men killed in Wednesday's violence was found to be wearing a shirt with JI emblazoned on the back - a possible reference to Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for terrorist attacks across South East Asia, including the Bali bombings.'

Of course, the escalating violence in Thailand over the past months has received virtually no attention whatever in Britain. After all, don't we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt -- as was implicit in yesteday's denuniciation by the 52 revolting ex-diplomats -- that the sole cause of global terror is Israel, aided and abetted by the US? For those with eyes to see, however, it becomes ever plainer that the global jihad regards Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and anyone else as fair game if they stand in the way of realising their fascist project -- and that Israel and the US, far from being the instigators of Islamic violence, are the front line of defence.

Posted by melanie at April 28, 2004