REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - The CIA has been delivering light machine guns and other small arms to Syrian opposition group for several weeks, following President Barack Obama's decision to arm the opposition. The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal first reported the aid.
The intelligence agency has also arranged for the Syrian opposition to receive anti-tank weaponry like rocket-propelled grenades through a third party, presumably one of the Gulf countries that has been arming the opposition, a senior US intelligence official and two former intelligence officials said Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified program publicly.
Top opposition commander Gen. Salim Idris told National Public Radio on Thursday that rebels had received no such aid from the US. The CIA declined to comment.
The officials said the aid has been arriving for more than a month, much of it delivered through a third party, which could explain why the opposition commander Idris does not believe the US directly delivered the aid. The officials said the aid is delivered to commanders who have been vetted by the CIA, and the path of the weaponry is tracked through trusted parties within the country — though eventually, once they're in the hands of fighters, the US loses sight of where the weapons go.
The oppostion groups continue to request sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry to take out the Syrian regime's helicopters, but the officials said neither the US nor Syria's neighboring countries, like Jordan or Israel, wants the rebels to have weaponry that may fall into the hands of al-Nusra, or be captured by Hezbollah fighters who are supporting the Syrian army's effort.
The CIA program is classified as covert, which means it would be briefed to Congress's intelligence committees but not its defense committees. That explains why some senior lawmakers on the defense committees have complained the aid was not arriving, two of the officials said.
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