Debkafiles: First European, NATO Heavy Arms for Syria Armed Groups

Local Editor

NATO and a number of European governments, most significantly the UK, have started airlifting heavy weapons to the Syrian rebels poised in Aleppo to fend off a major Syrian army offensive, according to debkafile's exclusive military sources.
 
They disclose that the first shipments were landed Monday night, June 17, and early Tuesday in Turkey and Jordan. They contained anti-air and tank missiles as well as recoilless 120 mm cannons mounted on jeeps.

From there, they were transferred to armed groups in southern Syria and Aleppo in the northwest.
The "Israeli" sources report that the first weapons reached rebel-held positions in Aleppo early Tuesday.

According to debkafiles, hardware for the armed groups is coming in from three sources:
1. NATO stores in Europe, which have been filling up in the past year with arms evacuated from Afghanistan. These weapons have been in operational use and are not new.

2. The Libyan black market.

3. The Balkan black market, chiefly Serbia and Montenegro.

Monday, Syrian President Bashar Assad cautioned Europe it would pay the price for delivering arms to rebel forces in Syria. In an interview to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he said: "If the Europeans deliver weapons, the backyard of Europe will become terrorist..."

The volume of the new arms airlift to the Syrian rebels may be estimated by the number of airfreight flights from Libya to Turkey: 27 aircraft landings were counted in the last few days, according to our intelligence sources.

Source: Debkafile, Edited by website team