Turkey Sends 400 Tons of Military Aid to “rebels” in Syria

TEHRAN -Ankara has sent 400 tons of arms supplied by some Gulf states to “militants” in Syria to bolster their fight against the Syrian  government, “opposition” said,according to FNA.

“Twenty trailers crossed from Turkey and are being distributed to arms depots for several “brigades” across the North,” said Mohammad Salam, a “rebel” operative who witnessed the crossing from an undisclosed location in Hatay, agencies reported.

The delivery is being called the single biggest weapons cache to reach the” rebels” since the unrest began two years ago.

The shipment follows last week’s gas attack in the suburbs of Damascus that killed anywhere from dozens to over 1,000 civilians. Syrian officials, who said they discovered chemical weapons in a rebel hideout outside the capital, blame the rebels for the attack.

“Twenty trailers crossed from Turkey and are being distributed to arms depots for several brigades across the north,” said rebel official Mohammad Salam, who told Reuters he saw the weapons come over the border.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and several other Arab Gulf states have backed the insurgents.

A senior officer in the Gulf and Western-backed “Supreme Military Council”, an umbrella group for rebel units, said there had been an increase in rebel-bound arms shipments coming into Turkey, particularly since the reports of a chemical assault.

Weapons still waiting to cross into Syria included more sophisticated anti-tank guided weapons, the officer added, without elaborating.

He, and other sources, said money for the shipments came from the Gulf, without naming countries.

R.S