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They’ve Got U.S. Guns. Can They Stop ISIS?

PUSHBACK

The Mu’tasim Brigade appears to be the very model of a fighting force the Pentagon can get behind—so why is it always running short of bullets and shells?

articles/2016/06/22/they-ve-got-u-s-guns-can-they-stop-isis/160620-weiss-syria-rebels-tease_fzc4mh
Huseyin Nasir/Anadolu Agency, via Getty

“During the siege, we were hit with 50 ISIS car bombs,” Mu’tasim Abbas told me. “Each car was filled with 10 tons of explosive.”

Abbas is the commander of the Mu’tasim Brigade (the name, he assures me, is just a coincidence), one of a mere handful of Syrian rebel groups backed...

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