The peril of escalation in Syria
Edward Dark writes that Aleppans will pay the price for any escalation in the war; the UN Security Council votes for humanitarian assistance and calls for greater cooperation to confront al-Qaeda in Syria; 16 female journalists cover the Middle East; and exorcism in the Gaza Strip.
Edward Dark (pseudonym) writes this week from Aleppo that the plans for an escalation of military support for vetted Syrian opposition forces are “prone to a myriad of dangers.”
Dark observes that there is no guarantee that the new weapons will not fall into the wrong hands.
“It is not like there is no precedent,” he writes. “Late last year, the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham forcibly seized the warehouses of the Free Syrian Army near the Bab al-Hawa border gate and got their hands on state-of-the-art British- and American-supplied hardware. There is no shortage of unscrupulous rebel commanders who would sell such weapons, even if acquired by other means, to well-financed extremists to make a small fortune.”
The rise of extremist groups, including those linked with al-Qaeda, which are filling the void left by the Syrian government and the declining influence of moderate opposition forces, as reported by Barbara Slavin, has until now given the Obama administration and its Western allies a pause in escalating the flow of arms to Syrian rebel forces.
