Pro-US Syrian Rebels Try to Change Narrative Amid Aid Freeze

Idris in Turkey, But Insists He Didn't 'Flee' There

Things are looking bad for the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), with reports over the last 48 hours revealing that the group’s warehouses are now under control of the Islamic Front, as is the office of their leader General Salim Idris, who has fled to Turkey. The Islamist gains have forced the US to freeze aid to them, and Turkey has closed the border.

All that puts the FSA in a really tough position going into the Geneva II conference, and the go-to tactic is wholesale denial, as they insist none of that really happened.

Except it all did. The Islamic Front is in control of all their warehouses, and the FSA is now claiming they’re just “protecting” the warehouses from al-Qaeda. They also claim Gen. Idris didn’t flee to Turkey.

Except Idris is in Turkey, and with the border closed he’s probably not getting back to Syria any time soon, meaning it’s really a distinction without a difference.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.