US Secretly Providing Heavy Weapons Training for Syrian Rebels

Source : Atlantic Council

iCIA operatives and U.S. special operations troops have been secretly training Syrian rebels with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons since late last year, months before President Obama approved plans to begin directly arming them, according to U.S. officials and rebel commanders.

The covert U.S. training at bases in Jordan and Turkey, along with Obama’s decision this month to supply arms and ammunition to the rebels, have raised hopes among the beleaguered opposition that Washington ultimately will provide heavier weapons as well. So far, the rebels say they lack the weapons they need to regain the offensive in Syria’s bitter civil war.

The tightly constrained U.S. effort reflects Obama’s continuing doubts about getting drawn into a conflict that already has killed more than 100,000 people and the administration’s fears that Islamic militants now leading the war against President Bashar Assad could gain control of advanced U.S. weaponry. . . .

The number of rebels given U.S. instruction in both countries since the program began could not be determined, but in Jordan, the training involves 20 to 45 insurgents at a time, a rebel commander said.

U.S. special operations teams selected the trainees over the last year when the U.S. military set up regional supply lines to provide the rebels with nonlethal assistance, including uniforms, radios and medical aid.

The two-week courses include training with Russian-designed 14.5-millimeter anti-tank rifles, anti-tank missiles, as well as 23-millimeter anti-aircraft weapons, according to a rebel commander in the Syrian province of Dara who helps oversee weapons acquisitions and who asked his name not be used because the program is secret.

The training began last November at a new American base in the desert in southwest Jordan, he said. So far, about 100 rebels from Dara have attended four courses, while rebels from Damascus have attended three courses, he said. . . .

Brig. Gen. Yahya Bittar, who defected as a fighter pilot from Assad’s air force last year and is now head of intelligence for the Free Syrian Army, said training for the last month or so has taken place in Jordan.

The training, conducted by American, Jordanian and French operatives, involves rockets and anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry, he said.

Between 80 and 100 rebels from all over Syria have gone through the courses in the last month, he said, but training is continuing. Graduates are sent back across the border to rejoin the battle. (photo: Voice of America)

Russia wants U.S. to help foster dialogue in Syria

News via Yahoo!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will urge the United States on Tuesday to press the Syrian opposition to hold direct talks with Damascus, but fears "extremists" now have the upper hand among President Bashar al- Assad's opponents.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said before leaving for Berlin to meet Secretary of State John Kerry that the new U.S. top diplomat seemed to grasp the gravity of the crisis in Syria.

He said Washington should lean on the Syrian opposition to drop demands that Assad must leave power before talks can start.

"In our contacts with other countries that can influence the parties in Syria, we have noticed a growing understanding of the need to influence both the government and, first of all, the opposition so that they do not come up with unrealistic requests as preconditions for the start of dialogue," Lavrov said after talks with Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans.

"This is what we will discuss with John Kerry today. During our latest phone conversation I had the impression that he has an understanding of the acuteness of the situation in Syria."

Moscow and Washington have been at loggerheads over Syria, where 70,000 people have been killed in a nearly two- year-old conflict that began with a crackdown on street protests against Assad's rule.

Russia has been Assad's staunchest ally and, with China, blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at mounting pressure on him to end the violence.

Washington has sided with the Syrian opposition in seeking Assad's removal from power.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said in Moscow on Monday that the government was ready for talks, but opposition leaders and rebel commanders insist Assad must go first.

Kerry responded dismissively to Moualem's offer, saying it was hard to understand how people having Scud missiles fired at them would take an offer of dialogue seriously. Syria denies using ballistic missiles in the fighting.

He also appeared to promise more concrete support to Assad's opponents, without saying whether the United States might rethink its earlier aversion to arming or training them.

"We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be dangling in the wind," Kerry said in London on Monday.

Lavrov signaled that the prospects for direct talks in Syria had receded in the past few days.

"A few days ago it seemed that conditions for the sides to sit down for talks ... were getting clearer. There were calls in support of a quick start to dialogue," he said.

"But then came denials of such an approach. It seems extremists, who bet on a military solution to Syria's problems and block initiatives to start dialogue, have for now come to dominate in the ranks of the Syrian opposition, including in the so-called (Syrian) National Coalition," he added.

Western countries and some Arab states have accused Russia, a long-standing arms supplier to Damascus, of shielding Assad, whose Syrian opponents have bitterly denounced Russian policy.

Moscow has hit back by saying it has worked hard to try to persuade the two sides in Syria to start talks and accusing its Western allies of failing to do enough to support those efforts.

It also says support for the rebels plays into the hands of militant Islamists, a theme Assad himself often evokes.

(Editing by Timothy Heritage and Alistair Lyon)

US - Turkey meeting in Istanbul

, US, Turkey where to study a rage of possible measures over Syria - Damascus [?]„said US Sec. H. Clinton after meeting in Istanbul with counterpart A. Davutoglu on Saturday. Republicans critics Obama's handling over Syria (in context Lybia) of a no-fly zone to prevent Syria warplanes, well as more directly arming the insurgents inside. Washington has focused on humantiarian aid, communication gear and other non leathal support, in context FSA reportdedly held terretory from northern capital of Aleppo near Turkey border.