Pro-Western fighters in Syria

""By Saturday evening, a group of some 150 foreign fighters describing themselves as Islamists had taken control of the post.  These fighters were not at the site on Friday, when rebel fighters captured the post.  Some of the fighters said they belonged to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), while others claimed allegiance to the Shura Taliban.  They were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket launchers and improvised mines.  The fighters identified themselves as coming from a number of countries: Algeria, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates -- and the Russian republic of Chechnya, itself prey to two brutal conflicts in the 1990s as Moscow clamped down on separatist militants."" (thanks Austin)