[Chathamization]

> Are those locations occupied exclusively by Al Qaeda?

They aren't; there are even areas controlled by the Syrian government. Here's a map of Idlib that someone tried to make recently[1]; HTS is the group that includes al Qaeda/al Nusra (though it should be noted that al Nusra is officially no longer part of al Qaeda). I don't think any Idlib groups are currently being aided by the U.S. either (unless I missed something); the CIA program was ended, and the DoD program seems to mostly support SDF (and I believe a small amount of support to other groups like the al Tanf rebels).

There are plenty of reasons to criticize the CIA effort to arm various rebel factions, but it's a shame that misinformation stating that the CIA armed al Qaeda is being spread around and accepted uncritically.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/6yovaq/map_...

[mhermher]

The best known example is that the CIA did in fact support nour al din al zinki, who were literally fighting side by side with nusra in Aleppo (and now in idlib) in the same operation group. So you have various groups coordinating and working together with some light delineation between them. That's how technically the CIA can deny that they ever directly armed al qaeda.