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Western-backed FSA commander flees Syria

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:13PM GMT

A top Western-backed commander of the opposition forces in Syria has been driven out of the country by Takfiri militants, report said.

The Wall Street Journal quoted American officials as saying on Wednesday that Salim Idris, the top commander of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), was forced to flee Syria after the Islamic Front militants took over his headquarters.

According to the US officials, Idris flew to Qatar's capital Doha on Sunday after fleeing to Turkey.

A spokesman for the so-called Islamic Front also said that Idris had left Syria for Turkey.

The militants also seized key warehouses, in the border town of Atmeh, that contained a range of lethal and nonlethal weapons. The warehouses also contained nonlethal military gear such as American-supplied trucks and communications equipment.

They were controlled by the FSA's Supreme Military Council, US officials also said.

The so-called Islamic Front also reportedly took control of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

The departure of Idris and the seizure of the warehouses prompted the United States and Britain to suspend non-lethal aid to militants in northern Syria.

Loay al-Mikdad, the spokesman for the so-called FSA, said on Thursday that it was "a hasty decision and we are in contact with our British and American friends ... to reconsider this decision."

Last week, the so-called Islamic Front announced that it does not accept the authority of the FSA command.

The foreign-backed FSA was the first militant group that emerged in Syria in 2011. Many other groups have been created since then and many of them operate with a high degree of autonomy from the FSA.

The so-called Islamic Front was formed earlier in November in the Middle Eastern country after six major Takfiri militant groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government joined forces.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011.

Foreign Policy magazine reported on Tuesday that more than 5,000 foreign militants are fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, adding the figure is "higher than any previous conflict in the modern history of the Muslim world."

SAB/AB