Most arms to Syria rebels fall into hands of extremists: reports

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Most of the arms shipped to the Syrian rebel groups have fallen into the hands of the hard-line Islamic jihadists instead of the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, said a New York Times story on Monday.

That conclusion, of which U.S. President Barack Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments, casts into doubt "whether the White House's strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States," said the story which is based on interviews with American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.

The United States is not directly providing the Syrian opposition with weapons. However, countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are known to be feeding weapons to the Syrian rebels, it said.

"The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don't want to have it," an anonymous American official who is familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

Such assessment came at a crucial moment in the U.S. presidential campaign as Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney will have two more debates with a focus on foreign policy.

Romney recently said he would ensure that rebel groups "who share our values" would "obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad 's tanks, helicopters and fighter jets." That indicates that he would approve the transfer of weapons like antiaircraft and antitank missiles that are much more powerful than the ones that Washington has been willing to approve so far, precisely because American officials cannot be certain who will ultimately be using them, according to the story.

But both Obama and Romney are not talking about providing the Syrian opposition with arms directly. So that will leave Washington, who relies on its Arab allies to do it, with little direct control over the distribution of the arms.

American officials worry that, should Syria's embattled president Bashar al-Assad be gone, Syria could be sucked into a new conflict over control of the country, in which the more hard- line Islamic groups would be the best armed, said the story. Enditem