NOVANEWS
Eyes Open Report
Online video’s have surfaced of Syrian rebels, those in opposition to the Assad regime, using US made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles which sources claim came from the West.
“Moderate, well-organised fighters from the Hazm movement have for the first time received more than 20 TOW anti-tank missiles from a Western source,” a rebel source told AFP news agency.
According to the source more missiles have been promised to the Hazm movement, a part of the opposition Free Syrian Army, if they are “used in an effective way”.
Not only have they been handed the missiles, but apparently trained to use them as well.
“Dozens of fighters have been trained with international assistance in the use of these missiles,” claimed the source.
Though the AFP source is the only evidence that the missiles came directly from the west, officials quoted by Reuters claim that Saudi Arabia could have been the supplier.
Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution Doha Centre and one of the first to identify the weapons explained to Reuters that if Washington was unwilling to directly supply the missiles, the most likely supplier would be Saudi Arabia but only with the permission of the US.
The armed conflict in Syria has claimed some 150,000 lives and displaced millions of people.