"Rebels said they attacked government forces with suicide car bombs."

They are not rebels, they are holy warriors. For the Globe to call them anything else, even if there is nothing holy about what they do,  is misleading.

"And there are those who do not want to stop. Here's a sample comment from the top JFS [Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front]-aligned cleric, Abu Yaqzan Al-Masri, in Aleppo: 'We won't compromise over our religion. We'll leave Aleppo on our own terms.'"
BBC News Dec 14, 2016