Abu Obeida, a commander of the Northern Storm Brigade, left his mud-camouflaged Toyota running as he got out to inspect a dirt road running through no man’s land. The track separated his rural base, 16km north west of Aleppo, from a Hezbollah position 200 metres away.
A month ago, this front against the Lebanese group was where the Islamist rebel offensive that changed Syria for ever began. The 25-year-old’s unit was supposed to sweep for landmines and unexploded ordnance among the olive groves in the aftermath of the opposition’s stunning 12-day rout of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian, Iranian and Lebanese allies. It quickly became apparent that, amid many other more pressing tasks, his people hadn’t been thorough enough.
