The correspondent of Al-Quds Al-`Arabi (Qatari-funded) in Jordan (who is very well-informed and very well-connected) writes: "And the battallion of "Ahl Ash-Sham" is practically the new Syrian version of Al-Qa`idah which according to Jordanian sources is numbered around 6000 fighters, among them Asians and Gulf people and even some Europeans, and there are many Pakistanis and Tunisians and Algerians, and specifically Saudis..."