And that would be by design. If he demonstrates any weakness, it will just hasten the collapse. These petty dictators always have to show that they are still strong right up till the time they fall, Just like politicians everywhere.

Of course it's not close to collapsing, this is part of the media campaign aimed at swinging the terrorist operation in favor of the "Freedom" fighters. You need to convince the herd to follow one side, and see things how they want you to see them. That way when they decide it's the right time they will invade with the backing of the people. Much like they did in Libya, you get some disenchanted people to get together to form a terrorist group (I'm sorry I meant freedom fighters forming a new Government) you arm them, and support them secretly with cash and training. Then if it looks like they're getting their a*s kicked (much like it was in Libya) you send in your troops to turn the tide. After you have assured your objective you quietly slip out the back door (Just like Libya) and you leave the Country in chaos. All part of the plan....Whatever that plan is....Keep drinking the Kool Aid people......Ramblingsfromthekoolaidstand.blogspot.com

TIDubai so you comparing the American revolution to Alqaida thugs now , we did not rape women and kill children's and beheaded them in the name of Allah . you all got all this BS backward

my turn: The US only did all of that to the Native Americans, as well as unleashing biological warfare (small pox) on them. We have no right to claim moral superiority over any other nation.

Not "we"...them. We have nothing to do with what happened in the 1700's.

I would be surprised if it is near collapse. Firstly, the rebels are for ever screaming for a no fly zone. Why? Obviously as they have little to no hope of achieving anything without their own world airforce behind them. Secondly, their tactics. They never appear to attack the Syrian forces directly. Rather they infiltrate a civilian area and force a fight which maximizes risk to civilians. In fact their tactics are much like those of the Taliban in Afghanistan right down to the IED's - which have admittedly fought our forces to a standstill/near strategic defeat. We have recently heard that Quatar has been paying off guys 10's of millions of dollars to defect ( hopefully their money, not US taxpayer dollars )- so perhaps this guys mouth is more where his money is rather than related to any conviction. We have seen what you get when you buy it in Afghanistan.

Matty, I'd like to say you are right about we/them, but "we" get blamed for slavery still...

Yea, and how many times did they say this already?
I remember the same thing being said last year every other week during the "Libyan Revolution". Also wayback2012 and Bob-3360448 are right, the rebels use Taliban-esque tactics. I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled like what they do in Afghanistan and kill Civs and blame it on (in this case) Syrian troops.

And you people comparing the US revolution to Syria's need to understand its apples and oranges. And don't justify the rebels murder by saying "oh the US did it". Other than that I'm part Cherokee, so if you want an injun to approve your use of events that happened nearly 300 years ago to push you're agenda, then go elsewhere.

Half the US population was against the Revolutionary War, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn there was raping and murder on both sides during that conflict (probably not beheadings though). We view history through rose-colored glasses when we're on the winning side.

I am glad someone mentioned the treatment of American Indians...here's some information...

American Indians are citizens of their tribes and of the United States

04 November 2008

Harvard University's museum director returns an ancient clay bowl to representatives of two New Mexican Pueblos. (© AP Images)

The history of U.S. legislation regarding American Indians reveals changing societal attitudes on their status — from members of fully sovereign nations, to dependents of the U.S. government, to holders of a quasi dual-citizenship.
Following are some of the more significant laws affecting American Indians:

1830 - The Indian Removal Act authorized the president to negotiate with Indian tribes an exchange of their lands located east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the Mississippi River.

1862 - The Homestead Act allowed adult citizens and aliens who had filed for citizenship to submit a claim for 65 hectares in return for a $10 fee. After living on the land or farming it for five years, the homesteader could pay additional fees and receive the title to the land. This act spurred settlement of land formerly designated as "Indian territory” at a time when American Indians were not considered citizens.

1887 - The Dawes Act, or General Allotment Act, established a census of American Indians known as the Dawes Rolls and allotted tribal lands to individual Indians.

1898 - The Curtis Act reaffirmed allotment of tribal lands on Indian reservations and ended tribal sovereignty in the territories.

1906 - The Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities made excavation, theft or destruction of historic or prehistoric ruins or objects of antiquity on federal lands a criminal offense. However, Indian corpses and Indian artifacts were defined as "archeological resources" and thus considered federal property.

1924 - The Indian Citizenship Act gave U.S. citizenship to American Indians, including the right to vote in national elections. However, it did not provide full protection under the Bill of Rights to Indians living under tribal governments. Several nations, including the Hopi and the Iroquois, declined U.S. citizenship in favor of retaining sovereign nationhood.

