AL-QAIDA’S Syrian branch turned on its Western-backed allies yesterday — just as a peace deal with other factions was being signed in Kazakhstan.
The Levant Conquest Front (LCF) moved against fellow Salafist extremists Ahrar as-Sham and the Army of Mojahedin — a major faction of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).
LCF — a rebranding of the UN-proscribed Nusra Front — seized or besieged towns and villages held by its erstwhile friends across occupied Idlib province and western areas of neighbouring Aleppo province.
VIJAY PRASHAD details how US support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa allowed him to break the resistance of the autonomous Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention


