Late last night, the Supreme Military Council (SMC), a command structure for the armed Syrian opposition, issued a statementannouncing that it had expelled its own chief of staff, Lieutenant General Salim Idris, who is said to be on a work-related visit to Qatar. A copy of what was said to be the written decision lists nearly two dozen SMC commanders that signed off on the move. But confusion reigned—and soon thereafter, an SMC commander called the decision a “coup,” blaming it on a troika of Saudi-backed opposition figures.
The SMC was created in December 2012 to serve as a central command for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an umbrella term used by many Gulf-backed rebels fighting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. It was quickly endorsed by the United States, the Gulf countries, the EU, and Turkey as the legitimate leadership of the armed rebellion in Syria. But although it gathered many leading rebel commanders, it soon became apparent that the SMC was not an effective leadership. Still, it has played an important role by channeling Saudi and Western support for the rebellion.
http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=54537