1934 - The Indian Reorganization Act, or Wheeler-Howard Act, reinstituted the role of sovereign tribes as governments for Indian people and their lands. The law ended Indian land allotment and provided for the strengthening of tribal governments and the restoration of tribal lands and powers.

1968 - The Indian Civil Rights Act prohibited Indian tribal governments from enacting or enforcing laws that violate certain individual rights. It contained language similar to the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution but did not prohibit an Indian nation from establishing an official religion.

1970 - President Nixon’s Special Message on Indian Affairs set a new direction for national policy: self-determination for Indian tribes. In his statement, Nixon condemned the “forced termination” of tribes and described them as separate political entities with special standing under U.S. law.

National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall delivers the 2005 State of Indian Nations address. (© AP Images)

1971 - The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act settled the claim of Alaska's Native Indian, Aleut and Eskimo population to the aboriginal lands on which they have lived for generations by granting title to 16 million hectares of land to be divided among some 220 native villages and 12 regional corporations.

1975 - The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act gave American Indians more control in administering federal programs and services to their people.
1976 - The Indian Health Care Improvement Act declared elevating the health status of the American and Alaska Native people to a level at parity with the general U.S. population to be national policy.
1978 - The Indian Child Welfare Act set up mandatory procedures for state agencies and courts in Indian child custody matters and established that American Indians are allowed to act as foster parents and qualify for adoption. The act also provided Indian communities with child welfare and family services.
1978 - The American Indian Religious Freedom Act protected and preserved the right of American Indians to believe, express and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects and the freedom to worship through traditional ceremonies and rites.
1988 - The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allowed tribes to conduct gambling on their land after negotiating agreements with their state governments.
1989 - The National Museum of the American Indian Act ordered the Smithsonian Institution to return American Indian remains to American Indian tribes.
1990 - The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act addressed the rights of lineal descendants, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to American Indian human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and cultural items. The statute required federal agencies and museums to provide information about American Indian cultural items to parties with standing and, upon presentation of a valid claim, ensure that the items undergo disposition or repatriation.
1990 - The Indian Arts and Crafts Act established protections for the work of Indian artists.
1994 - The Indian Trust Reform Act outlined the responsibilities of the U.S. secretary of the interior with respect to the individual trust accounts established in the General Allotment Act, or Dawes Act, of 1887.
2000 - The Indian Tribal Justice Technical and Legal Assistance Act increased American Indians’ access to legal assistance and sought to enhance the capabilities of tribal courts.
2004 - The American Indian Probate Reform Act established uniform procedures for inheritance of land allotments authorized in the General Allotment Act, or Dawes Act, of 1887.
2008 – The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act reauthorized the Department of Housing and Urban Development's affordable housing programs for Native Americans and created a new guaranteed loan program for community and economic development activities for tribes.

Now go and see what Muslims are doing for Christians in Muslim lands....

LOL! You don't happen to see any evidence that Assad is caving in or his regime is on the verge of collapse because he is controling all information and images available from the region. That is why right up till the last moment these M.E. regime leaders seem to be largely unphased by the rebels seemingly minimal military achievements. Yet while the same, "oppression" disease that infects the populace at large silently infiltrates into the inner circles of Assad supporters and creates defections sufficient to cause eventual collapse of the original rigime anyway.

AG99, Absolutely spot on. The American Revolution was a very dirty affair. Especially in the Carolinas where it degenerated into a insurgent war. Conducted by Frances Marion the Swamp Fox. The British forces used harsh tactics. Beheading probably not. Shooting of prisoners, yes. Burning of homesteads, yes. Hanging prisoners and the innocent, yes. All that was done by both sides and you can throw in tar and feathering. A particularly nasty tactic. Pouring hot tar on people. The British maintained prison ships in NYC that were the equivalent of death camps. Somewhere between 15% and 20% of the colonists were Tories and remained loyal to the crown. Until they were driven out or fled in fear to Canada. Our Revolution was more like the First American Civil War.

And I assume you have lived and done business here for years before coming up with that statement.... or not.

Living in peace is Un-Islamic.....Islam teaches only war....and Islams history proves it...

@TIDubai: As a matter of fact... I did quite a bit of 'business' with the Iraqi's during Operation: Desert Storm and Desert Fox. Turned around a short while later, and did 'business' as a Blackwater consultant.

