US and UK suspend non-lethal aid for Syria rebels

BBC News online -- 11 December 2013

SMC fighters were reportedly "asked" to leave Bab al-Hawa by the Islamic Front

The US and UK governments have suspended all "non-lethal assistance" for the opposition in northern Syria.

A US embassy spokesman in Ankara said the decision was made after Islamist rebels seized bases belonging to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Fighters from the Islamic Front, a new alliance of major rebel groups, took control of the bases at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey last week.
Humanitarian assistance by the US and UK is not expected to be affected.

That was distributed through international and non-governmental organisations, the US embassy spokesman added.

Analysis

James Reynolds BBC News, Istanbul

The US faces a fundamental problem in Syria - how can it support the moderate Syrian opposition without also, indirectly, supporting the increasingly powerful Islamist opposition?
This year, the US promised to send $250m of non-lethal supplies to the moderate Syrian opposition, represented by the National Coalition and the FSA. A first batch of aid included food rations and several tonnes of medical supplies. A second batch, announced in April, was reported to include vehicles, communications equipment and night-vision goggles. By October 2013, $167m of the aid package had been distributed or was "in train".
Crucially, some of these supplies may now be with rebels from the newly formed Islamist Front, who have taken over warehouses in northern Syria belonging to the FSA. This takeover reflects the growing power of Islamist factions within the Syrian opposition movement.
For this reason, the US has suspended its delivery of aid. For the White House, the idea of supporting the Syrian opposition is getting increasingly complicated.

Last month, seven leading rebel groups - the Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, Suqour al-Sham, Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Sham and the Kurdish Islamic Front - declared that they were forming the largest alliance yet in the 33-month conflict, with an estimated 45,000 fighters.

They said the new Islamic Front was an "independent political, military and social formation" that aimed to topple President Bashar al-Assad's government and build an Islamic state.

The front does not include al-Qaeda affiliates like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the al-Nusra Front, but its charter welcomes "muhajirin", or foreign fighters, as "brothers who supported us in jihad", and suggests it is willing to co-operate with them.

Last week, the Islamic Front announced that it had withdrawn from the command of the FSA's Supreme Military Council (SMC), which is aligned to the opposition National Coalition.

Four days later, its fighters drove out SMC-aligned forces out of their bases and warehouses at Bab al-Hawa, in the north-western province of Idlib, which contained weapons and equipment that had been brought into Syria through Turkey.

SMC spokesman Louay Meqdad said the Islamic Front had raised its flag in place of the SMC's after "asking" its personnel to leave. But he also stressed: "We believe that those brigades are our brothers, that they know that we are not the enemy."

On Wednesday, the US embassy spokesman told the Reuters news agency that the situation at Bab al-Hawa was being investigated to "inventory the status of US equipment and supplies provided to the SMC".

The US government has committed to provide $250m (£152m) in non-lethal assistance to the National Coalition, local opposition councils and the SMC. Rebel brigades have been provided with food rations, medical supplies, communications equipment and vehicles.

The Islamic Front has withdrawn from the FSA's Supreme Military Council 

 

A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office told the BBC that its suspension of non-lethal aid was temporary "pending investigation".

The UK is providing more than £20m in non-lethal support, including 4x4 vehicles, body armour, generators, communications equipment, water purification kits and equipment to protect against chemical weapons.

The rebel infighting comes as government forces make advances.
In the past two months, several towns around the capital Damascus and the second city of Aleppo have been recaptured by soldiers backed by pro-government militiamen, members of the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, activists say.

An offensive is also under way in the Qalamoun mountains, which run along the border with Lebanon. On Tuesday, troops started moving towards the town of Yabrud, the last rebel stronghold in the area