Destruction of Syria's Rebel Forces in Battle of Khirbet Ghazaleh Engineered By Foreign Interests 'Confesses' Rebel Military Leader — To Limit Legitimacy of Al Nusra Jihadists

Footage from the battle of Khirbet Ghazaleh. (Screen capture from YouTube video)

By Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh
A confession from a rebel commander captured by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria claimed foreign intelligence services orchestrated a disastrous military defeat for anti-regime forces in Deraa last year.

Ahmed Nehmeh, a former Syrian air force colonel who defected to become a key link between Western and Arab intelligence agencies and moderate rebels in southern Syria, said the defeat in the strategic town of Khirbet Ghazaleh, last May, was deliberately arranged by the rebels’ international backers.

Rebel commander Ahmed Nehmeh. (Screen
capture from YouTube video)

Col Nehmeh, head of the Free Syrian Army’s Derra Military Council (DMC), was taken prisoner by Jabhat Al Nusra after an ambush in Deraa on Saturday, and is to stand trial in a rebel court on charges of treason.

He appeared on Tuesday in the video confession uploaded to a Facebook site and on YouTube, looking tired and bruised after three days of interrogation. He had clearly been beaten...

The rationale for the move, he said, was that Al Nusra forces were playing a major role in the Khirbet Ghazaleh attack and stood to increase their influence on the southern front.

Rather than allow Al Nusra to make gains, Western and Arab intelligence agencies engineered a victory for forces loyal to the president, Bashar Al Assad.

That explanation dovetailed with rumours that have swirled around the Khirbet Ghazaleh debacle since it happened.

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