Now I'm doing business with other areas - I'm sure you'll approve of my craftsmanship when you see the Predator drones circling overhead.

But LIVED there? Spent some time, sure, but would NEVER want to claim residence. It would take considerably more money than either a military or private security contract pays. As a matter of fact - it would take more money than any one country's government takes in to get me to live in the sphincter of the world.

And that's only if all the humaniods were removed first.

I do not and will not accept Islam as anything but man-made, like it's cousin Christianity. Just another means of oppressing people and justifying murder.

Sounds like you had a jolly good time helping out with murder in Iraq and enjoy seeing the Predator drones doing the same. Glad to know my tax dollars are going to people like you... not.

I did my duty, I did my job, and I do what is required.

War is hell, and war in the middle east is hell on earth.

Personally, I prefer to keep it where it came from - in sun-baked imaginations.

From here it looks like America is the same. Aurora, Wisconsin, Texas...

to my turn-5304605

"TIDubai so you comparing the American revolution to Alqaida thugs now , we did not rape women and kill children's and beheaded them in the name of Allah . you all got all this BS backward"

Ask an Indian about raping women and killing children. Look up the history of the details of what happen 3 years after the so-call first Thanksgiving.

Also, the true history of the american revolution was that the vast majority did NOT want to revolt. they just wanted for the king to hear their complaints.

As for the attacked on 9/11, look up the "5 dancing Israels".

You must be a white christian because you lead on a leash to hate without asking what is going on.

Brother, check your facts from more than one source. Ask yourself who is telling you this. Then, maybe, the hate within you will be gone.

Jose Thanks buddy , that's the first time i been called white white Christians racist , actually I am an American I was born in Syria and yes buddy I am a christian but the Christian that worry about his brothers in that part of the world , because it seems like no care about the Christians in Syria or anywhere in that part of the world , Our politicians are too busy trying to please all these no good Kings and Princes in the Gulf , the ones that responsible for 9/11 , so you got me all wrong buddy , I just want people to understand that these thugs are far away from being a freedom fighters , unlike what Hillary , McCain , Graham , Lieberman trying to tell us , these are murderers an thugs .

WE intentiolly murdered Briotish women and children? Where'd you go to School? Progressive University?

Actually, that is true. Remember, the revolution lasted close to 15 years. Before you go on about how little I know, ask yourself, what where the complaints that lead to the revolution. Yes, taxes was the primary one but what where the others?

There certainly are reasons Muslims and Muslim countries take so long to achieve anything...

Muslims make a very important point—the West has become a godless society
filled with immorality and perversions. Of course, the West could respond that
their failings are more public due to the freedom of the press in Western
democracies—a freedom absent in nearly every Muslim populated country. However,
it is true that without God a society lacks a moral safety net.

Numerous studies have indicated that religion functions as both a safety net
and a ceiling for the possibilities of human nature. Without religion
individuals lack a moral safety net to prevent many individuals from acting upon
their impulses. The result? Individuals are prone to disorders of
impulse—addictions, crimes of impulse (theft, rape, murder), suicide, etc. When
religions are overly rigid, they cause a stifling of creative impulse and the
higher functions of human nature that arise out of the freedom of impulse.
Individuals become authoritarian, rigid, lack creativity, etc.

The problems of the West arise because it has drifted from its
Judeo-Christian moral foundation. Muslims countries have not drifted so far from
Islam. Thus disorders of impulse (which are on the rise in Muslim populated
countries) are not yet rampant. However, the oppressive legalism of Islam so
stifles human nature that nearly every higher creative impulse has been
destroyed or submerged. It has become a desert religion that creates an
intellectually oppressive desert of the human mind and soul.

What great intellectual achievement has come from a Muslim country since the
Middle ages—scientific, artistic, philosophical, or otherwise? Answer: None!
Nearly every scientific advancement has come from the West. Muslim populated
countries have had to import Western talent or have had to send their best and
brightest students to the West for a true education that is something more than
rote memorization. (By the way, many of these Muslim students when out of a
Muslim country yield to impulse. I have talked to university officials who say
that a huge number of illegitimate births (or abortions) on campus involve a
Muslim male. So for many Muslims the moral safety net isn’t internalized and
integrated into the individual’s personality and character).

