Last ‘Moderate’ Rebel Area in Northern Syria Poised to Fall

Long the US-backed “moderate” rebel umbrella for the Syrian Civil War, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) became operationally irrelevant long ago, as the US tried to find factions among the Islamist rebels they could spin as palatable. The FSA has remained bankrolled by the US, for all the good it’s done.

Now, the FSA is reporting that literally their last urban territorial possession is on the verge of falling, which would leave them only with a handful of rural areas along the Jordan border.

That urban territory, three miles wide in the northern city of Aleppo, is under regular aerial attack from the Syrian military, and ground troops are also nearing the only supply lines into pro-rebel Turkey.

The Syrian military has proven quite effective against the FSA, but is only part of the problem, as most of the FSA’s losses have come not to Assad forces, but to the various Islamist rebels. This last possession is on the fringe of ISIS territory, and is also within the area Jabhat al-Nusra is claiming for its own “emirate.” Even if the FSA manages to repel the Syrian military, they likely won’t hold against either Islamist faction.