Salim Idris
Just weeks ago John Kerry and others were assuring us that the “moderates” were dominant among the Syrian rebels. This is the reality. “Top Western-Backed Rebel in Syria Is Forced to Flee: Islamic Front Takes Over Aid Warehouses From Moderate Rebels,” by Adam Entous and Rima Abushakra in the Wall Street Journal, December 11 (thanks to David):
Islamist fighters ran the top Western-backed rebel commander in Syria out of his headquarters, and he fled the country, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The Islamists also took over key warehouses holding U.S. military gear for moderate fighters in northern Syria over the weekend. The takeover and flight of Gen. Salim Idris of the Free Syrian Army shocked the U.S., which along with Britain immediately froze delivery of nonlethal military aid to rebels in northern Syria.
The turn of events was the strongest sign yet that the U.S.-allied FSA is collapsing under the pressure of Islamist domination of the rebel side of the war. It also weakened the Obama administration’s hand as it struggles to organize a peace conference next month bringing together rebels and the regime.
Enlarge ImageThe Islamic Front is a recently formed alliance of the largest Islamist rebel groups that excludes the two main al Qaeda-linked rebel groups””the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham””and is considered the more moderate faction among Islamist rebel groups.
Gen. Idris flew to the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday after fleeing to Turkey, U.S. officials said Wednesday. “He fled as a result of the Islamic Front taking over his headquarters,” a senior U.S. official said.
An Islamic Front spokesman also said Gen. Idris had fled to Turkey….