Opposition in Syria Continues to Fracture
By ANNE BARNARD and HANIA MOURTADA, NYT
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The deadly clashes that raged between rival rebel factions in Syria over the weekend accentuated the divisions hampering opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as they try to halt his forces’ recent gains on the battlefield and persuade the West to supply the insurgency with weapons.
The fighting flared between members of a mainstream rebel group and a radical faction affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to local residents and an antigovernment watchdog group. The presence of the radicals and the failure to bring rebel forces under a unified military leadership have made the United States and its allies reluctant to arm the opposition.
As foreign fighters continued to spill into Syria across the country’s porous borders — committing atrocities against both supporters and opponents of the government and clashing with more moderate rebel groups — the prospects for unity among the rebels have seemed to grow more remote.
Islamist fighters said recently that they had driven a rival rebel brigade out of Raqqa, a rebel-held provincial capital in northeastern Syria, because they had found some of its fighters drinking wine and consorting with women, and because they considered brigade reluctant to fight.
(More here.)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The deadly clashes that raged between rival rebel factions in Syria over the weekend accentuated the divisions hampering opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as they try to halt his forces’ recent gains on the battlefield and persuade the West to supply the insurgency with weapons.
The fighting flared between members of a mainstream rebel group and a radical faction affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to local residents and an antigovernment watchdog group. The presence of the radicals and the failure to bring rebel forces under a unified military leadership have made the United States and its allies reluctant to arm the opposition.
As foreign fighters continued to spill into Syria across the country’s porous borders — committing atrocities against both supporters and opponents of the government and clashing with more moderate rebel groups — the prospects for unity among the rebels have seemed to grow more remote.
Islamist fighters said recently that they had driven a rival rebel brigade out of Raqqa, a rebel-held provincial capital in northeastern Syria, because they had found some of its fighters drinking wine and consorting with women, and because they considered brigade reluctant to fight.
(More here.)
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