Only one Muslim writer has received the Nobel prize in literature—Naguib
Mahfouz. The Muslim brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimun) first loved him, then
turned against him. He was stabbed. Salman Rushdie is on the cutting edge of
magical realism, an exciting new development within literature. He had to go
into hiding so Muslims wouldn’t kill his creative freedom. Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe Islam doesn’t provide the moral safety net to the degree I thought. More
likely—the moral safety net of Islam includes attacking that which is creative
and different. Perhaps the purported moral strength and superiority of Islam
really hides a deeper fear that the moral strength can’t withstand human
creativity. Does this mean that the moral strength of the system purportedly
created by Allah crumbles in the presence of a mere human exercising the
creative impulse? Sad!!!

Islam fears individuals acting upon freedom and the search for meaning and
identity. It is the height of rigidity. This is seen in the prescription for
apostasy. An individual who tires of the stifling nature of Islam and who
desires to exercise her/his mind and heart to find God as God reveals God’s self
to her/him must stop, return to Islam, or die. Why? The great fear of a rigidly
moralistic (not moral but moralistic) system is freedom. Fromm noted that
individuals submit to a huge array of destructive oppressive ideologies because
they fear freedom. While there may be no compulsion in Islam—neither is there
freedom. The result? You don’t have to become a Muslim, but you aren’t free not
to be a Muslim (if you are one). So...you just are a Muslim—not subject to the
ravages of giving into one’s impulses (at least not when you are in a Muslim
populated country), but not blessed by the development of higher intellectual
and creative impulses.

In the book of Job within the Bible, God says to Job, "gird your loins, be a
man. I ask the questions, you come up with the answers." We humans don’t like
that freedom and responsibility. We don’t want to have to be that courageous. We
want to ask the questions and have God give us the answers—tell us what to do.
If we were to create a religion, we would create one with all the answers about
every aspect of life—a stifling absence of freedom and the possibility to
develop a creative intellectual nature. We would create something like Islam—a
complete way of life devoid of freedom and true responsibility (and creativity).
We would call creativity—bid’ah—and denounce the "innovation." Our only
responsibility would be to do what we were told to do (a religion for children).
For me that is the very proof of the human origin of Islam.

It is sad! Muslims are absolutely correct! The problems of the Christian West
are due to the rejection of the Christian faith. The problems of the Islamic
world are due to the presence of the Islamic faith.

You are only partially correct largely due to an incomplete perspective of history and evolving civilizations. Otherwise you only see a perspective that's available from outside the region and draw overly-simplistic conclusions accordingly. The fact early Islam was the source of most technological or scientific advancements and civil/social development via advanced education on the entire earth in it's glory days shows the naivette of your long-winded assumptions.

Make no mistake...Russia is still a superpower....

Since when have Muslims been concerned about killing women and children with machine guns and bombs...they've been doing this ever since they got machine guns and bombs....and most of their victims have been other Muslims....

You've never seen Muslim governments or organizations rushing in to stop it..they only encourage it...backed by the Qur'an...

Bobby and the people in the USA are also looking for a better life. Our government says they have NO NO money but they have money to fund the terrorist like AQ an the Wahhabi's Muslim extremist and money to start wars around the world. But, they have no money for education and to help the poor living right here in the USA.

Life in Iraq will never improve as long as Islam rules..Wherever Islam goes misery appears...

These "freedom fighters" want to install a more repressive form of Islamic government complete with the draconian Shar'ia law. This rebellion is just another link in Islam's chain to establish a global Islamic caliphate ruled by Shar'ia law. They wish to make Islam the only religion...Just picture a world that looks like Saudia Arabia....no women's rights, no religious plurality, no freedom of conscience, no freedom of speech and do not forget the religious police aka The Ministers for the protecton of virtue and the prevention of vice who run around spying on people to catch and prosecute them for any violation of its Shar'ia law....punishment for Shar'ia law violations is sadistic and brutal...The Christians and other religious miniorities are getting slaughtered in Syria, just like they are anywhere else where Islam advances.

I have a family in Syria and what my turn is telling is the truth..those terrorist has behead it hundreds of civilian in the name of allah. throwing civilian from five floor building to their death just because they don't wont to join them..talk about freedom..the whole story is all fabricated and the American people buy that..Since the problem started in Syria the only thing we here here is news coming from those thugs way to go America.

Sam07-3051288 ...the same thing with the Palestinians...all you ever hear about is their version of the violence...they're always claiming to be the victim...

President Barack Obama has signed a covert directive authorizing U.S. support for Syrian rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces, U.S. officials told CNN on Wednesday.

The secret order, referred to as an intelligence "finding," allows for clandestine support by the CIA and other agencies.

It was unclear when the president signed the authorization for Syria, but the sources said it was within the past several months.

