'Sometimes NATO Ally' Turkey May Have Found terrorist Horse To Back In Ahrar al Sham, But US Disagrees.

'Sometimes NATO Ally' Turkey May Have Found terrorist Horse To Back In Ahrar al Sham, But US Disagrees. (IBtimes).

ISTANBUL -- On the battlefield in northern Syria, moderate rebel groups who used to dominate the struggle against President Bashar Assad are falling one after the other.

Some of them, previously backed by the U.S., are now dissolved into radical Islamist factions.

But one, a more extremist rebel group, has gained power with the help of Turkey, say rebel leaders in Aleppo, Syria. Turkey is forging its own path to try and topple Assad by actively supporting Ahrar al Sham, a group with ties to al Qaeda that the U.S. has for years kept at arm’s length -- and that strategy is pitting Turkey against Washington, its biggest ally.

The group has in the past been linked to Jabhat al-Nusra, the al Qaeda offshoot in Syria, and is known for its extremist and anti-Western political values.

But like Jabhat al-Nusra, it does not have a reputation for brutality: It does not behave like the Islamic State group. In fact, it’s opposed to it.

Turkey’s support for Ahrar al Sham is representative of a larger conflict between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and the U.S. that is now coming to what analysts are calling a tipping point.

The U.S. and the coalition still need reassurance from Turkey, the most influential and militarily strongest power in the region, to assuage their fears that any weapons they provide may eventually land in the hands of extremist groups.

“A lot of Western observers are simply puzzled by the way Turkey has handled this subject,” Pierini said.

“On the one hand Turkey says it is against violence and that ISIS is a terrorist organization. But at the same time the anti-Western narrative is something that is regarded with sympathy by the religious conservatives in Turkey and the electorate.” Hmmm.......It's high time NATO, EU and the U.S. wake up and realize the have potentially the Islamist equivalent of Hitler in their midst. Read the full story here.