WASHINGTON -- With reports indicating that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad are gaining ground in that country's brutal civil war, "moderate" Syrian rebels have told a visiting journalist that the United States is arranging their training in Qatar.
| Scare quotes around 'moderate' are mine. Moderate is relative... |
In a documentary to be aired Tuesday night, the rebels describe their clandestine journey from the Syrian battlefield to meet with their American handlers in Turkey and then travel on to Qatar, where they say they received training in the use of sophisticated weapons and fighting techniques, including, one rebel said, "how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush."
| That requires sophisticated training? Even the Talibunnies and the Shaboobs can do that... |
The interviews are the latest evidence that after more than three years of warfare, the United States has stepped up the provision of lethal aid to the rebels. In recent months, at least five rebel units have posted videos showing their members firing U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles at Syrian positions. The weapons are believed to have come from Saudi Arabia, but experts on international arms transfers have told McClatchy that they could not have been given to the rebels without the approval of the Obama administration.
| Arms suppliers usually do have those clauses in the fine print... |
The documentary, produced by FRONTLINE for airing on PBS stations, features journalist Muhammad Ali, who has been following the Syrian civil war for the program. The commander of the unit also told Ali that their American contacts had asked him to bring 80 to 90 members of his unit to Ankara for training. Once in Ankara, after a 14-hour drive from Syria, they were interrogated for days about their political leanings and their unit's fighting history. The commander told Ali that their questioners identified themselves as belonging to "the military," but that he believed they were from the CIA.
| And that's good enough for PBS! |
On the final day, they were told that they would be flown the next day to a training camp in Qatar, a monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Then they were transported to a training facility they believed was near the border with Saudi Arabia.
One of the fighters said they received three weeks of training in how to conduct ambushes, conduct raids and use their weapons. They also said they received new uniforms and boots.
"They trained us to ambush regime or enemy vehicles and cut off the road," said the fighter, who is identified only as "Hussein." "They also trained us on how to attack a vehicle, raid it, retrieve information or weapons and munitions, and how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush."
But whether such aid from the United States helps bring the peace in the form of negotiation or extend the war by giving the rebels false hope remains unclear. Indeed, the fighters told Ali that they cannot win without anti-aircraft missiles against Assad superior air war, which they have yet to receive.
For the United States, its new effort means treading slowly into murky waters. In the last few months, the United States has signaled it is increasingly interested in finding an ally that can force Assad to the negotiation table and curtail the burgeoning al Qaida threat coming from extremist groups fighting Assad.
| Seeing as those are the only two sides, and there is no third side, this seems like more wishful thinking from an unengaged, uninformed, and anti-intellectual president... |
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