Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — U.S.-backed Sunni rebels have again been routed by Al Qaida in Syria.

Opposition sources said U.S.-trained and -equipped rebel militias were driven out of their strongholds in northern Syria. They said at least two major militias aligned with the Free Syrian Army fled an advance by Al Qaida’s Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant in November.

“In the space of two days, more than a year’s worth of work with the rebels was destroyed,” a source said.

The sources identified two of Nusra’s targets in the northern Syrian province of Idlib. They were the Syrian Revolutionary Front and the Hazem movement, the latter deemed the largest recipient of U.S. equipment and training in 2014.

“Nusra fighters have taken over checkpoints of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front in Mara Al Numan,” the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Nov. 3. “Clashes took place between the two sides at Al Naour checkpoint, bastion for SRF north of the city. The clashes ended with the Nusra takeover of the checkpoint.”

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In a video, Nusra showed its fighters stationed inside facilities of Syrian Revolutionary Front in Idlib. The fighters were seen removing weapons from the headquarters of front commander Jamal Maarouf in the mountain stronghold of Jabal Zawiya. Maarouf has acknowledged the loss of his bases.

Hazem, trained in Qatar in 2014, confirmed that its fighters surrendered their weapons and fled to neighboring Turkey. The Syrian Revolutionary Front, which underwent training in Jordan, was also said to have lost a huge stockpile of U.S.-origin weapons, including the TOW anti-tank guided missile.

The sources said Nusra was believed to have coordinated with Islamic State of Iraq and Levant in the offensive against FSA. They said Nusra, unlike ISIL, has not been targeted by the U.S.-led coalition in northern Syria.

“Over the last two months, Nusra, with few exceptions, has come under the complete domination of ISIL,” another source said. “As a result, Nusra is used for operations that ISIL prefers not to be directly associated with.”

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