I guess a secret is not really a secret in the obama administration.

Anything to get elected.

From the website Jidhad Watch we find out some of Obamas activities...

The Leftist media just can't figure out why people would think Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. They think, as this witless article in Slate shows, that it must be because of his name, or his race. It never occurs to them, or they deliberately wish to obfuscate the fact, that Obama has repeatedly reinforced this impression throughout his presidency. Whether he is a Muslim or not, he has acted favorably toward Islam and Islamic supremacism from the day he took office. Pamela Geller included a lengthy but still partial list of the many ways he has done so in an article she wrote in June 2010:

• March 2009: Obama declares the "war on terror" is over, despite a dramatic increase in jihad war ops.
• March 2009: he floats the idea that he will talk to violent, genocidal Hamas.
• March 2009: he demands that more Muslim Americans work in the Obama administration and insists that they be recruited.
• April 2009: Obama tells Europe to admit Islamic Turkey into the EU, much to the consternation of the Europeans.
• April 2009: Obama demands that non-Muslims respect Islam (despite our differences) in a speech in Turkey.
• April 2009: Obama says in a speech from Turkey, "We are not a Christian nation."
• April 2009: Dalia Mogahed, the first hijab-clad senior adviser to Obama on Muslim affairs, says in an interview with terrorist- and jihad-supporting Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi's website, "Many have claimed that terrorists have 'hijacked Islam.' I disagree. I think Islam is safe and thriving in the lives of Muslims around the world. What the terrorists have been allowed to take over are Muslim grievances."
• April 2009: Obama lays groundwork for a partnership with Hamas.
• May 2009: Obama promises to offer his "personal commitment" to Muslims.
• May 2009: Obama calls America "one of the largest Muslim countries on the planet."
• June 2009: Obama invites the Muslim Brotherhood, a violent global jihadist group whose sole objective is a universal caliphate, to his speech to the ummah (Muslim community) in Cairo.
• June 2009: Obama makes a stunning speech to the Muslim world from Al Azhar University in Cairo. It defies explanation.
• July 2009: Obama reaches out to the violent jihadists of Hezb'allah.
• July 2009: Obama creates a new office at the State Department, Outreach to the Worldwide Muslim community, reporting directly to Hillary Clinton.
• July 2009: The State Department Welcomes Hamas mouthpiece Al-Quds TV to D.C. to film Propaganda.
• Obama promises to close GITMO.
• Obama is rebuked when plans are revealed for CIA prosecutions for 911 interrogations: Seven Ex-chiefs of CIA Oppose Case Review: ALL Sign letter to Stop CIA Persecutions.
• In July 2009, Obama sanctions the brutal crackdown of those marching for freedom in Iran and sides with the mullahcracy. He stands silent about the Iranian regime's mass executions, mass rape, and murder.
• July 2009: Obama plans to slash the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
• September 2009: Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton on Obama at the U.N.: "This is the most radical anti-Israel speech I can recall any president making...I have to say I was very shaken by this speech."
• October 2009: Obama offers millions in Muslim technology fund.
• November 2009, Fort Hood Jihad Coverup: Obama Urges Congress To Put Off Fort Hood Probe, Warns Against Turning Tragedy Into "Political Theater"
• November 2009: Obama offers the Taliban control of the Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Kunar, and Nuristan provinces, in return for a halt to the Taliban missile attacks on U.S. bases.
• November 2009: Obama reaches out to bloodthirsty jihadis in the Philippines.
• On Thanksgiving eve, Obama issues a special Hajj message to the world's Muslims.
• December 2009: Obama's "Non-Religious" White House Christmas and No Christmas Gifts for his Kids.
• February 2010: Obama names a Hafiz to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. "And as a hafiz of the Koran, [Hussain] is a respected member of the American Muslim community," Obama said in his message to the Doha meeting, using the Arabic world for someone who has memorized the Islamic holy book.
• February 2010: Obama cuts U.S. space program, orders NASA to work with Muslim countries
• February 2010: Covering up for jihadists in the White House.
• Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, Involved in Obama Passport Breach
• March 2010: Obama Obsession with Islam: Calls "entrepreneurship summit" with Muslims.
• April 2010: Libyan President Gaddafi Praises Obama: "Barakeh Obama is friend"; "He is of Muslim descent, his policy should be supported..."
• May 2010: Obama's Counterterrorism Adviser Calls Jihad "Legitimate Tenet of Islam."
• May 2010: White House Pro-Terrorism John Brennan Speechifies in Arabic, Equates Terrorists with Shoplifters, Lawmakers Call for his Firing.
• June 2010: Obama equivocates on the jihad warship convoy (affectionately named a "flotilla" by the media): Obama "Expressed a Deep Regret Over Loss of [Jihadist] Life"
• June 2010: Obama administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at U.N.

