Rusi v Siriji

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Syrian rebels trained by the United States gave some of their equipment to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday, the latest blow to a troubled U.S. effort to train local partners to fight Islamic State militants.

The rebels surrendered six pick-up trucks and some ammunition, or about one-quarter of their issued equipment, to a suspected Nusra intermediary on Sept. 21-22 in exchange for safe passage, said Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a statement.

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Kafranbel activist Raed Fares tells me Russian strikes hit outside city, in Shansharah, where there is FSA + camps for internally displaced

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Nour Kelze, “Children who have been displaced due to the fighting between rebels and the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sit beside a tent at the Shinshrah archaeological site, in the Idlib countryside. Many Syrians living close to the frontline fled to live at the Shinshrah archaeological site about two years ago, activists said. The site now contains a school, a mosque and recently the community was digging a water well. May 18, 2014.” (© Nour Kelze)

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Abu Ahmad, 40, fled the fighting between government and rebel forces in his village of Hish in southern Idilb province over a year ago. He found refuge at an archaeological site called Shinshrah, which is believed to be a village from the Roman era.

“My house was completely destroyed,” said Abu Ahmad. “I do not want to go to the humiliating refugee camps and I cannot afford high rents.”

Shinshrah is located in the Zawiya mountain range, one of about 40 Roman and Byzantine villages built in northern Syria between the first and seventh centuries AD.

UNESCO has classified these villages as world heritage sites and listed them among the places that are endangered by the Syrian civil war.

The ancient village of Shinshrah, which includes the remains of five churches, a number of palaces and around 100 houses, currently hosts over 100 displaced families from the southern part of Idlib province.

The new residents have been breaking the massive building blocks from ancient buildings into smaller stones that they sell or use to build huts roofed with tarpaulin. They have also destroyed the entrance of one of the churches, fearing that it might collapse and destroy their makeshift homes.

But the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are not the only ones to blame for the damage to the site.

On May 2, an airstrike by government forces killed a man and his two children and destroyed the whole of one ancient house as well as the wall of a church in Shinshrah. It is believed the planes were targeting a new IDP settlement located 500 metres from Shinshrah, mistaking it for a rebel camp.

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If the regime is fighting Isil, surely anything that helps it is a good thing?

The Syrian war is a lot more complicated than that. The regime long ago gave up any hope of recapturing Isil-held areas in the near future. So the number of “live” battle-fronts between the regime and Isil are comparatively few. However, there is a fierce war going on between Isil and other rebel groups, so it may be that by bombing them the Russians are actually helping Isil. Russia denies that.

Its strategy may be that if it can help the regime defeat the non-Isil rebels, the world will gather round and help Damascus seize control of Isil-held areas too.

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