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Inside Syria's Fracturing Rebellion

(New Republic) Sarah Birke and Katie Paul - In Serjeh in the mountainous Jebel Zawiya region of Syria's Idleb province, Ahmed Abu Issa, 40, heads 4,000 fighters in Saqour al-Sham (the "Sham Falcons"). His immediate motivations are the same, he tells us, as that of other rebel groups: the ouster of Assad. But in the longer-term he wants an Islamist state. Abu Issa's rise to unchallenged leader of a burgeoning mini-state is a motif being repeated across the country. As the authority of Assad's regime recedes, power is passing not into one unified opposition, but into the hands of many local rebel leaders. In Jebel Zawiya alone, there are two major rebel groups, a third emerging, and a smattering of smaller ones tucked under other umbrellas. The real power brokers in Syria are the rebel leaders on the ground.
2012-09-03 00:00:00
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