Rebel groups and NGOS in Libya are donating weapons and aid to the Syrian opposition. Salafist-controlled NGOS and private donors in Kuwait are sending guns and money to al Qaeda-linked forces in Syria, including the Syrian Islamic Front, which has refused to join the Free Syrian Army. The Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham released a commander of the A’bad al-Rahman rebel battalion and head of the Free Syrian Agency, along with nine other activists who had been held for weeks; the al Qaeda-linked group is estimated to be holding more than 1,500 people captive in Raqqah, including dozens of women. Non-Syrian fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have taken over the only crossing between east and west Aleppo.
