A fresh injection of arms into the Syrian Civil War is fueling a proxy conflict that will make any possible imminent peace negotiations less likely, according to a Monday report in The New York Times.
The US has responded to recent Russian military operations in support of the routinely brutal Syrian government by ratcheting up the provision of anti-tank weapons to a rebel coalition that includes an al-Qaida affiliate.
The effort has largely taken place in the Idlib and Hama provinces, where the Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) and the US-backed Free Syrian Army have fought alongside one another. The former is part of an Islamist coalition called the Army of Conquest.
One rebel commander named Ahmed al-Saud told the paper that Islamic groups that “have always labeled us as agents, infidels and apostates because of our dealing with the West…can see how effective we are because of our dealing with the West.”
The missiles, according to the article, were first shipped by Washington to CIA-vetted groups in Syria in 2013, through Saudi Arabia and other regional allies. The shipment to the oil-rich kingdom included 13,000 TOWs.
One report alluded to by The Times stated that there had been a recent shipment of 500 TOWs from Saudi Arabia.
An unnamed rebel official in Hama who spoke to the paper said the group “can get as much as we need and whenever we need them.”
Read The Times report here.
