Brigands

Yesterday's story by Reuters' Suleiman Al-Khalidi, "Rebel infighting escalates in northwest Syria," stood out to me. If one were to really understand it, a view of what lies behind Oz's curtain would be clear.

A salad bar of disinformation is on offer in the first five paragraphs:

AMMAN (Reuters) - Clashes among rival Syrian rebel factions have spread across northwest Syria, rebels and residents said on Thursday, in the latest bout of tit-for-tat fighting between opponents of President Bashar al Assad’s rule.

Infighting has long plagued Syria’s armed opposition since the uprising against Assad began in 2011. Turf wars have helped the Syrian president, with his Iranian and Russian allies, recover much of the territory previously held by rebels.

Tahrir al Sham, formerly affiliated to al Qaeda, had launched an attack on Tuesday against towns in the western countryside of Aleppo held by Nour al Din Zinki, a member of the mainstream National Liberation Front (NLF), the rebels and residents told Reuters by telephone.

The Islamist group, which on Wednesday seized the town of Darat Izza, said it was retaliating for an ambush this week that killed five of its fighters. It blamed Nour al Din Zinki.

Ideological differences divide hardline Islamist militants from nationalist groups in the Free Syrian Army that have gathered under the banner of the NLF, which has the backing of Syria’s neighbor Turkey.

The Western media refers to the alphabet soup of Islamist militias as "rebels." A better word is "brigands" or "mercenaries."

Tahrir al-Sham is also referred to by its initials HTS. HTS used to be known as Al-Nusra Front, which was the successor group to Al Qaeda in Syria. (A lot of writers refer to Tahrir al-Sham as "HTS/Nusra.")

Al-Nusra Front was re-branded at the behest of its sponsors in the Gulf monarchies because it had become too solidly identified in the Western press as Al Qaeda.

HTS/Nusra is backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It would not exist without assistance from these foreign powers.

Nour al Din Zinki, which used to be affiliated with the Al-Nusra Front, is backed by Turkey and, at one time, probably still, the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Nour al Din Zinki fights HTS/Nusra -- Turkey fights Saudi Arabia -- for turf in Northern Syria. HTS/Nusra appears to have got the better of Nour al Din Zinki over the last couple of days.

The ceasefire in Idlib is breaking down. Russia is reported to have bombed southern Idlib province today.

This is all Great Game stuff. The media heinously obscures the age-old foreign power scramble underway in Syria by presenting it as a struggle between devout rebels -- some religious, some nationalist -- against a bloodthirsty despot who is aided by other despotic states (Iran and Russia).