Micahel Weiss, Daily Beast: CIA-Armed Rebels March On Assad Homeland
The Russian bombs were supposed to be helping Syria’s dictator. Instead, the rebels are advancing.
Three weeks of Russian aerial bombardment in Syria hasn't exactly helped the Bashar al-Assad regime in its push north of Damascus. Social media has for the last three weeks been awash with images of burning Syrian Arab Army tanks, all wrecked by a tactically powerful anti-tank missile, the BGM-71 TOW, supplied (via Saudi Arabia) by the United States to certain CIA-backed anti-Assad militias.
Yesterday, two large rebel umbrella groups—Jaysh al-Fateh (Army of Conquest), a large consortium of Islamists which includes the official Syrian al-Qaeda franchise, and the Free Syrian Army, an admittedly catchall category but one that includes 39 CIA-vetted TOW recipients—announced a major counteroffensive.
The push is taking place in northern Hama and the eastern hills of Latakia. This coastal province is the Assad family’s homeland—and the area where Russia has constructed a forward operation base and headquarters for its Syrian adventure. Far from being pushed out, the rebels are actually pushing in on Moscow’s military fief in the Levant. ISIS, which Russia disingenuously claims to be focusing its fire and steel on, has also gobbled up geography in Aleppo.
WNU Editor: The anti-Assad coalition is made up of a lot of people .... and they have the boots and the will to win on the ground .... what has been lacking is the military equipment. If reports that the U.S. and its Arab allies are escalating military shipments and supplies to the rebels are true (coupled with other support) .... it will have an impact on the battlefield, a fact that Michael Weiss and others are noticing.