Rebels: US Strikes on ISIS ‘Aid Assad’

Rebel Leaders Annoyed by Lack of Attacks on Assad

After years of petitioning for US military intervention in Syria, the various rebel factions are now railing at the US air war in the country, complaining that the airstrikes against ISIS are providing aid to the Assad government.

The complaints are growing in Idlib, along Syria’s northwest, where the Assad government has been able to increase attacks recently. That’s because with the US attacking ISIS, the Assad government is ignoring ISIS territory and focusing on the other rebels.

The rebels had expected the US air war to be attacking not only ISIS, but Assad’s forces as well, and while the Obama Administration still talks up imposing regime change, the strikes are having so little impact on ISIS they haven’t yet expanded the war directly against the Syrian military.

“People can’t believe that all this attention is being paid to ISIS when they see Assad as the biggest terrorist,” noted a top Free Syrian Army official. The expectation of the US installing the FSA as the new rulers of the nation seems to be waning, as the administration prepares for what they’re calling many years of war.

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.