How the U.S. Is Waging Covert War in Syria

 

How the U.S. Is Waging Covert War in Syria

http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2013/03/how_the_us_is_waging_covert_war_in_syria.html

 

Posted by Greg Scoblete at 10:37 AM

 

In what's being dubbed (perhaps optimistically) as a "carefully prepared

covert operation" the U.S. and European powers are directing increasingly

sophisticated weapons shipments from Gulf states to Syria's rebels, the AP

is reporting. Arms shipments to Syrian rebels have doubled over the past

four weeks as the rebels have encroached on the Syrian capital.

 

The division of labor reportedly looks like this: Saudi Arabia and Qatar

fund the weapons purchases from Croatia or black market arms dealers in

Europe; Jordan and Turkey provide land access for the weapons to enter

Syria, while the U.S. and Europe 'coordinate' who gets what. According to an

"Arab official, a diplomat and military experts" quoted by the AP, only

"secular fighters" are receiving the weapons. How that is ensured, however,

was not revealed.

 

The Syrian rebels have advanced to Damascus and the covert effort was being

framed as giving the rebels the needed muscle to secure supply lines between

Jordan and Damascus and then make a final move on the capital:

http://world.time.com/2013/03/27/officials-arms-shipments-rise-to-syrian-reb

els/

  

  The opening of the weapons pipeline through Jordan "provides a fresh

approach" to Syrian rebels, said Shashank Joshi, a military expert who has

been monitoring the arms flow for two years for Britain's Royal United

Services Institute think tank.

 

    "This way opens a new front in southern Syria. It breaks free from

connections with Saudi and Lebanese middlemen (in Turkey), while ensuring

the weapons get to those rebels with secular, or nationalist ties, rather

than the jihadists," he said.

 

    Sweden-based arms trafficking expert Hugh Griffiths, who has been

monitoring the arms flow and collecting independent data, said some 3,500

tons of military equipment have been shipped to the rebels since the traffic

began in early 2012. He said there were at least 160 airlifts of weapons

deliveries from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and later Jordan, with the most recent

being a shipment of unspecified material from Qatar to Turkey on Sunday.

 

    "Nothing compares in terms of the intensity of these flights over

months-long periods at a time," said Griffiths, of the Stockholm

International Peace Research Institute.

 

    Two prominent independent researchers monitoring weapons traffic - Eliot

Higgins in Britain and Nic Jenzen-Jones in Australia - said Croatian arms

began appearing only recently in Syria. They include M60 recoilless guns,

M79 Osa rocket launchers, and RBG-6 grenade launchers, which all are

powerful anti-tank weapons.

 

No word yet on how Washington plans to cope with a failed state in Syria

that is awash in the weapons it's helping to pour in.

 

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