![\"SYRIANA1\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/syriana1.jpg?w=620\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nANTAKYA, Turkey \u2014<\/b> The rebel commander was nervous. He had changed phone numbers and been difficult to reach before finally agreeing to meet in Antakya, a city near the border with war-torn Syria that has long swarmed with rebels, refugees, and spies. On the road to an out-of-the-way hotel, he told the driver to avoid the main route through town. \u201cIt\u2019s better not to drive among all the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It was an open secret that the commander had once received cash and weapons from the CIA, part of a covert U.S. program that backs rebel groups against both ISIS and the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n
When his battalion was eventually driven from Syria by its jihadi rivals, like a number of U.S.-backed groups, he pleaded with his U.S. handlers for better support, but it wasn\u2019t enough. So he was, he said, \u201cout of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, he said, sitting at a quiet table at the hotel, he had received an offer that could bring him back in \u2014 and potentially make him even stronger than before.<\/p>\n
He was being recruited, he said, to work for the U.S.\u2019s rival in Syria: Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me, \u2018We will support you forever. We won\u2019t leave you on your own like your old friends did,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cHonestly, I\u2019m still thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commander said that five years into a war that has killed some 400,000 people and created nearly 5 million refugees, Russia is recruiting current and former U.S. allies to its side. His revelation was confirmed by four people who said they, too, had been approached with offers from Russia and by two Syrian middlemen who said they delivered them.<\/p>\n
The moves come as Russia ratchets up its involvement in Syria with troops and airstrikes. Russia says its military campaign is designed to target ISIS \u2014 in reality it has targeted all rebels, including some who are still<\/a> backed<\/a> by the U.S., while also wreaking havoc<\/a> on\u00a0civilians<\/a>.<\/p>\n