This report also provides some interesting evidence to the fact of the Islamic State trying to take over Idlib by stealth proxy, including, among others, the infiltration of Al Nusra itself with IS loyalists. For this you can follow the link to read the whole report.
From our perspective what matters is the growing Sunni antagonism towards the US-led coalition with one rebel commander warning that the US can become the real enemy with the rebels and their supporters turning even more towards the IS and Al Nusra. This antagonism is very much fueled by the growing discrepancy between the military effort America is investing into attacking the IS/Al Nusra and the lack of military action to stop the Syrian regime from barrel bombing and shelling rebel held areas.
And here I should notice that the more the war drags on, the more grows the contrast between the sheer volume of bombs dropped on IS/Nusra and the lack of action against the Syrian regime, antagonizing the Sunni street and rebel groups ever further. That is, there is a trend here which is unsustainable in the medium to long run. And it can see the US plan in Syria to go up in flames pretty soon.
It's this aspect of the situation that this blog is most interested in. (In case you wondered about the logic behind this blog's seemingly erratic way of selectively linking and quoting reports such as this one)
Al Nusra fighter with a sword in Jabal az Zawiya after
the group obliterated the US sponsored SRF in the area
# McClatchyDC
BY ROY GUTMAN AND MOUSAB ALHAMADEE () {
Date = November 13, 2014
[...]
Whatever the U.S. intent, commanders say the first attacks... created a wave of sympathy for the al Qaida affiliate among Syrians, both the general public and, more importantly, the fighters.
That “supportive factor” allowed Nusra to sweep through Idlib province this month, displacing the more moderate rebel groups, said Gen. Ahmed Berri, a veteran commander from Hama province whom civilian opposition leaders selected last month to be the chief of staff over rebel forces. Nusra said it was targeting corrupt rebel leaders.
[...]
Neither side deployed large numbers of fighters for the battle, but Nusra had the advantage, commanders said, because the two secular groups’ fighters weren’t willing to battle Nusra, which had been fighting Assad government forces.
“Then the coalition came and bombed it, so people in Syria considered that the coalition was supporting the regime,” Berri said. That did “a lot of damage” to the moderate rebels.
“We lost credibility before our people, because they think it’s the Assad regime doing the bombing, whereas it is the coalition,” Berri said.
Gen. Jamil Radoon, a commander who’s been approved to receive aid through a covert program administered by the CIA, put it more bluntly. The U.S. bombing “is the main reason behind the backlash,” he said. “But we should not ignore that Nusra has a good reputation of fighting the regime.”
[...]
Berri and other rebel military officers say they haven’t been consulted at any time during the U.S. bombings and Berri said the U.S. hadn’t responded to his request for consultations.
“Sometimes, the Americans think that they are the only ones who know the truth,” he said. “We have an Arab proverb: Those who ask for counsel will never be let down.”
Another commander warned that if the U.S. doesn’t shift its policy, it will become the enemy. In the current public climate, “I cannot say I am receiving support from the Americans,” said Capt. Musa al Hammoud, who commands rebel fores in the western countryside outside Maarat al Numan, south of Idlib.
“And if American policy continues like this – looking only to its own interests, and targeting Islamist groups without targeting the regime – America will become the real enemy. And there’s the danger” that the Syrian people will turn to Nusra or the Islamic State “in order to target American interests even before those of the regime.”
Source = http://goo.gl/stVg3Z }
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