Aleppo misery eats at Syrian rebel support
Source: Reuters
ALEPPO, Syria, Jan. 8, 2013
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As government forces fight on in parts of Aleppo, in large areas that have been under rebel control for six months or more complaints are getting louder about indiscipline among the fighters, looting and a general lack of security and necessities like running water, bread and electricity in districts that have been pounded by tanks and hit by Assad's air force.
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"The Free Syrian Army has lost its popular support," said Abu Ahmed, who said the Tawheed Brigade was now diversifying from fighting to talking on civic roles, including efforts to restore electricity supplies and deal with bread shortages. His own wife was setting up a school after months without classes.
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Sitting on a plastic chair in the middle of a busy market on Thirtieth Street, Abu Majid held the rebels responsible for desperate conditions in the city: "We've gone back to the Stone Age.
"At the beginning people rallied behind them; now they're alienated from the rebels."
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While many people in Aleppo still say they, too, want rid of Assad, the rebels' inability to bring order or to improve the miserable conditions of the city, an ancient jewel of the Arab world now ravaged by 21st-century war, is losing them support.
Read more: http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre9070vv-us-syria-crisis-rebels/
