The Syrian Revolutionaries Front and the Hazm movement, two of the main groups slated to benefit from the plan to “train and equip” moderate Syrian rebels, have taken a severe blow on the battlefield, just as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sought to promote the “train and equip” program as a precondition for Turkey’s support against the Islamic State (IS). The blow was dealt by Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s franchise in Syria.

IS’ declaration of a caliphate following its capture of Mosul in June came as a severe setback for Jabhat al-Nusra, when many of its fighters swore allegiance to the new “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leading the group to cede its positions in Deir ez-Zor to IS. In recent days, however, the group made some surprise moves to make up for its losses.

Jabhat al-Nusra had declared an emirate in the Idlib countryside to stop militants from gravitating to IS, even though it nominally rejects the establishment of a Sharia state before the Syrian regime is toppled. Following an intensified campaign against the regime in the southern region between Quneitra in the Golan Heights and Daraa, the group advanced also in the Idlib countryside in the north over the past week, capturing Maarshorin, Maasaran, Dadikh, Kafr Battikh, Kafr Ruma, Khan al-Subul and then Deir Sunbul, the hometown of Jamal Maarouf, the commander of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front. The militants then swarmed on Sarmada, thus coming as close as 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) to the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish border.

The Syrian Revolutionaries Front, having lost also its positions in Hama to Jabhat al-Nusra, was left with almost zero territory under its control. The Hazm movement, for its part, withdrew from its strongholds in Idlib, including Khan al-Subul. While maintaining its presence in Aleppo under a nonaggression pact with Jabhat al-Nusra, it was still required to surrender its checkpoints.