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U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syrian Rebels in North U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid To Syria Rebels
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The United States has suspended the delivery of nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition in northern Syria after concluding that some of it has fallen into the hands of extremist Islamic fighters, American officials said on Wednesday. WASHINGTON — Just a month before a peace conference that will seek an end to the grinding civil war in Syria, the Obama administration’s decision to suspend the delivery of nonlethal aid to the moderate opposition demonstrated again the frustrations of trying to cultivate a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.
The decision was made after moderate Syrian rebel forces reporting to Gen. Salim Idris, the nominal head of the rebel Free Syrian Army, came under attack last week from fighters aligned with Al Qaeda, according to an account provided by an American official. The administration acted after several warehouses of American-supplied equipment were seized Friday by the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist fighters who have broken with the moderate, American-backed opposition, but who also battle Al Qaeda.
The Islamic Front, an alliance of rebel fighters that has broken with General Idris’s moderate opposition but opposes the Qaeda affiliate in Syria, joined the fray, the American official said. Administration officials said that the suspension was temporary and that aid could flow again. Under the administration’s division of labor, the State Department is in charge of supplying nonlethal aid to Syria while the Central Intelligence Agency runs a covert program to arm and train Syrian rebels.
After the dust cleared, the Islamic Front appeared to have taken control of warehouses in Atmeh that contain equipment and supplies provided by the United States, added the American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal reports. But with rebels feuding with each other instead of concentrating on fighting Mr. Assad, and with the United States still groping for a reliable partner in Syria, the odds of any peace conference breaking the cycle of bloodshed appeared to have dimmed.
The first reports of military actions are often confused and inexact. But it seems clear that American officials are concerned that some aid has indeed fallen into the wrong hands. For the White House, which has pinned its hopes for Syria on a political solution, the fracturing of the opposition raises a number of thorny questions, including whether the United States should work more closely with Islamist forces as it sometimes did in Iraq.
“We have seen reports that Islamic Front forces have seized the Atmeh headquarters and warehouses,” a State Department official said. Some experts on Syria said the episode called into question not only the effectiveness of the moderate groups the United States has been supporting in Syria for the last two years but also the administration’s broader strategy for forcing Mr. Assad to yield power.
“As a result of this situation, the United States has suspended all further deliveries of nonlethal assistance into northern Syria,” the official added. “The humanitarian aid to the Syrian people is not impacted by this suspension.” “For all practical purposes, the moderate armed opposition that the administration really wanted to support — albeit in a hesitant and halfhearted way — is now on the sidelines,” said Frederic C. Hof, who as a State Department official who worked on plans for a political transition in Syria and is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
The episode illustrates two trends that pose major challenges for the Obama administration’s goal of strengthening the moderate Syrian opposition and persuading President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to yield power. Under such circumstances, Mr. Hof said, the prospects for major progress at the peace conference were “pretty grim.”
One is the growing strength of Qaeda-affiliated forces, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The other is the fracturing of the Assad opposition, which has led some commanders to break away from General Idris’s Supreme Military Council, which the United States is backing, to form their own coalitions. In the murky events of last Friday, some opposition officials said, the Islamic Front also seized the northern Syrian headquarters of Gen. Salim Idris, the leader of the military wing of the moderate Syrian opposition, formally known as the Supreme Military Council. According to American officials, General Idris was in Turkey, where he has a house, when the headquarters was taken over and then left for Qatar, which has provided money and weapons to the resistance. He is now said to be back in Turkey,
Since suspending aid, American officials have begun an inventory to determine how much of the nonlethal equipment and supplies are controlled by forces reporting to General Idris. American officials are still struggling to assess what the internecine battle means. “If we’re able to understand that, we could revert to the provision of nonlethal assistance,” a senior administration official said.
Under the Obama administration’s division of labor, the State Department is in charge of supplying nonlethal aid, like radios, vehicles and food rations. The C.I.A. runs a covert program to arm and train Syrian rebels. There was no indication that the nonlethal-aid suspension would affect that program. The United States, the official said, would not rule out talks with the Islamic Front but said it was too soon to determine whether the administration would abandon its insistence that all American and allied assistance be funneled through the Supreme Military Council.
