PHOTO: Rebel leader Zahra Alloush (third from left) is greeted after crossing into Turkey on Friday
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- Video: Anti-Regime Demonstration in Haritan in Aleppo Province
- Leading Faction Ahrar al-Sham Criticizes Jabhat al-Nusra’s Relationship with Al Qa’eda
In a sign of expanding Turkish support for Syrian rebels, insurgent leader Zahran Alloush crossed Syria to visit Turkey on Friday.
The trip also shows the growing importance of Alloush in the armed opposition to President Assad. He is the leader of the Jaish al-Islam faction, based outside Damascus, and the head of military operations for the Islamic Front rebel bloc.
Photographs showed Alloush being greeted after he crossed into Turkey at the Bab al-Hawa post, controlled by rebels. He reportedly met Syrian Islamic scholars.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia have both stepped up arms supplies and intelligence support for the rebels this year, as the opposition has made significant gains. The rebels took the provincial capital of Idlib in northwest Syria last month, and they have steadily advanced through the south, including the recent takeover of the historic town of Busra al-Sham and the Nassib crossing, the last held by the regime on the border with Jordan.
Claims are also circulating — albeit without verification so far — that the Turks are considering further support on the ground for the rebels, with air cover from the Saudis.
The US has long held back from links with the Islamic Front. The former US Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, had tentative meeting swith Front representatives in Turkey soon after the bloc’s formation in November 2013. However, the talks quickly stalled, with the Front refusing the US demand that it acknowledge the supremacy of the Turkish-based Supreme Military Council.
The Council has since collapsed, as rebels inside Syria have re-organized their control of battlefield operations.
Video: Anti-Regime Demonstration in Haritan in Aleppo Province
An anti-regime rally in Haritan, northwest of Aleppo city:
Prominent in the demonstrations are the flags of the foreign fighters Jaish al-Muhajireen wal Ansar, who are based in Haritan.
Leading Faction Ahrar al-Sham Criticizes Jabhat al-Nusra’s Relationship with Al Qa’eda
The head of the prominent rebel faction Ahrar al-Sham, Sheikh Hashim al Sheikh (Abu Jaber), says in an interview that Jabhat al-Nusra’s relationship with Al Qa’eda endangers Syria’s people:
The statement marks another political distancing by rebels from Jabhat al-Nusra, even as they often cooperate on the battlefield. Element in the Southern Front said earlier this week that they would not work with al-Nusra unless the Islamist faction moved away from its hardline ideology.
Ahrar al-Sham, part of the Islamic Front bloc, was the largest faction in last month’s rebel takeover of Idlib city, in which Jabhat al-Nusra also participated.
