"...Like other merchants, he doesn't have the ability to smuggle weapons from other countries into Lebanon so he must try to find them from the few sources that are left in Lebanon: Hezbollah, which has long been backed by Syria, and others that support Assad.
When Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in 2005, it left behind large caches of light weapons with Hezbollah and other pro-Assad militias-turned-political parties. Now some of those weapons are being stolen by members of these parties and sold to the merchants who are supplying the rebels, the same scenario that is happening between the Syrian army and the rebels.
Money, Abu Ismail said, trumps political loyalty.
But not always. Some of the ammunition and grenades have been manipulated — filled with TNT — to explode inside the weapons, killing the rebels, he and others have said. Other times the weapons are just duds...."
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Abu Ismail: 'Hezbollah & Assad backers sold 'manipulated' ammunitions & duds!'
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
As a supplement to that LA Times report, here's another indicator that weapons are in short supply among the Syrian rebels. For more than six months SANA has been regularly reporting finds by the Syrian authorities of weapons caches of the rebels. The reports have been regular but the finds have always been smallish. Here's an example from today at SANA, dated 19 Mar 2012: "Authorities clashed with terrorists in Deir Ezzor Province, killing several terrorists and confiscating large amounts of weapons. Two officers and three personnel were martyred in the process. SANA correspondent added that the authorities confiscated large amounts of arms, comprising 23 AK-47 rifles, a sniper rifle, 2 PKC machineguns, an RPG launcher and 11 rounds, Israeli anti-armor charges and mines in addition to Molotov cocktails, military uniforms, magazines and ammunition." http://sana.sy/eng/337/2012/03/19/406887.htm . That's what's considered "large amounts of weapons". Here's a humdrum example from SANA on 17 Mar 2012: "The authorities on Saturday confiscated a weapons cache belonging to armed terrorist groups in Karm al-Zaitoun neighborhood in Homs. The confiscated weapons include 2 RPG launchers with 6 rounds, 8 rifles, 5 pump-action shotguns, a large amount of ammo, a PKC machinegun with 600 rounds, and 3 satchels." http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2012/03/17/406765.htm
Post a Comment