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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=290681
Eyewitness Report from Syria
(Jerusalem Post) Jonathan Spyer - In northern Aleppo province, the Assad regime only exists in the air. Its forces have pulled back to Aleppo city, leaving a swathe of land under the precarious control of the rebels. There are rebel checkpoints all the way from the Turkish border to Aleppo city, operated by different brigades with clearly different military capabilities and political outlooks. The Bab al-Salaam border crossing, jointly administered by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Turkish armed forces, is controlled from the rebel side by the Asaf al-Shamal (Storm of the North) battalion, a secular force led by Ammar al-Dadikhli. Further toward the city are checkpoints operated by the Tawhid Brigade, the largest single force battling Assad in Aleppo. Tawhid is an Islamist force, adhering to an ideology of Muslim Brotherhood-type Islamism. Its fighters are well-equipped and said to be supported by Qatar and the Brotherhood. There are still isolated areas in the hands of the regime. At the entrance to the village of Fafeen, for example, the government controls a large military facility. But there were no sentries at the entrance, only a locked and imposing looking iron gate and an abandoned guard position. My driver Ahmed explained: "For a while they'd try and put a checkpoint on the road, but the FSA would come along and kill the soldiers within a few minutes. So now they just stay in there. They bring the soldiers in and out in helicopters."