hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Syrian FSA rebels helped from command center in Amman Jordan
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Syrian FSA rebels helped from command center in Amman Jordan
Amman - Rebel fighters in Syria claim their is an operations command center in Amman Jordan staffed by western and Arab military officials who give support to rebels fighting on the southern front.
The center based in an intelligence headquarters in Amman gives rebels weapons, and tactical advice on attacking targets in Syria. The center delivers vehicles, rifles, mortars, heavy machine guns, and ammunition to Free Syrian Army units. The Free Syrian Army group is the umbrella military group backed by the west. Mohammad Al Momani, the Jordanian minister of media affairs denies the center exists:
“We dismiss these allegations. Jordan is not a host or part of any cooperations against Syria. Jordan’s interest is to see a stable and secure Syria, one that is able to keep its problems inside its borders, We will not do anything that will feed violence in Syria,”Syrian opposition figures who are familiar with the operations by rebels in Deraa that is only 75 kilometers north of Amman nevertheless claim that Jordan does host the center and that senior Jordanian intelligence officials work with their counterparts from the west and Arab countries. They not only provide materials but also plan missions and arrange transport of fighters and munitions across the border. Back in March of this year, the New York Times revealed there were airlifts of material for Syrian rebels helped by the CIA. Although much of the traffic was through Turkey, material for the southern front came through Jordan:
".. arms and equipment were being purchased by Saudi Arabia in Croatia and flown to Jordan on Jordanian cargo planes for rebels working in southern Syria.."According to figures in the Syrian opposition, the center known as "the operations room" has high-ranking military officials from 14 different countries including the US, European countries and Arab Gulf states. They say that the Gulf states provide most of the material and financial support. The arrangements involved reveal why so many rebel groups do not care to be involved at all with the FSA. An FSA officer involved in the system said:
“When we want to make an operation, we arrange for one of our men to have an informal meeting with a military liaison officer from the operations room and they meet up, in a hotel or somewhere in Amman, and talk through the plan. If the liaison officer likes our idea, he refers it to a full meeting of the operations room and a few days later we go there and make a formal presentation of the plan”.The advisers then make adjustments to the plan and help determine when and how the operation should take place. They allocate the weapons needed for the attack, approve the plan, and ensure the FSA has everything needed. No doubt many rebel groups in the field would find this oversight completely unacceptable and would prefer independence in deciding when to attack and with what weapons etc. Not surprisingly the Islamist factions are not involved in the operations room planning. Even the FSA at times prefers not to be involved with the operations center but operates on its own. Another FSA commander involved said:
“We cooperate with one another, they do not control us and we don’t always do as they tell us. It’s more like they give us advice and sometimes we take it and sometimes we don’t".The command center shows the extent of foreign intervention in the conflict and attempts to control even military actions inside Syria. An FSA officer also said that as well as receiving vehicles with heavy machine guns mounted on the back, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars with firing tubes, some soldiers are sent to Saudi Arabia for training. An FSA officer claimed:
“There were 80 fighters sent to Saudi last month for training in military communications. In total there have been a few hundred getting training. They come back fully equipped – each with a personal weapon, a pickup lorry for every squad of five men, a heavy machine gun for each squad, plus clothing, boots and that kind of thing. There was training before but it is getting better now".Many FSA units claim that the international backing involved too many restrictions and at the same time was not sufficient for them to make major advances. As well as the command center there is a maze of supply chains and suppliers with the process quite opaque, as described in this article. The FSA has been losing ground and influence as Islamists of the Islamic Front take more control of the rebellion along with two Al Qaeda-linked groups. The US left about 700 combat-equipped troops in Jordan after completing a training exercise earlier this year. The US also is keeping Patriot-missile batteries and F-16 fighter jets in Jordan at the request of the Jordanian government.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Syrian FSA rebels helped from command center in Amman Jordan