MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian ships in the Mediterranean help to transfer Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon’s Beirut directly to Syria, Turkish Hurriyet Daily News cited a top Syrian opposition military commander as saying.
“The Russian cargo ships stopping by Beirut port carry Hezbollah fighters to [western Syrian province of] Tartus,” the daily quoted Free Syrian Army commander Gen. Salim Idris as saying in an interview with Anadolu Agency.
Idris said he lost hope in the arrival of Western military aid, while Russia and Iran regularly supply Bashar Assad’s regime with ammunition.
“Russia and Iran help supply 400 tons of ammunition to the Syrian regime once every ten days,” Idris was quoted as saying.
The intelligence committees in both the US Senate and House of Representatives last week signed off on the White House’s plan to allocate US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) resources to provide weapons, training, and logistics and intelligence support to the Syrian rebels, though US officials only confirmed this week that the committees had approved the program.
Syrian rebel supporters hope the arms shipments will begin in August and will include “a large number of small weapons,” including rifles and anti-tank weapons, Louay Sakka, co-founder of the Syrian Support Group, which backs the Free Syrian Army rebel forces, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Headline clarified at 1002 Thursday
