Opening the Weapons Tap: Syria’s Rebels Await Fresh and Free Ammo
(This is probably one of the most factual articles about the rebels arms)
It’s an open secret along the Turkey-Syria border. For weeks, Syrian rebel commanders from key units operating in northern Syria and further south have been waiting for a second major batch of new weapons to arrive at the border. The first large consignment was handed over more than two months ago and was distributed to select groups operating in and around Idlib, Hama, Homs and the outskirts of Damascus. Each area received several hundred rocket-propelled grenade launchers (with 10 grenades per launcher), Kalashnikov rifles, BKC machine guns and ammunition, according to several sources. There have also been two smaller deliveries since the initial consignment. “We weren’t asked what we needed,” says one rebel commander responsible for an area of northern Syria who had been promised supplies, “but we will take whatever we can get.”
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Many of the new weapons are being funneled through a Lebanese intermediary, rebel groups say. The Lebanese politician, who opposes the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has set up an office in Istanbul, declined to be interviewed. He is the main tap, so to speak, while a handful of Syrians are the distributors. TIME tracked down a man believed to be the main distributor, a 31-year-old who says he commands some 1,500 rebels along the Syrian coast but is not part of the Free Syrian Army — the loosely organized network of military defectors and armed civilians — or any other group like the Muslim Brotherhood. He spoke on condition of complete anonymity and insisted that even his geographical area of operation be withheld from publication.
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TIME also found another alleged distributor, one of the four purported representatives of the rebellion in the capital, Damascus, and its outskirts. This man too said the distributors are neither FSA or Muslim Brotherhood. He did say the weapons are from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “It’s not what you think,” he said from Istanbul, where he has recently based himself after leaving Syria. “It was just small amounts. Bullets, rifles, RPGs, and not in huge numbers. We were promised weapons that could take on a tank, but we haven’t got them yet.”
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In the past, Turkey has arrested armed Syrians caught trying to cross the border illegally and confiscated their weapons, but the 31-year-old Syrian arms distributor said Turkey’s “red light” on the border had recently turned green, a view shared by his Damascene counterpart. “The Turkish government is closing its eyes,” he said. The goods are ferried across the border on donkeys, as well as physically carried in by the rebels, he and others said. The recent large consignments of weapons are not only new, they are free — unlike the small amounts of second-hand goods (often bought from corrupt elements within the Syrian regime) scrounged by rebels and smugglers in the past, most often from inside Syria.
http://world.time.com/2012/06/22/opening-the-weapons-tap-syrias-rebels-await-fresh-and-free-ammo/