And that's just up to June 2010. It isn't as if he has changed course since then. And while he did approve of the killings of bin Laden and al-Awlaki, he has never done anything or said anything negative about the non-violent advance of Sharia in the Islamic world or in the West, including the U.S.

"The Muslim Rumor That Just Won't Die," by Matt Taylor for Slate, June 22 (thanks to Kenneth):

Ever since he began running for president in 2007, Barack Obama has been dogged by rumors that he's secretly a Muslim. Whether it's his exotic name and background, the color of his skin, or (most likely) some combination of the two, the Muslim lie just doesn't seem to go away.

Each time it has begun to fade from public discussion, the Muslim rumor has cropped up again, like it did last year when real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who was publicly weighing a presidential bid at the time, insisted he had evidence showing Obama wasn't born in the United States (and that his birth certificate might show that he's Muslim).

In response, the president eventually took the extraordinary step of releasing his long form birth ceritificate [sic], which showed he was born in Hawaii as claimed. But a new Gallup poll finds that even now, a healthy chunk of Americans believe the rumor:

Just 34% of Americans correctly say U.S. President Barack Obama is a Christian, while 44% say they don't know Obama's religion and 11% say he is a Muslim.

Obama is a Christian and has labeled himself as such as in his writings and interviews, and while living in Chicago he attended the Trinity United Church of Christ. Since moving into the White House, Obama has attended several different Christian churches....

Also it would probably would be in Israel's best interest to support them as well so as to secure its northeastern border with a more friendly regime.

bwahahahaha...the various Islamic groups participating in the revolution have vowed to anihilate Israel...how would supporting the rebels be in Israels best interest?

Hello pulsar182, racism and ignorance is neither attractive or helpful in resolving the problems on our planet. You are either one of the children left behind or a government shill.

There is no doubt the Syrian revolutionaries want to establish Shar'ia law...This is not good for peace or civilization....

"As soon as Assad has fallen, these fighters want to introduce Islamic law, Sharia, in Syria"

And so Obama is supporting the advent of yet another Sharia state.

Meanwhile, note that Britain's newest export is jihad. "Foreign Office investigates reports of Britons among Islamist kidnappers of journalists in Syria," by Colin Freeman in the Telegraph, July 28 (thanks to Banafsheh Zand):

The Foreign Office is investigating reports that British citizens are among Islamist fighters who kidnapped a British photographer and his Dutch colleague in northern Syria.

John Cantlie and Dutchman Jeroen Oerlemans were held by the group for a week after they accidentally came across their camp while crossing the border from south east Turkey to report on the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

During their time in captivity they were threatened with death unless they converted to Islam, and both were shot and slightly wounded when they attempted to flee barefoot. They were freed on Thursday night after a group of Free Syrian Army soldiers turned up the camp and angrily demanded that they be released.

Mr Cantlie has not yet spoken of his ordeal, but Mr Oerlemans told Dutch media that some of the gang, which is reported to have been between 30 and 100 strong, had "Birmingham accents".

A source close to the incident told The Sunday Telegraph that there possibly at least six men with British-sounding voices, including one with a heavy south London accent.

"Nobody is quite sure yet how many, but these people generally travel in small groups of about half a dozen," the source said.

The camp members also reportedly included people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Chechnya, with no Syrians present. The source added that "round 40 per cent" of them apparently spoke English, although it was not clear what nationalities they were.

The possibility of British nationals or residents being present among the group will be of concern to the Government, which has done much in recent years to try to stop British-born Asians and Arabs enlisting with foreign jihadist movements.

The reports come amid growing concern that groups of Sunni extremists and al-Qaeda factions are attempting to join the rebel movement in Syria.

Speaking to Dutch media, Mr Oerlemans said that he and Mr Cantlie spent much of their time blindfolded. He told the NRC Handelsblatt newspaper: "One of the black jihadists freaked out and shouted: 'These are journalists and now they will see we are preparing an international jihad in this place.'"

The group accused them of being spies, and considered holding them for ransom, said Mr Oerlemans. He added: "As soon as Assad has fallen, these fighters want to introduce Islamic law, Sharia, in Syria."...