Report: U.S. accidentally bombed “moderate” rebels in Syria — because their base was right next to Al Qaeda’s

Allah:

Given that the “moderates” are our allies, you would think this problem could be avoided by coordinating with them on where to attack and where not to. But there’s a hitch: We … don’t trust them enough to rely on the intelligence they give us.

You’d trust a group that’s fighting so closely alongside Al Qaeda (a.k.a. the Nusra Front) that bombing the latter means collateral damage for the former, wouldn’t you?

Since U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria began on Sept. 22, there has been no coordination between the U.S. military and its alleged partners on the ground, according to FSA leaders, civilian opposition leaders, and intelligence sources who have been briefed on the U.S. and allied military operation. It’s this lack of communication that led to an airstrike that hit only 200 meters from an FSA facility in the suburbs of Idlib. One source briefed on the incident said multiple FSA fighters were killed in the attack…

The coalition airstrike was targeting a base used by al Nusrah, the local al Qaeda affiliate. And the camp was, essentially, next door to the FSA facility. The al Qaeda fighters and the U.S-endorsed rebels were neighbors—and, at times, partners in battle against ISIS and the Bashar al-Assad regime…

Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, said the Obama administration is not coordinating with the FSA because it still doesn’t believe it can trust the FSA with sensitive information about ongoing military operations. But that also means the FSA can’t capitalize after the strikes by taking over the territory that has been cleared.

There are, supposedly, no U.S. boots on the ground inside Syria to gather targeting info on the ground and, per Josh Rogin’s source, the Pentagon still hasn’t contacted the FSA a week into the Syria campaign to fill that role for them. Meanwhile, the same source claims that few ISIS jihadis have been killed by U.S. bombs so far because, quite rationally, they packed up and vacated their hubs once O announced we were coming for them. Result: Some Al Qaeda casualties, some “moderate” casualties, some civilian casualties, but fewer ISIS casualties than you’d hope.

Another worry here via Rogin is that expanding the targets so soon to include the Nusra Front in a war that’s ostensibly being waged on ISIS risks pushing those two jihadi groups into an alliance. In fact, there are reports floating around at there today that some sort of rapprochement is in the works. The Guardian:

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