Syrian Rebels To Receive $123 Million More In Aid From United States

[1lluminated1]

Syrian Rebels To Receive $123 Million More In Aid From United States

By MATTHEW LEE 04/20/13 08:19 PM ET EDT

 

 

ISTANBUL -- The United States said Sunday that it will double its non-lethal assistance to Syria's opposition as the rebels' top supporters vowed to enhance and expand their backing of the two-year battle to oust President Bashar Assad's regime.

 

Yet the pledge fell far short of what the opposition had made clear it wanted: weapons and direct military intervention to stop the violence that has killed more than 70,000 people. The Syrian National Coalition had sought drone strikes on sites from which the regime has fired missiles, the imposition of no-fly zones and protected humanitarian corridors to ensure the safety of civilians.

 

Instead, the Obama administration's pledged to provide an additional $123 million in aid, which may include for the first time armored vehicles, body armor, night vision goggles and other defensive military supplies. It was the only tangible, public offer of new international support as the foreign ministers of the 11 main countries supporting the opposition met in a marathon session in Istanbul.

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the new package of assistance in a written statement at the conclusion of the conference that began Saturday afternoon and stretched into early Sunday.

 

The additional aid, which brings total non-lethal U.S. assistance to the opposition to $250 million since the fighting began, "underscores the United States' firm support for a political solution to the crisis in Syria and for the opposition's advancement of an inclusive, tolerant vision for a post-Assad Syria," he said.

 

Kerry said a portion of the new money would be used to follow through on President Barack Obama's recent authorization to expand direct supplies to the Free Syrian Army beyond food and medical supplies to include defensive items. Officials said the exact types of supplies would be decided in consultation with allies and the rebels' Supreme Military Council.

 

Kerry also announced nearly $25 million in additional food assistance for Syrians who remain inside the country as well as those who have fled to neighboring countries, bringing the total U.S. humanitarian contribution to the crisis to more than $409 million.

 

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/syria-rebels-aid_n_3124533.html

[1lluminated1]

Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda

Mona Alami, Special for USA TODAY10:18 p.m. EDT April 11, 2013

BEIRUT — A Syrian rebel group's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

 

The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well.

 

Lebanese Sheik Omar Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time.

 

"They provided them early on with technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria," Bakri says. "There will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups."

 

Read more:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/11/syria-al-qaeda-connection/2075323/

Syrian rebels 'beheaded Christian and fed him to dogs'

by: MATTHEW CAMPBELL  From: The Times  December 30, 2012 1:47PM

HE HAD just got married and his wife was about to give birth but this did not save Andrei Arbashe, a young Christian, from a horrific fate at the hands of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime earlier this month.

 

"They beheaded him, cut him into pieces and fed him to the dogs," said Agnes-Mariam de la Croix, mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated between Damascus and Homs.

Read more:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/syrian-rebels-beheaded-christian-and-fed-him-to-dogs/story-fnb64oi6-1226545322022

 

US-Backed Syrian Rebels Murdering Christians

June 19, 2012 by Ilana

Christians are being systematically targeted for genocide in Syria according to Vatican and other sources with contacts on the ground among the besieged Christian community.

 

According to reports by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency collected by the Centre for the Study of Interventionism, the US-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and ever more radical spin-off factions are sacking Christian churches, shooting Christians dead in the street, broadcasting ultimatums that all Christians must be cleansed from the rebel-held villages, and even shooting priests.

 

Read more:  http://gerarddirect.com/2012/06/19/us-backed-syrian-rebels-killing-christians/

 

Free Syrian rebel barbecues decapitated head of helicopter pilot

By Lesley Lanir April 15, 2013

Damascus - A young member of the Free Syrian Army smiles whilst barbecuing the severed head of a Syrian government helicopter pilot downed with his crew by a rebel surface-to-air missile.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/348007#ixzz2RLPL5Szs

 

[solabeirtan]

I'll say this 1i1, they sure are getting their 'Bang to the Buck' on that one. If it was possible to justify this type of barbarianism. So who said the crusades were over with anyway?  Atrocious

 

A cruel and vulgar statement from the Admin. htfb

 

(this was my first response, before I looked up some of your links ...)

 

About the $123 million spent in Syria v this bs here they're throwing 10 billion at ...

 

"Plan to spend $10bn on updating nuclear bombs goes against 2010 pledge not to deploy new weapons, say critics"

 

Guardain

 

...ditto from your Admin. ""