< 5 Years On, Syria's Moderate Rebels Are Exhausted And Sidelined

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Syria's civil war goes into its sixth year this month, and it's a complicated mess of local factions and international supporters. It began with a small uprising, and the U.S. supported those rebels. NPR's Alice Fordham reports that now they feel abandoned.

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE: With slow, heavy steps, a young man walks a treadmill in a physical therapy center in southern Turkey, near the Syrian border. Next to him, a gray-haired man raises leg weights. His name is Bassam Farouh.

BASSAM FAROUH: (Speaking Arabic).

FORDHAM: He says it was Russian airstrikes that wounded him - strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Farouh's been fighting against Assad for years.

FAROUH: (Through interpreter) It wasn't a war at first. It was a revolution against the regime.

FORDHAM: Farouh's brigade still calls itself part of the Free Syrian Army. But that's a much weaker faction now. His town is facing three front lines - ISIS, the regime and Kurdish-led fighters. I asked what American support his men got.

FAROUH: (Through interpreter) They're supporting us just for appearance's sake. But it's not about the support. What the Americans had to do was make a decision.

FORDHAM: He believes the U.S. never truly wanted Assad out of power, even though that's what officials still say. American military and CIA programs and U.S. cooperation with other Arab states still see some weapons and training sent to the rebels. But it's never been enough to tip the balance. Last month, the U.S. and Russia led international efforts to broker a cease-fire in Syria. As Russia is a forceful ally of Assad, rebels have watched the American-Russian cooperation with alarm. Here's a representative of a rebel brigade, Bassam Haji Moustafa.

BASSAM HAJI MOUSTAFA: (Through interpreter) I believe the Americans, for the thousandth time, are sending the message that they don't want anything to do with the situation in our region.

FORDHAM: Peace talks between Syrian factions are meant to begin again next week. But after a series of victories by the regime, the opposition will be negotiating from a position of weakness. Here's Moustafa again.

MOUSTAFA: (Through interpreter) We feel our situation as rebels is really bad. The global community is actually portraying us as terrorists - extremist Islamists.

FORDHAM: Indeed, the rebellion in Syria has become steadily more and more extreme. And the U.S. does back some factions to battle ISIS. But commanders say there are still ordinary, moderate people fighting Assad's regime, and they say the weapons and support they get from the U.S. and their allies have not been enough. In the Turkish town of Kilis, I meet a slight man named Abdulmoneim Mohammad, who fled his home after regime forces advanced there. I ask if he was a fighter.

ABDULMONEIM MOHAMMAD: Ya'ani.

FORDHAM: Sort of.

MOHAMMAD: (Speaking Arabic).

FORDHAM: He says he actually didn't take up arms until he saw Assad's forces getting real, on-the-ground help from their foreign allies, including Iranians, Lebanese and even Afghans.

MOHAMMAD: (Speaking Arabic).

FORDHAM: "Unless Obama decides to intervene on our side," he says, "it will be over in a year." He thinks maybe an Afghan family will live in his house, and says it seems to him the international community would be OK with that. Alice Fordham, NPR News, Kilis, Southern Turkey.

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