Al-Qaida chief backs rebel forces in Syria

BEIRUT — Al-Qaida’s leader has called for the ouster of Syria’s “pernicious, cancerous regime,” raising fears that Islamic extremists will try to exploit an uprising against President Bashar Assad that began with peaceful calls for democratic change but is morphing into a bloody, armed insurgency.

The regime has long blamed terrorists for the 11-month-old revolt, and al-Qaida’s endorsement creates new difficulties for the U.S., its Western allies and Arab states trying to figure out a way to help force Assad from power. On Sunday, the 22-nation Arab League called for the U.N. Security Council to create a joint peacekeeping force for Syria, but Damascus rejected it immediately.

In an eight-minute video message released late Saturday, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to support Syrian rebels.

The United Nations estimates more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March. But that figure is from January, when the U.N. stopped counting because the chaos in the country has made it all but impossible to check the figures.

While many of the anti-government protests sweeping the country remain peaceful, the uprising as a whole has become more violent in recent months as frustrated demonstrators and army defectors take up arms to protect themselves from the steady military assault. An increasing number of army defectors known as the Free Syrian Army have launched attacks, killing soldiers and security forces.

Syria now has become one of the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring, and many fear the country of 22 million at the heart of the Arab world is on the verge of a civil war that could consume the region.

In an escalation of the violence, a string of suicide attacks have killed dozens of people since late December. The latest, twin bombings in the major northern city of Aleppo, killed at least 28 people Friday, the government said. Some 70 people were killed in earlier attacks in the capital, Damascus, on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6. All the blasts struck security targets.

Nobody has taken responsibility for the attacks, but the regime said they have the hallmarks of al-Qaida and immediately blamed the global terrorist group.

Saturday’s statement by al-Zawahri, who took over al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces last May, appears to bolster Assad’s accusations, but the Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army reject the government’s claims entirely. They accuse forces loyal to the regime of setting off the blasts to smear the opposition, terrify people into submission and exploit fears of chaos and sectarian warfare.

For many Syrians, the uncertainty over the future is cause for alarm in a country that has watched neighboring Lebanon and Iraq descend into bloody wars over the years. Syria is a fragile jigsaw puzzle of Middle Eastern backgrounds including Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, Druse, Circassians, Armenians and more.

After Friday’s bombings in Aleppo, Zuheir al-Atasi, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, accused the government of staging the attacks.

“After the heavy explosions, members of the opposition went to the site to film it. There were ambulances but no corpses. We documented that on tape,” he said in Vienna during a gathering of Syrian opposition groups. “When the Syrian National TV arrived they started to bring out corpses. Once again we witnessed a theater play.”

There is virtually no way to determine who was behind the attacks or to perform an independent investigation in Syria, one of the most authoritarian states in the Middle East. Assad has largely sealed off the country and prevented reporters from moving freely. The Arab League sent a now-suspended observer mission into the country to provide an outside view, but government minders accompanied the team.

Also Sunday, a Sunni sheik in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region said a group of clerics in the area is calling for a Muslim jihad, or holy war, against Assad’s regime.

“Jihad is the duty of every Muslim against the Assad regime,” said Sheik Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Karim Barzanji, describing the edict issued by the Union of the Scholars of Islam in Kurdistan. “Any support from any Muslim or country is forbidden.”

Syria has a large population of Kurds, who have mostly stayed on the sidelines of the uprising since Assad’s regime began giving them long-denied citizenship as a gesture to win support.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff said it’s only a matter of time before the Assad government collapses.

Jacob Lew told Fox News Sunday that the U.S. and its allies have brought “serious financial pressure” on Syria and that Assad’s government is “feeling it.”

While the violence continues as rebels try to topple Assad, Lew said the transition “from tyranny to democracy is very hard.” Lew said the Syrian people “have to handle this in a way that works in Syria.”

Lew said, “The brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable and has to end.” He said the U.S. is pursuing “all avenues that we can” and that “there is no question that this regime will come to an end. The only question is when.”

In other developments, the Arab League called for the formation of a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping force for Syria to replace the league’s observation mission, which had been suspended as violence persisted.

The league said Saturday that it decided to ask the United Nations Security Council to authorize the creation of an Arab-U.N. peacekeeping force “to supervise implementation of a cease-fire,” according to a league statement given to reporters in Cairo.

The league called for ending “all forms of diplomatic cooperation” with representatives of Assad’s regime, the 22-member group said in a statement issued after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers. The league urged “all countries that are keen to preserve Syrian lives” to follow suit.

Syria rejected the Arab League decision, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported, citing a statement by the Syrian ambassador to Egypt, Youssef Ahmed. The Arab League last month suspended its observer mission, citing “the grave deterioration of the situation in Syria.” Information for this article was contributed by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Lara Jakes and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Hamza Hendawi, Philipp Jenne and Kimberly Dozier of The Associated Press; and by Mariam Fam, Abdel Latif Wahba, Glen Carey, Stephanie Armour and Flavia Krause-Jackson of Bloomberg News.