Even People With Half-Brain Knew It All Along.

I don't think that MSM revealed anything here that hasn't been known for awhile to anyone with even basic logic. It was a PR sham all along. 

Defector says thousands of Islamic State fighters left Raqqa in secret deal 

  ...he told Reuters in an interview that the number of fighters who were allowed to go was far higher and the account of a last-ditch battle was a fiction designed to keep journalists away while the evacuation took place. He said a U.S. official in the international coalition against Islamic State, whom he did not identify, approved the deal at a meeting with an SDF commander.

Even pathetic neocon rag Newsweek reported on that. What is interesting here is how this whole thing will go with Israel's almost open support for takfiris and with Trump, in effect, declaring Jerusalem a capitol of Israel. I defer it to Colonel Lang who is a professional in the area:

IMO there will be no peace for Israel ... 

One phrase stands out in his piece:

Will the Muslims ever trust the US again to act as an honest broker? Dennis Ross badly damaged our credibility.  Is it completely gone - perhaps forever?  

Syria (after Ukraine), in my very humble opinion, changed not only regional, Middle East, but global dynamics and it is inevitable that many Arabs do turn back to Russia as I type this. In general, Umma seems to be in a rather welcoming mood, once one considers that couple of RUAF (VKS) TU-95 strategic bombers just two days ago were greeted in Indonesia--the largest Muslim nation in the world. So, a lot is going on right now.

Remember what Russia "sells" today--it is not just oil, gas, fighter planes, nuclear power plant, or space stations. Russia's main export today is (geo)political stability--the price of this product cannot be easily calculated in money, albeit monetary, and gigantic at that, value is there too. This is an extremely hot commodity in the world today--from Middle East to Asia-Pacific. It is a dramatic turn of events and there are many buyers for that commodity--some want just part of it, others want a Full Monty. This is how the new world order emerges.