Assad’s cooperation with ISIS could push U.S. into Syria conflict - Middle East - - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.659340
The report Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad is cooperating with Islamic State, which appeared on the Twitter feed of the American embassy in Damascus, should surprise nobody. This cooperation didn’t begin just now; the Syrian regime has long been buying cheap oil from the organization – pumped from Syrian oilfields that Islamic State now controls – and selling it to its citizens.
But the current cooperation is primarily military, in the battle against other rebel militias, especially the coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah (“The Army of Conquest”), which includes the Al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.