.
US taxpayers are being forced to aid hardline jihadists.
8/25/13, "Large arms shipment reaches Syrian rebels: opposition," Reuters, by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman
"Gulf-based supporters have sent a 400-ton shipment of arms
to Syria's outgunned rebels, one of the biggest to reach them in their
two-year-old uprising, opposition sources said on Sunday.
The consignment - mostly ammunition for shoulder-fired weapons and anti-aircraft machine guns - came into northern Syria via the Turkish province of Hatay in the past 24 hours, and was already being handed out, the sources added.
One
rebel officer told Reuters the flow of arms bound for rebels had
increased since opposition groups accused the government of launching
deadly chemical weapons attacks in Damascus on Wednesday.
"Twenty trailers crossed from Turkey and are being distributed to arms depots for several brigades across the north," said rebel official Mohammad Salam, who told Reuters he saw the weapons come over the border.
Syria's
conflict, pitting mostly Sunni Muslim insurgents against President
Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect follows an offshoot of Shi'ite
Islam, has ignited sectarian tensions across the region.
Qatar and other Sunni-led Gulf states have backed the insurgents, while Shi'ite power Iran remains one of Assad's main allies.
Rebel
units operating in northern Syria range from moderate Islamists to
hardline jihadists and include Liwa al-Islam (The Division of Islam),
Sukur al-Sham (The Hawks of Syria), The Free Martyrs of Syria, Ahfad
al-Rasul (The Grandsons of the Prophet) and Ahrar al-Sham (The Freemen
of Syria).
Analysts say they have
struggled to hold onto advances against Assad's Iranian and
Russian-armed forces and his monopoly on air power.
A
senior officer in the Gulf and Western-backed Supreme Military Council,
an umbrella group for rebel units, said there had been an increase in
rebel-bound arms shipments coming into Turkey, particularly since the
reports of a chemical assault. The
government has dismissed Syrian opposition accusations that it killed
well over 1,000 civilians with poison gas in Damascus suburbs on
Wednesday.
Weapons still waiting to cross into Syria included more sophisticated anti-tank guided weapons, the officer added, without elaborating.
He, and other sources, said money for the shipments came from the Gulf, without naming countries."...via Michael Savage
=============================
7/22/13, "Congressional panels approve arms aid to Syrian opposition," Washington Post, Karen DeYoung
"Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the intelligence committee,
said Monday night that he disagreed “and wish to make my dissent clear.
In my view, the modest chance for success of these plans does not
warrant the risk of becoming entangled in yet another civil war.”"...
.
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