Syria's key rebel groups form military council

 (Zaman Alwasl)- Key rebel groups in Aleppo province and Syria Sunday agreed to form a military council to unite all revolutionary efforts amid rapid advances of regime's army.

18 rebel groups in Syria, including Islam Army and Soqour al-Sham brigades, said in statement posted online that forming a military council would be the first step in order to have a joint military command and one judiciary soon.

Syrian Rebels are mobilizing all powers to face rapid advances made by Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the last four weeks in Aleppo, activists say.

Brigades of Ahrar al-Sham n -Nura front did not join the council, according to the statement.

Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial hub, has been divided since a July 2012 rebel offensive. Government aircraft have been targeting opposition-held areas there as well as nearby towns and villages.

Meanwhile, Islamist armed Islamist groups have become the most powerful force in the three-year-old uprising against Bashar al-Assad, who has long portrayed himself as the defender of a secular order in Syria as the death toll exceeded 171,000.