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U.S. arms could create Syria 'warlords', rebel commander says

09 June 2014 20:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. arms supplies to Syrian rebels may create Somali-style warlords and are undermining Washington's allies in the rebels' exile military command, the former Syrian army general who leads it said, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Brigadier General Abdelilah al-Bashir, who defected in 2012 and led rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces in the Golan before becoming chief-of-staff of the FSA's Supreme Military Council in February, told Reuters that Washington was bypassing the SMC in sending weapons directly to groups that were hard to control.

"The Americans are leading the distribution of weapons on the northern front and in the southern front. We demand that we be responsible," Bashir, 56, said in an interview in Istanbul.

"Providing support to individual battalions could turn the commanders of these battalions into warlords and they will be difficult to control in future," he added.

"This could turn Syria into Afghanistan or Somalia."

His remarks echoed former U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who compared Syria to both those countries at the weekend and warned there would be "warlords all over the place".

The U.S. State Department responded to Bashir's complaints by saying that military aid was being distributed to "moderate, vetted groups ... in coordination with" the SMC.

Formally, the U.S. supplies are "non-lethal" - such as radios, trucks and training. But some U.S. officials have told Reuters small arms and anti-tank missiles are also being given.

Bashir, whose organization has long been dismissed by many rebels as ineffective, said Washington had sidelined it since an SMC arms depot was seized by Islamists in December. That led to the dismissal of Bashir's predecessor and to his own appointment - a promotion Bashir himself learned of only from television.