DAMASCUS: Syria’s rebels have received new types of weapons that could “change the course of the battle,” a rebel spokesman said yesterday, as troops tried to oust opposition fighters from a Damascus district.
The announcement came a day before a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha of the Friends of Syria, a group of nations that back the uprising against President Bashar Al Assad.
“We’ve received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground,” Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Muqdad said.
“We have begun distributing them on the front lines; they will be in the hands of professional officers and FSA fighters,” added Muqdad, a media and political coordination for the rebel FSA.
He said the Friends of Syria meeting was expected to officially announce tomorrow its members would send weapons to the rebels.
Muqdad declined to specify what weapons had been received or when they had arrived, but added that a new shipment was expected in the coming days.
He sad rebels had asked for “deterrent weapons,” meaning “anti-aircraft weapons, anti-tank weapons, as well as ammunition.”
The apparent influx of weapons comes after the United States said it would provide rebel forces with “military support,” although it has declined to outline what that might entail. “The weapons will be used for one objective, which is to fight the regime of (President) Bashar Al Assad,” Muqdad insisted.
“They will be collected after the fall of the regime, we have made this committment to the friends and brotherly countries” that supplied them, he said.
On Thursday, Muqdad said rebels needed short-range ground-to-air missiles, surface-to-air missiles known as MANPADS, anti-tank missiles, mortars and ammunition.
The Friends of Syria talks in Qatar today will be attended by ministers from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. They are expected to discuss military help and other aid for rebels as government forces press their campaign against the insurgents. Muqdad said the opposition was expecting “a clear and official announcement by the countries participating (in Doha) on the arming of the FSA.”
“That’s what we are hoping for; that’s what we are waiting for.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry left for Qatar on Friday, with a US official describing the gathering as important for “energising” the opposition National Coalition. On the ground, troops shelled the Damascus neighbourhood of Qabun, as their bid to drive rebels from the district entered a third day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “Regime troops renewed shelling this morning of the Qabun neighbourhood and fierce clashes were underway between soldiers and rebels on the outskirts of the area,” the group said.
“Regime forces are hitting the area with mortar rounds, tanks and heavy artillery.”
Meanwhile, state television reported that the army had killed “several terrorists (rebels) around the Aleppo central prison, and destroyed anti-aircraft guns as well as weapons caches.”
State media also denied medical shortages at the prison, where the Observatory has said more than 100 people have died since April, some of them for lack of medical treatment.
AFP
