Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesforcup
Yes those are the ones the US are supporting.
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The US is no longer supporting the Nour al Din al Zenki. Yes, the US is supporting rebels, and they have in the past supported "moderate" groups that later became not moderate, including the Nour al Din al Zenki.
The Nour al Din al Zenki were initially part of the FSA, but defected to the Ahrar al-Sham. In doing so they lost US funding, but gained more Turkish and Saudi funding.
With moderate groups in the are constantly switching allegiances to non-moderate groups, any involvement whatsoever is going to put the US into a position where they've supported a nasty group. The only other option would be to simply not get involved and watch. Not really an option for the US, as that would allow ISIL to overrun Iraq.
The US and Russia have signed various secret agreements to try and keep theire respective funding to elements engaging ISIL, as opposed to each other directly. Who knows how much of the funding from the US is actually going towards that goal vs. engaging Assad directly. Given the scope of Russian involvement though, I'd guess the lion's share actually is going towards fighting ISIL. Anything else would be like pissing into the wind. As long as Russia backs Assad, he isn't going anywhere.