Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Syrian rebels report new shipments of heavy weapons, credit U.S. influence
Washington Post ^ | June 21, 2013 | By Loveday Morris

Posted on 06/21/2013 9:45:56 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels said Friday that newly arrived shipments of heavy weaponry could swing the momentum on the battlefield in their favor, after a shift in U.S. policy opened the door for others to send them arms.

Weapons from the United States have not materialized since the White House announced last week it had authorized direct military support for the opposition, but the U.S. decision appears to have prompted other nations to increase assistance, with new deliveries including highly prized antitank and antiaircraft weaponry, according to Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the main Syrian Opposition Coalition.

Saleh declined to provide specifics but said shipments had come from countries in the Friends of Syria Group, a coalition of 11 Western and Arab nations that back the opposition. The group is due to meet in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Saturday to discuss coordinating military support for the rebels.

“It’s not all the advanced weapons that we’ve asked for, but it is a few that mean we will be able to respond to attacks by air and tanks,” Saleh said, linking their arrival to the White House decision. “The U.S. changing its position sends a very strong signal to the other countries,” he said.

CIA operatives and U.S. Special Operations troops have been secretly training selected rebel groups to use antitank and antiaircraft weapons in Jordan and Turkey since late last year, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times on Friday. The Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment on the report.

Five rebel commanders, defectors from President Bashar al-Assad’s regular army who now lead battalions in southern Syria, said this week that they had attended or were familiar with training camps in Jordan run by what they described as U.S. intelligence officers and U.S. military officers. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Germany; Israel; Russia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: europeanunion; france; germany; iran; iraq; israel; jordan; kuwait; lebanon; nato; qatar; russia; saudiarabia; syria; turkey; unitedkingdom; waronterror
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

1 posted on 06/21/2013 9:45:56 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Supporting our “moderate” terrorist friends...what could possibly go wrong?


2 posted on 06/21/2013 9:50:26 PM PDT by ogen hal (First amendment or reeducation camp)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
Syrian rebels said Friday that newly arrived shipments of heavy weaponry could swing the momentum on the battlefield in their favor, after a shift in U.S. policy opened the door for others to send them arms.

Now the real dying can begin.

3 posted on 06/21/2013 9:52:26 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Fight the culture of nothing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

So 0bama wants to confiscate arms in America to send to jihadists working on The Caliphate?


4 posted on 06/21/2013 9:53:26 PM PDT by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mike Darancette

Let us hope so.


5 posted on 06/21/2013 9:53:43 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

I’m sure the obama administration made the Syrian rebels go through thorough background checks before giving them the weapons /sarcasm


6 posted on 06/21/2013 9:56:00 PM PDT by lowbridge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Gosh, I just hate it when we arm those who have sworn to destroy us!


7 posted on 06/21/2013 9:56:08 PM PDT by originalbuckeye (Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mike Darancette

Darn that George Bush!

I’m sure this policy started under him and no we will have to set up a committee to sort it out.

Poor Obama having to keep cleaning up his messes. < SARC>.


8 posted on 06/21/2013 10:03:18 PM PDT by DanielRedfoot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: lowbridge

That’s brilliant!

We need to document the rebels and have a background check for each.

And bty the way, why would they need a 30 round clip?

Please tell me that we are not sending anything like that!


9 posted on 06/21/2013 10:07:39 PM PDT by DanielRedfoot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

So the US has become, like, the main terrorist sponsor state?


10 posted on 06/21/2013 10:07:55 PM PDT by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com (Obama equals Osama))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hardraade

Yes. Kinda. Sorta, maybe. Nah, never. The soviet influence is nothing to the lower Syrians. Just ask ‘em, or President Obama.


11 posted on 06/21/2013 10:15:52 PM PDT by RedHeeler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Hardraade
[So the US has become, like, the main terrorist sponsor state?]

So far this year we've given Egypt a squadron of F-16’s, at least 30 M-1 Abrams tanks, and Kerry just handed them $1.3 billion without congressional approval.

12 posted on 06/21/2013 10:30:23 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

This is analogous to arming some crips in a ghetto so they can kill some bloods.

It won’t end well and do people think they will just turn in their weapons after they win?


13 posted on 06/21/2013 11:39:11 PM PDT by volunbeer (We must embrace austerity or austerity will embrace us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni group. The Council's President, George Sabra, a Christian Communist (sic), is a fig leaf for the Muslim extremists. The Brotherhood and an al Quaeda-affiliated group, control "the ground", so the Syrian National Council is essentially irrelevant in any event. Two Christian Bishops have been kidnapped by the muslims and one of the two rebel groups has told Syrian Christians to "flee or be killed". There are 2-1/2 million Christians in Syria, comprising 10% of the population. Assad has protected the Christian minority, much as Mubarak protected Egypt's twelve million Christians. "Liberal" Syrians have no more chance of gaining influence if Assad is removed than Egyptian "liberals" did. Syria would, like Egypt, become a Sunni Muslim theocracy if Assad is removed. Many Christians would be slaughtered, unlike Egypt where they have broader influence. The Saudis, Sunnis themselves, support the rebels.

Over the coming weeks, we will be told that the international community has assured that, in return for military support, the Syrian opposition has granted greater power to "liberals", aka secularists. This will be a lie.

14 posted on 06/21/2013 11:41:07 PM PDT by Praxeologue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: volunbeer
It won’t end well and do people think they will just turn in their weapons after they win?

Isn't this the same kind of deal the Russians had with the Taliban in Afghanistan? I hear life is wonderful there, now.

15 posted on 06/21/2013 11:46:50 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: tacticalogic

It’s peachy. We built schools with desks so the Jihadists won’t have to sit on the floor for terror training after they kick the students out and kill the teachers.


16 posted on 06/21/2013 11:58:34 PM PDT by volunbeer (We must embrace austerity or austerity will embrace us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
If there were any good guys in Syria, they have either been killed or left the country.

Personally, I think the chemical weapons are better off under Assad's control than whoever may be called a Syrian rebel because methinks that a lot of Syrian rebels are not from Syria.

17 posted on 06/22/2013 12:02:32 AM PDT by metafugitive
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kennard
[Over the coming weeks, we will be told that the international community has assured that, in return for military support, the Syrian opposition has granted greater power to “liberals”, aka secularists. This will be a lie.]

Even if the new order promised to protect Christians the more radical factions, embedded in a newly constituted police and military, would make life unbearable for them.

In Iraq, where the Shia dominate, more than half the Christians have left because nobody can guarantee their safety.

The post-colonial Middle Eastern leaders, including Assad's father, were secularists. This reflected the “modernist” view that theocracies were doomed to perpetual medievalism.

Now the fundamentalists are poised to be the new establishment across the whole region. This will be a dark age, at least as seen from the outside.

18 posted on 06/22/2013 12:35:56 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
Now the fundamentalists are poised to be the new establishment across the whole region.

... due to Saudi oil money, extending all the way to the White House.

19 posted on 06/22/2013 1:02:29 AM PDT by Praxeologue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Oh, goodie. Now our government is sponsoring Muslim fundamentalist cannibals. Just when you thought we hit rock bottom, the floor collapses from beneath your feet.


20 posted on 06/22/2013 2:13:50 AM PDT by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson