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Outmuscled Syrian opposition seeks protection from al Qaeda
Source: Reuters
Outmuscled Syrian opposition seeks protection from al Qaeda
ISTANBUL Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:16am EST
(Reuters) - Syria's Western-backed opposition said on Thursday it had invited Islamist fighters to secure its depots on the Turkish frontier after an attack by al Qaeda militants.
The United States and Britain suspended non-lethal aid to northern Syria after reports that Islamic Front forces had taken buildings belonging to the coalition's Syrian Military Council (SMC) in Bab al-Hawa on the border with Turkey.
But the opposition Syrian National Coalition said it had in fact asked the Islamic Front, a union of six major rebel groups, to defend the premises against fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"The SMC warehouses were overrun by ISIL ... As a result of that, (SMC leader) General Salim Idris sent a request to the Islamic Front to protect these warehouses," coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh said in Istanbul.
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ISTANBUL Thu Dec 12, 2013 9:16am EST
(Reuters) - Syria's Western-backed opposition said on Thursday it had invited Islamist fighters to secure its depots on the Turkish frontier after an attack by al Qaeda militants.
The United States and Britain suspended non-lethal aid to northern Syria after reports that Islamic Front forces had taken buildings belonging to the coalition's Syrian Military Council (SMC) in Bab al-Hawa on the border with Turkey.
But the opposition Syrian National Coalition said it had in fact asked the Islamic Front, a union of six major rebel groups, to defend the premises against fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"The SMC warehouses were overrun by ISIL ... As a result of that, (SMC leader) General Salim Idris sent a request to the Islamic Front to protect these warehouses," coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh said in Istanbul.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/12/us-syria-crisis-warehouses-idUSBRE9BB0NC20131212