The United States and Gulf countries have been secretly backing rebel efforts to destroy al-Qaeda's most extreme wing in Syria, diplomats and rebels involved in the plan say.
As Western diplomats publicly push the Syrian regime and the opposition to the Geneva peace conference that begins today, Washington has also been quietly supporting moves by Saudi Arabia and Qatar to give weapons and cash to rebel groups to fight al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS). The development marks a new phase in the conflict, with international backers working directly with rebel commanders to target al-Qaeda cells.
"Everyone is offering us funding to fight them," said one commander in a rebel group affiliated to the Western-backed Supreme Military Council.
"We used to have no weapons with which to fight the regime, but now the stocks are full."
In the past year, ISIS has "hijacked" the Syrian uprising. Made up partly of foreign jihadists, it has sought to impose a medieval style Islamic caliphate run under a strict interpretation of sharia in rebel-held areas. Its fighters assassinated rival rebel commanders whom they feared might be conspiring against them, or whose power they perceived as a threat.
