The Al Qaeda-led and Salafist extremist groups in the rebel forces, such a Al Nusra, have proved to be just as vicious as the government and its allies, the Iranian proxy Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. But the united view of Western intelligence services is that there is no evidence that these rebel groups launched the chemical-weapons attack.
另一个毫无疑问的要点是对叙利亚反对派的要素的担忧合情合理。叛军中不乏基地组织领导的沙拉菲派极端组织，比如Al Nusra，它们被证实与政府及其盟友——伊朗代理人真主党和伊朗革命卫队一样残暴。但西方情报机构的综合意见认为，没有证据表明这些叛军组织发动了化学武器攻击。