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Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and Ahrar al-Sham continued to clash in the province of Idlib.
Recently, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham seized the prison in the city of Idlib and 2 check points belonging to Ahrar al-Sham and its allies. An intense fighting was also reported in Ariha.
As a result, Suqur al-Sham, an Idlib branch of Jaish al-Islam, Jaish al-Mujahideen, Fastaqem Union and Sham Front were defeated by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and their vestiges merged with Ahrar al-Sham.
This fact already created jitters among various “pro-opposition activists”. They argued that the ongoing ‘rebel civil war’ was a joint plan of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham to absorb smaller groups operating in Idlib and western Aleppo.
The plan is Ahrar alSham to absorb the smaller groups and then pledge loyalty to JFS.
An Interesting thought.
The province of Idlib is a stronghold but if all factions would join into a single force it will be like shooting fish in a barrel for the Russian and Syrian Air Force. No more hiding behind “moderate opposition”-claims and nobody out of his sane mind would help them. Let them fight and when the dust settles bomb the living daylight out of them.
+1. I’m sick of the MSM trying to legitimize radical jihadists, protraying as some sort of heroes and liberators of syrian people, would be great if Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham would join together, would be way less troubling to fight them. The fact that they became so strong and fought for so long is cause of massive US/UK/France/Gulf wahhabi terror states armament,political, propaganda,financial,medical and other forms of support. When various rebel factions would unify, it would be harder to legitimize them via MSM propaganda.
The less Jihadi groups in Idlib the better. It gets them killed and makes it easier to tell them apart. They all sound the same anyway, all one big soup of lofty sounding names with variations of Islam in them. Like Monty Python and Life of Brian. Judean Peoples Front vs. Peoples Front of Judea.