© Reuters
Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a defense bill that included language authorizing supplies of anti-aircraft missiles to rebel groups fighting in Syria, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
On December 2, the bill passed in the House 375 to 34 and could be voted in the Senate within the week.
If the bill succeed, it would be a green light for supplies of MANPADs to so-called “opposition factions” in Syria.
There are no doubts that as result missiles will be received by Jabhat al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda-linked groups, as a major part of the all previous weapon delivers to “rebels”. This will pose a major threat to the aviation in the region.
Even guys in the Washington Post understand this:
One long-standing concern is that the weapons, once injected into a conflict zone, can easily be transferred to people the government does not want wielding such firepower. Any distribution of the weapons would require near unanimous support from the military and intelligence agencies. As a result, the new defense bill provision could be largely symbolic.
But for sure this is not not enough to stop the controversial initiative.
