An explosion in the northern city of Atmeh, thought to have been conducted by the Islamic State, has angered some prominent figures in the Syrian revolution with senior figures calling for open war against the group.
Several opposition figures published tweets calling for a war against the ISIS sleeper cells which have targeted dozens of opposition leaders in different areas in Syria in the past few years.
Ahmed Abazid, a Syrian researcher, commented on the explosion, tweeting: “May God have mercy on the martyrs of the Atmeh explosion, and may he take their vengeance against ISIS the extremist and traitor organization with all its opinions and takfiri mechanisms that it uses against the FSA.”
In another tweet, Abazid said that the security failure leading to the attack “was due to the multiplicity of factions and the absence of a united security apparatus, in addition to the infiltration of organizations that follow ISIS.”
Saleh al-Hamwi, a former leader in Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, previously Nusra Front, tweeded: “I will not start war with the corrupted and futile factions that have 10 checkpoints in the entrance of Atmeh city, because their wound is still warm,” adding: “They accuse us that our jihad turned into fighting extremism. The fatwas that accuse the factions that collaborate with Turkey against ISIS of infidelity provided the logistic cover for ISIS suicide bombers.”
Hamwi called for “fighting extremism and extremists that became the new nests for ISIS and its cells.”
In turn, Ahmed Najeeb, the head of the judiciary in the key rebel group Ahrar al-Sham called the suicide bombers “the firing squad,” tweeting that “each day I become more certain that these are no longer Muslims. They are Rafida (rejectionists) in their words, Kharijites in their characteristics and Qarmatians in their actions.”
Talal Bazerbashi, a leader of the Army of Islam faction, tweeted: “there are the factions that forbid the collaboration with Turkey against the heretics and apostate members of ISIS, and there are those animals that bomb themselves among jihadists and call their bombers martyrs.”
The Syrian journalist Ahmad Mowafak Zeidan wrote that the bombing was “The largest favor by the attackers for the sectarians and the occupation was killing dozens of jihadists who were heading to the fronts of Aleppo.”
He called for the “formation of a professional security force to protect the rebels who are dying in vain in their own places,” adding that “the absence of this security force makes the factions lose more than they have lost during their battles with the sectarians.”
The Atmeh explosion followed several victories by the Free Syrian Army against ISIS in the northern countryside ofAleppo during the third phase of operation “Euphrates Shield.”.
Enab Baladi observed that all the abovementioned tweets agreed on the importance of fighting ISIS to protect the north of Syria from similar attacks in the future.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.