Syrian Islamists, courting West, say they will protect minorities

A conservative Islamist rebel group said on Tuesday it would protect Syria's minorities, pressing a campaign in Western media to address concerns about one of the most powerful insurgent forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Ahrar al-Sham is an ultra orthodox Salafist group and part of a military alliance including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front that captured nearly all of the northwestern province of Idlib from Assad earlier this year. One of its slain leaders, Abu Khaled al-Soury, h