Syria's Critical Battle for Al Safir
Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliated group, fields 3,000 fighters out of the mostly Free Syrian Army’s 14,000 rebels fighting in and around Aleppo. They are the spearhead - the panzers - for the Free Syrian Army. However, there are still 7,000 of them in Iraq, not yet in Syria.
The Al Safir compound is Assad's location for many of its gas storage facilities, many of its 700 Scud-D missiles with a 400+ mile range. The firing of the Scud missiles by Syria has shown a sort of desperation short of using gas. They are also dropping napalm-like bombs from aircraft, another sign the end is approaching, perhaps a horrific end.
Al Nusra is leading the attack and has reached the perimeter of the Safir complex, What happens if they are able to capture some of the chemical weapons there and some of the Scuds capable of firing missiles with gas? Nusra could easily turn enemy on the rebels of the Free Syrian Army once these weapons are in their hands, they could also use them anywhere to gain more control of Syria. They could use them in Damascus and claim the Syrians had used them.
If the Nusra group begins to overrun the base, would the US or NATO finally attacked with aircraft this group to prevent the gas from entering in their hands? Which is worse, Assad having them or an al-Qaeda group?
