America's Rebel Allies In Syria Are Abandoning The U.S. To Join Russia

Free Syrian Army fighters (Reuters/Muzaffar Salman) / Reuters

Mike Giglio, Buzz Feed: Russia Is Recruiting The U.S.’s Rebel Allies In Syria

ANTAKYA, Turkey — The rebel commander was nervous. He had changed phone numbers and been difficult to reach before finally agreeing to meet in Antakya, a city near the border with war-torn Syria that has long swarmed with rebels, refugees, and spies. On the road to an out-of-the-way hotel, he told the driver to avoid the main route through town. “It’s better not to drive among all the people,” he said.

It was an open secret that the commander had once received cash and weapons from the CIA, part of a covert U.S. program that backs rebel groups against both ISIS and the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

When his battalion was eventually driven from Syria by its jihadi rivals, like a number of U.S.-backed groups, he pleaded with his U.S. handlers for better support, but it wasn’t enough. So he was, he said, “out of the game.”

Now, he said, sitting at a quiet table at the hotel, he had received an offer that could bring him back in — and potentially make him even stronger than before.

He was being recruited, he said, to work for the U.S.’s rival in Syria: Russia.

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WNU Editor: With the exception of working with the Kurds .... U.S. policy for the rest of Syria is "up in the air". Everyone knows that .... hence the temptation of this outreach from the Russian/Syrian alliance.