Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — The Western-backed Free Syrian Army has been gutted by Islamist splinter militias.

Rebel sources said the FSA in northern Syria has been decimated by defections and attacks by Islamist militias.

The sources said Supreme Military Council Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Salim Idris fled from Syria to Turkey amid an attack by the new Saudi-sponsored rebel coalition Islamic Front.

“FSA warehouses are now empty after they were occupied and their contents were stolen, including Salim Idris’s own office,” an FSA officer said.

The officer told the Saudi-owned A-Sharq Al Awsat that the attack on FSA was led by a member of the Islamic Front, Abu Al Nour. Al Nour was identified as the new commander of Ahrar Al Sham, one of the seven major militias in Islamic Front, expanded in November 2013 largely from former FSA allies.

FSA said Islamic Front seized main battle tanks, mortars, rocket
launchers, 12.7 mm anti-aircraft weapons, night-vision goggles, cameras and
satellite phones. At least 100 military vehicles were stolen near the border
with Turkey. Five people were said to have been killed in the Islamic Front
takeover.

“After fighting that lasted all night, fighters from the Islamic Front
captured a [FSA] general staff position near the Bab El Hawa border crossing
and seized their arms depots,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

FSA, aligned with SMC, said $120 million in Western aid had been
scheduled to arrive to help northern Syria. Later, Britain and the United
States said they had suspended non-lethal aid to the war-town area.

“It is not a suspension of aid, or a holding back of aid,” State
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “This has nothing to do with our
support for the SMC.”

  Abu Al Nour, Islamic Front, Maj. Gen. Salim Idris, Pro-West Syrian rebels decimated by Islamist attacks; top general flees to Turkey, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, thefts from weapons warehouses