“We are working with General Idris and the S.M.C. to inventory the status of U.S. equipment and supplies provided to the S.M.C.,” the State Department official said, referring to the Supreme Military Council. “We are gathering the facts and consulting with friends of the Syrian opposition on next steps in support of the Syrian people.” For months, Secretary of State John Kerry has argued that a political solution is the only answer for a civil war that has already led to the death of more than 100,000 Syrians. His goal is to encourage a handover of power from Mr. Assad to a transitional government.
But Mr. Assad, who has received substantial military support from Iran and Russia, seems as entrenched as ever.
At the same time, the opposition groups that the Obama administration has designated as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people appear to have grown weaker, in part because of their tenuous ties to many of the rebel fighters inside the country and because of the lukewarm support they have received from the West.
The Syria peace conference, which Mr. Kerry originally thought would be held last May, is now scheduled for Jan. 22. It had been planned for Geneva but may be shifted to the lakeside Swiss town of Montreux because Geneva hotel rooms have been booked for a luxury watch fair.
A major aim of the meeting is to begin the process of identifying Syrians who might serve in a transitional governing body that would run the country if Mr. Assad yielded power.
But as the Islamic fighters have begun to play an increasingly important role in the fight against Mr. Assad, the administration is faced with the choice of whether to include their representatives in any transitional government and perhaps even give them military aid.
“It puts the administration into a situation of having to choose between supporting moderate groups or effective ones,” said Andrew J. Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The episode that prompted the aid suspension occurred last week when the Islamic Front seized control of warehouses in Atmeh, Syria, that contain the American-supplied aid.
According to rebel commanders in Turkey and Syria, the incident unfolded with a confusing series of events that reflects the uncertainty on the front lines amid shifting rebel alliances.
By one account, news spread that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda that has clashed with rival insurgents, was planning an attack on the military headquarters and warehouses controlled by General Idris’s Supreme Military Council, which are near the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border.
The Supreme Military Council is the nominal leadership of the loose-knit Free Syrian Army, which the United States has promoted as a relatively moderate force and which the State Department has supported with nonlethal aid such as food rations, computers and vehicles.
Fighters from the Islamic Front rushed to the area, they claimed, to protect the warehouses, but ended up seizing them and the American equipment and supplies inside. It is unclear if the warehouses were ever under attack by Qaeda-affiliated extremists or whether that was a ruse.
Maysara, an Free Syrian Army commander from Saraqeb in Idlib Province who maintains contacts in the Islamic Front, said that when fighters from three battalions within the Islamic Front reached the headquarters, they found it deserted and believed the commanders there had fled.
The Islamic Front fighters, he said, told him that they then “took the opportunity and stole everything in the headquarters,” including about 40 pickup trucks and tanks.
“We have seen reports that Islamic Front forces have seized the Atmeh headquarters and warehouses,” a State Department official said. “As a result of this situation, the United States has suspended all further deliveries of nonlethal assistance into northern Syria. The humanitarian aid to the Syrian people is not impacted by this suspension.”
The impact of the aid suspension was hard to gauge, as rebels have routinely complained that aid from the United States, Britain and their allies is too little, too late and has had little influence on the conflict.
Khatab, the commander of a small Free Syrian Army battalion, interviewed by phone in Turkey, said that the suspension would hamper fighters like his. But he added it would ultimately harm the Islamic Front as well, suggesting that whatever the official policies, the Islamic Front had cooperated with the Supreme Military Council and received supplies through it.
Many antigovernment activists reacted with scorn and bravado, saying they did not care about the suspension of aid that they believed had been mostly for show.
“What nonlethal assistance?” said Moaz, an activist who recently fled Syria. “The U.S. is supporting us with expired tuna, and in this way they think they are supporting the revolution.”

Michael R. Gordon and Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon.