Syrian rebels report new shipments of heavy weapons, credit U.S. influence

Washington Post ^ | June 21, 2013 | By Loveday Morris

[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. . .

[ogen hal]

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

[Mike Darancette]

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.

[Paladin2]

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

[Lurker]

Let us hope so.

[lowbridge]

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

[originalbuckeye]

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

[DanielRedfoot]

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>.

[DanielRedfoot]

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!

[Hardraade]

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

[RedHeeler]

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

[Brad from Tennessee]

[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.

[volunbeer]

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?

[Praxeologue]

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.

[tacticalogic]

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.

[volunbeer]

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.

[metafugitive]

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.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[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.

[Praxeologue]

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.

[3Fingas]

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.