The Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Syria gained a new status this week. Customs officers will now man the Syrian side, checking the contents of trucks entering and leaving Turkey. “Interior Ministry” officials will stamp passports and laissez-passer documents.
The iron gate was restored after being damaged in the fighting; it now looks like any other crossing between the two countries, except that the officials on the Syrian side aren’t from the government. They’re rebels who’ve captured Idlib Province.
But that’s not the whole picture. There’s also the Ahrar al-Sham militia, which constitutes part of the Al-Fatah Army, which in turn includes radical Islamist militias, some of them on the list of terror groups.