New York: Western governments have reportedly supplied heavy weapons to ‘moderate’ Free Syrian Army fighters, The Washington Post reports. Allegedly the arms have been delivered to Syria to counterweight radical Islamists high-jacking the rebel movement.
The armaments are said to include anti-tank weapons and recoilless rifles and are thought to be the first such heavy weapons have been supplied from outside since the uprising against President Assad started two years ago, the newspaper reports.
Its sources say the weapons have been delivered to FSA groups in the Syrian province of Daraa in the south of the country across the border with Jordan. The Jordanian government denied any role.
The political and media coordinator for the Free Syrian Army, Louay al-Mokdad, has reportedly confirmed that the rebels acquired new weapons shipped from outside Syria, but he refused to disclose who was behind the shipment.
Citing an unnamed official, the newspaper reports that the main goal of the recent armament is to boost “more moderate groups fighting in the south”, and thus to “counter the growing influence of Islamist extremist groups in the north of Syria”.
According to one of the newspapers sources, shifting the focus of the war away “from the north toward the south and the capital” will make the fight against Assad more productive.
