Al-Qaeda militants form US neocons’ private army in Syria: Analyst

A prominent political analyst says US neo-conservatives are pursuing their objectives in Syria through their ‘private army’, which basically constitutes of al-Qaeda-linked militants fighting against the Damascus government, Press TV reports.

“Groups like the Mujahideen who fought during the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and later emerged as the Taliban and al-Qaeda were tools of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),” Gordon Duff, a senior editor at Veterans Today, told Press TV by phone on Saturday.

“There never was an al-Qaeda; well there is today. A very real al-Qaeda has been assembled, and it’s in Syria now,” he stated.

Duff added that there were pictures of “aircraft leased to the Department of Defense” on which the CIA was flying al-Qaeda members into Syria to take control of Syrian villages.

“They are taking women and girls hostage and using them as tools of sexual battery,” Duff said.

He also condemned US Senator John McCain’s surprise visit to Syria earlier this week, during which the Arizona senator met with a group of foreign-sponsored militants.

“Photographs have him meeting with criminal elements and with al-Qaeda commanders.”

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government forces, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos in the country is being orchestrated from outside.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that if the militants take power in Syria, they could destabilize the entire Middle East region for decades.