As President Obama asks Congress for $500 million to help Syria’s rebels, the dysfunction and infighting that have long undermined their fight against the Syrian government spilled into the open again on Friday. The leader of the interim government established by the exile opposition, the Syrian National Coalition, said in a statement that he was firing the head of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army and referring its members to a commission to investigate accusations of corruption. The military council responded that the interim government had made a “grave legal error” and did not have any power over it — a position that was supported by the leader of the Syrian National Coalition, Ahmad Assi al-Jarba. Despite being endorsed by the West as the leaders of the struggle against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, none of the bodies involved in the dispute are currently playing a significant role in the civil war. The coalition is widely seen as ineffective, its interim government is little more than a list of names, and the military council has been overshadowed on the ground by rebel formations and extremist groups that have been more active.