US-TRAINED REBELS DEFECTING TO ASSAD FORCES

It looks like America's "astroturf" army in the South of Syria is starting to disappear like a desert mirage, with reports of two separate groups of Jaysh Maghawir al-Thawra fighters defecting to join the forces of President Assad.

Jaysh Maghawir al-Thawra is essentially a fake proxy army drummed up by American special forces and US ally the Kingdom of Jordan, but with little organic support among the Syrian people. Its role is to justify a US presence in Southern Syria, aimed at isolating the Assad regime. But these defections are a further blow to America's failed Syria strategy.

In one of the cases, a squad leader, named Abu Housse, reportedly defected to the government side with ten men, a vehicle, and three heavy machine guns. This happened recently in the area around the At-Tanf military base where US and British forces are located. The base was set up to support non-ISIS rebel fighters in the South of Syria in an attempt to block communications between the Assad government and the sympathetic Shiite regime in Iraq. 

Although the US and its allies have poured in millions to support a "phantom" Southern rebel army, there has been little support among actual Syrians. Now Syrian government forces are in the ascendant in the area, and were only held back from At-Tanf by a deadly airstrike a few weeks ago. 

Previously the Pentagon announced that the US was cutting its support for another dubious guerrilla group operating in the same area, the Shuhada al-Qaryatayn Brigade. 

These recent defections and desertions suggest that the rebel fighters in the South of Syria now realize that US support for them is lukewarm and diminishing. They also realize that there is no hope of victory against the ascendant Syrian government forces in this part of the country.