As the world mourned the victims of Paris, the United States delivered a second load of ammunition to the Syrian Arab coalition by land on Saturday night. According to the Pentagon, the ammunition was transferred from Erbil to eastern Syria.
The Syrian coalition should include about 5.000 fighters led by twenty leaders gathered under one cause (the fall of the Assad regime). Although the American "train and equip" program has been suspended, the supply of equipment to the rebels continues. From the Pentagon they point out that only 7,62 caliber ammunition was delivered for the Ak-47 and not anti-tank missiles, according to what was recently guaranteed to the Turkish government. The latter, in fact, fears that the heavy equipment could be used by the YPG, a key ally of the USA in the fight against ISIS, but a tightening linked to the PKK, in neighboring Iraq, a leftist group that has been fighting for thirty years against the Turkish government.
However, there is a double problem. The first is that the Americans have been supplying anti-tank missiles to the rebels for at least two years. The second is that the TOW program, supervised by the CIA, is totally separate from that miserably failed by the Pentagon which, according to the intentions, should have influenced the result of the other war waged in Syria, that in the north-eastern part of the country against the Islamic State.
We know that the TOW missiles (acronym of Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided), were provided by the United States and its allies to the Free Syrian Army and to groups fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad. At a cost of 12 / 15 thousand dollars per specimen, it is clear how much this anti-tank equipment was part of the American standard equipment in support of the rebel troops.
The CIA started the TOW program in the early months of the 2014, with the aim of countering Damascus by providing training, light weapons, ammunition and anti-tank missiles: tools that would prove essential to bridge the gap with the loyal government's heavy equipment. The missiles arrived (?) In Syria from Saudi Arabia, under the provision of the CIA. The plan, as described by the Pentagon, aimed to exert sufficient military pressure against Assad's forces and convince him to a political compromise. A sort of "invitation" to the negotiating table, perhaps avoiding the collapse that would have unleashed chaos in the country. The entry of Russia, on the other hand, has upset the whole CIA strategy.
After the recent attacks, even the slightest hope of supplying the rebels with missiles stinger is gone. Earlier, even Obama himself vetoed the provision of this anti-aircraft platform for fear that it could fall into the hands of terrorists. Unfortunately the data released to date speak for themselves: between the 30 and the 50% of the entire US supply supplied to the Iraqis (for example) has fallen into the hands of the Islamic State without a shot being fired. And we are not just talking about light equipment: the Islamic State has "received" from tanks to heavy artillery.
Last Saturday is the second American supply. In the first, the 11 occurred last October, the US has parachuted 50 tons of small-caliber ammunition in northern Syria. The four C-17 aircraft launched ammunition for M-16 and AK-47. The 50 tons of material have been parachuted into the Al-Hasakah province, home to Syrian, Arab, and an Assyrian minority community.
(photo: US Air Force archive)
