STORY SUMMARY

By Serene Assir Daily Star

A boy (C) shovels flour into a sack at a charity bakery in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria, December 10, 2013. Picture taken December 10, 2013. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
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(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Syria’s Western-backed rebels were in disarray Thursday after Washington and London suspended non-lethal aid following the loss of a key border crossing and arms depots to a powerful Islamist alliance.

Last week it withdrew from the FSA’s Supreme Military Council headed by General Selim Idriss, and over the past week it has seized the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish border and arms warehouses from his forces.

The seizure prompted the United States and Britain to suspend non-lethal aid to the FSA, dealing a major blow to a group that increasingly appears caught between advancing regime forces and the increasingly unified Islamists.

As defecting soldiers swelled its ranks, the FSA evolved into an umbrella organisation for channelling arms and funding to fighters, and under Idriss’s leadership came to be seen in the West as the best hope of toppling Assad

Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-12/240840-syrian-rebel-spokesman-decries-us-uk-aid-decision.ashx#ixzz2nL9yJPHC
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)