NYT: Rebels Activities Erode Their Support

Local Editor

The New York Times US daily confirmed Friday that "Syria's rebel fighters...are losing crucial support from a public increasingly disgusted by the actions of some rebels, including poorly planned missions, senseless destruction, criminal behavior and the coldblooded killing of prisoners."

Under the title, "Missteps by Rebels Erode Their Support Among Syrians", the daily highlighted: "The rebel shortcomings have been compounded by changes in the opposition, from a force of civilians and defected soldiers ... to one that is increasingly seeded with extremists."

"That radicalization has divided the fighters' supporters and made Western nations more reluctant to give rebels the arms," the NYT reporter said.
"They were supposed to be the people on whom we depend to build a civil society," lamented a civilian activist in Saraqib, a northern town where rebels were videotaped executing a group of unarmed Syrian soldiers, an act the United Nations has declared a likely war crime.

An activist in Aleppo, Ahmed, who like some of the others who were interviewed gave only one name for security reasons, said he had begged rebels not to camp in a neighborhood telecommunications office.
"One fighter shot into the air when customers at a bakery did not let him cut into a long line for bread," Ahmed recalled.

"Another," he said, "was enraged when a man washing his car accidentally splashed him."

"He shot at him," Ahmed said.

Twenty months into the Syrian crisis, the daily mentioned that "both supporters and opponents of the government are trapped in a darkening mood of despair, revulsion and fear that neither side can end the conflict."

"The most significant shift is among the rebels' supporters, who chant slogans not only condemning the government but also criticizing the rebels," the US daily said.

Moreover, the activist from Saraqib said he saw rebels force government soldiers from a milk factory, then destroy it, even though residents needed the milk and had good relations with the owner.

"They shelled the factory and stole everything," the activist said. "Those are repulsive acts."

Similarly, a finance girl named Anna the rebels as "ignorant people with weapons."

Source: NYT, Edited by moqawama.org