The leaders of the Western-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) launched a direct appeal to Congress today for more and better weapons to defeat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

SOC President Ahmad Jarba, in an appearance at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, said the rebels are in desperate need of weapons that can "neutralize the air force" that Assad has used to pound the cradle of the uprising, Homs, into submission, as reported by Barbara Slavin for Al-Monitor. Homs is the scene of a negotiated exit by opposition forces, a development in the three-year conflict that opposition champion John McCain, R-Ariz., labeled a "huge victory" for Assad in a hallway interview with Al-Monitor.

Jarba brought his urgent appeal for military aid straight to Congress later in the afternoon, urging members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to authorize weapons the Obama administration is worried could fall into the hands of other, extremist forces, including terrorists groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, who are also fighting the Syrian government.

 "He did specifically ask for anti-aircraft [weapons]," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the top Republican on the panel, told Al-Monitor after the meeting.