ALEPPO, Syria — Close relations between the Islamic Front (IF) and other factions have thus far enabled a higher degree of coordination in and around Syria’s former industrial capital than in other regions controlled by anti-regime forces.
The Bab al-Salam border crossing is a fenced route with checkpoints, a media office to register foreign journalists staffed by a former Liwa al-Tawhid Brigades fighter and polite, uniformed IF security officers who work closely with Turkish border guards.
The crossing is the only one at which Western journalists can — generally — get legally stamped out of Turkish territory, and the area across is starkly different from the relative confusion reigning at the Bab al-Hawa crossing farther west.