Council chief in bid to pull together factions

ISTANBUL — The head of the opposition Syrian Supreme Military Council cut short a visit to France yesterday and said he would go to Syria for talks with rebel brigades that broke with the western-backed coalition.

Gen Salim Idriss, who commands the coalition’s military wing known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said he would travel to Syria today to meet fighters from the 13 groups which on Tuesday rejected the authority of the Turkey-based coalition. The rebel groups, including at least three considered to be under the FSA umbrella, called for the rebel forces to be reorganised under an “Islamic framework” and to be run by groups fighting only inside Syria. “We should deal wisely with their statement,” Gen Idriss said after arriving in Istanbul.

“I returned from France so as to follow up with the field commanders and work toward unifying all the ranks,” he said.

FSA spokesman Louay Meqdad said Gen Idriss hoped to solve the grievances of the dissident rebels, who have long been wary of accepting leadership by figures who have spent much of the two-and-a-halfyear civil war outside the country.

Distrust is high after the US threatened strikes against the Damascus regime and US senator John McCain raised the prospect of US “boots on the ground”.

Rebel brigades battling Presi- dent Bashar al-Assad are rapidly fragmenting and increasingly fighting internal conflicts. The growing power of Islamist groups has also made western powers reluctant to step up support for them.

Gen Idriss, a former officer in Mr Assad’s army, was chosen late last year as a consensus figure to lead the Supreme Military Council, which runs the FSA rebel group.

Some of the signatories of the statement rejecting the coalition, including Tawheed and Islam brigades, were considered part of the FSA. The Supreme Military Council in turn has 15 members in the Syrian National Coalition, the political body representing the opposition.