Instead of Training Syrian Rebels, US Drops Arms, Ammo

Instead of Training Syrian Rebels, US Drops Arms, Ammo

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Olga Grosman

After the $500 million dollar program to train moderate Syrian rebel groups brought no real success in the battlefield, the US has decided to change strategy – dropping ammunition and weapons from the sky.

At first the US refused to reveal the details on the destination, location or type of  cargo but made it clear that these are groups that have been screened by it. “This successful airdrop provided ammunition to Syrian Arab groups whose leaders were appropriately vetted by the United States,” spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said in a statement.

The Obama administrations seems to be putting all his money on the North Syrian rebels, where the US’ air strikes helped the Kurdish forces fight ISIS. However, Northern Syria is a sensitive topic to Syria’s neighbor in the north, Turkey, who began worrying that the weapons dropped by the US may end up in Kurdish hands. The reason for this is that Turkey isn’t very comfortable with the Kurdish presence in its borders growing increasingly strong, in fear that they might start building a Kurdish nation right under Turkey’s nose.

As a result, Turkey has called the Russian and US ambassadors to talk – the purpose of which, according to a senior official in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is to warn them against supplying Kurdish forces in Syria with weapons. The US denies that the Kurdish militia has ever gotten its hands on the ammo dropped in the North of Syria, insisting that the delivery has reached its destination: the moderate rebels fighting against ISIS.

Reports from recent battles in the north of Syria state that the rebels, after receiving the weapons, are indeed seeing greater success facing the assault of the Syrian regime in the north and center of the country. A recent report states that at least 50 vehicles belonging to the Syrian regime and the militias battling alongside it were destroyed by American TOW missiles operated by the rebels. It still remains to be seen whether the American weapons and ammunition will pay off, or become a miniscule addition facing the massive re-enforcement given to Assad from Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah in the past weeks.

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