US Training Syria Rebels in Jordan, UK Supplying Them with Arms

Local Editor
 
Americans are training Syrian anti-government fighters in Jordan, the German weekly Der Spiegel said on Sunday, quoting what it said were participants and organizers.

Spiegel said it was not clear whether the Americans worked for private firms or were from the army but said some wore uniforms. The training focused on use of anti-tank weaponry.
Some 200 men have already received such training over the past three months and there are plans in the future to provide training for a total 1,200 members of the "Free Syrian Army" in two camps in the south and the east of the country.

Britain's Guardian newspaper also reported that US trainers were assisting Syrian rebels in Jordan. British and French instructors were also participating in the US-led effort, the Guardian said on Saturday, citing Jordanian security sources.
Jordanian intelligence services are involved in the program, which aims to build around a dozen units totaling some 10,000 fighters to the exclusion of radical Islamists, Spiegel reported.

"The Jordanian intelligence services want to prevent Salafists crossing from their own country into Syria and then returning later to stir up trouble in Jordan itself," one of the organizers claimed.
A spokesman for the US War Department declined immediate comment on the Spiegel report. The French foreign ministry and Britain's foreign and defense ministries also had no comment.
In parallel, the British Daily Star Sunday paper revealed that the UK sent secret shipment of weapons worth 20 million sterling pound, equivalent to 30 million USD to Syria rebels.

The paper said that the weapons included assault rifles, machineguns, grenades, anti-tank rockets, rocket pad, rockets launchers and ammunition which were stored in neighboring countries and enough to arm 1000 members of "Syrian opposition".
It further added that this development coincides with the announcement of the British Foreign Minister William Hague last Wednesday that Britain will provide" Syrian opposition "with armored vehicles and body armor.
The paper quoted a government source that the weapons were sent seven week ago as part of a plan drawn up by ministry of Defense top brass to transport weapons worth 1 million sterling pound every day to the Syrian rebels.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org