AP IMPACT: AP trip finds Syria rebels without leader, disorganized
Most of their weapons are booty, including at least two anti-aircraft guns, some anti-tank missiles and one tank, but they buy arms with donations from “honorable businessmen.” Although al-Sheikh, who ran a grocery store before the uprising, wouldn’t disclose the source or amount, he gets enough to pay some of his men monthly salaries of about $25, slightly more for those with wives and children. His fighters say the cash comes from Syrian expatriates and other Arabs. He was heard on the phone thanking a group in Bahrain.
Rebels have scored small victories against regime forces throughout Syria’s northern Idlib province. Armed with bought, looted or homemade weapons, they have destroyed government army posts and littered main highways with charred army vehicles. Indeed, more than two dozen rebel commanders, fighters and activists said that without better arms they can do no more than chip away at the regime — a recipe for a long, deadly insurgency.
“If we get military aid, the end will come quickly,” said Ahmed Abdel-Qader, a rebel coordinator in the village of Koreen. “If not, we have no idea how this will end. We are here. We’re not going back. God will decide the rest.” Even groups associated with the Free Syrian Army, which claims to represent the armed opposition, bemoan the failure of its Turkey-based leadership to deliver aid. While they wait, most rely on guerrilla tactics.
Like most rebel commanders, Dahnin said his group gets no outside support. “Here’s the biggest proof,” he said, pointing to a fighter wearing plastic flip-flops. “He’s only good for one thing: toothpaste advertisements,” he said, prying open the man’s mouth to reveal a row of rotten teeth.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/ap-impact-ap-trip-finds-syria-rebels-without-leader-disorganized-willing-to-kill-prisoners/2012/06/21/gJQAH96zsV_story_2.html
EDITOR’S NOTE: Arabic-speaking journalist Ben Hubbard was part of a three-member Associated Press team that spent two weeks with rebels in northern Syria, gathering firsthand information on the increasingly bloody rebellion against President Bashar Assad — the longest and deadliest uprising of the Arab Spring.
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