Below is a breakdown of the teams in this fight; team Assad, those loyal to current ruler Bashar Al-Assad and the various rebel factions. Team Members: The United States, NATO, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Al-Nusra(basically Al-Qaeda in Syria), The Free Syrian Army (FSA), and various affiliated rebel groups Basically, they are the surviving members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (the group the US declared dead or almost dead many times) that seized a golden opportunity to create a Muslim caliphate in swaths of lawless territories in Syria and Iraq.