As the Syrian Army is nearing a full vicory in the battle for the Damascus subrub of Eastern Ghouta, various militant groups are blaming each other for their inevitable defeat.
Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam have recently been especially active in this blame game.
Their rivalry has at some points mirrored tensions between their regional sponsors: Saudi Arabia, which has backed Jaish al-Islam, and Qatar, which supported Failaq al-Rahman.
On March 25, Hamza Birqdar, the Jaish al-Islam military spokesman, in an interview with al-Hadath TV, accused Failaq al-Rahman of rejecting an idea to establish a joint defense in the region and cutting water supplies needed to fill trenches.
Wael Olwan, the Failaq al-Rahman spokesman, made comments to the same media outlet blaming Jaish al-Islam for staging a weak defense of their positions
“Failaq al-Rahman was stabbed in the back … via the frontlines that Jaish al-Islam was supposed to be at,” Failaq al-Rahman’s spokesman claimed.
On the same time, sources loyal to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) accuse both Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham of giving up the battle for Eastern Ghouta.
All these competing accusations are especially intersting amid the fact that all the groups have already reached withdrawal agreements with the Syrian government or are currently engaged in negotiations over termps of such an agreement.
