Abdelaziz Salame, the highest political leader of the Tawhid Brigade in Aleppo, has issued a leuaaltawheed.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B where he claims to speak for 13 different rebel factions.The statement is titled “Communiqué Number One” and what it purports to do is to gut Western strategy on Syria and put an end to the exiled opposition.It has four points (in summary):All military and civilian forces should unify their ranks in an “Islamic framework” which is based on “the rule of sharia and making it the sole source of legislation”.The undersigned feel that they can only be represented by those who lived and sacrificed for the revolution. Therefore, they say, they are not represented by the exile groups.They go on to specify that this applies to the Syrian National Coalition and the planned exile government of Ahmed Touma, stressing that these groups “do not represent them” and they “do not recognize them”.In closing, the undersigned call on everyone to unite and avoid conflict, and so on.The following groups are listed as signatories to the statement.[list=1]Jabhat al-NosraIslamic Ahrar al-Sham MovementTawhid BrigadeIslam BrigadeSuqour al-Sham BrigadesIslamic Dawn MovementIslamic Light MovementNoureddin al-Zengi BattalionsHaqq Brigade – HomsFurqan Brigade – QuneitraFa-staqim Kama Ummirat Gathering – Aleppo19th DivisionAnsar Brigade[/list]Who are these people?The alleged signatories make up a major part of the northern rebel force, plus big chunks also of the Homs and Damascus rebel scene, as well as a bit of it elsewhere. Some of them are among the biggest armed groups in the country, and I’m thinking now mostly of numbers onethrough five. All together, they control at least a few tens of thousand fighters, and if you trust their own estimates (don’t) it must be way above 50,000 fighters.Most of the major insurgent alliances are included. Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Islam and Suqour al-Sham are in both the Western- and Gulf-backed Supreme Military Council (SMC a.k.a. FSA) and the SILF, sort-of-moderate Islamists. Ahrar al-Sham and Haqq are in the SIF, very hardline Islamists. Jabhat al-Nosra, of course, is an al-Qaida faction.Noureddin al-Zengi are in the Asala wa-Tanmiya alliance (which is led by quietist salafis, more or less) as well as in the SMC. And so on. More groups may join, but already at this stage, it looks – on paper, at least – like the most powerful insurgent alliance in Syria.----Full article: www.joshualandis.com/blog/major-rebel-factions-drop-exiles-g