BEIRUT - Syrian rebels said Friday that they have received new weapons from friendly countries that could lead to changes on the ground and victories against President Bashar Assad’s forces.
The arms shipments arrived recently from Arab nations and other countries, a spokesman for the opposition fighters, Loay AlMikdad, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
He did not elaborate on the shipments but insisted no weapons have come from the United States.
Al Mikdad’s comments confirm earlier AP reports that new weapons were recently delivered to the opposition from allies, enabling them to stall advances by regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and elsewhere.
Opposition members and experts had told the AP that Persian Gulf countries delivered new anti-tank missiles and some anti-aircraft missiles earlier this month to rebel commanders.
The U.S. announced earlier this month that it had conclusive evidence that Assad’s regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against opposition forces. The White House said multiple chemical attacks last year killed up to 150 people.
After the announcement, which also coincided with a new aggressive push by the regime to drive rebels from strategic areas they held, U.S. officials said President Barack Obama has authorized sending weapons to Syrian rebels in a major policy shift.
Syrian rebels have long demanded they be supplied with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, but some Western nations are worried such weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida linked groups that are fighting in Syria against Assad. The country’s bloodshed has killed about 93,000 people since war broke out in March 2011.
“You will see changes on the ground,” said AlMikdad, the spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army. “You will see victories by the Free Syrian Army, and we will be able to repel attacks on civilian areas. We will be able to protect civilian areas in a better way.”
His comments came hours after the main rebel military commander of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army first confirmed his fighters had received the new weapons, refusing to describe the weapons or where they came from.
Gen. Salim Idris told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV they would give his forces more power against government troops and allied Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.
Pressed to comment on weapons from the U.S., Idris only said, “We are waiting, and we urge them to hurry up in supplying us with weapons and ammunition.”
Obama pointedly refused to detail steps his government has recently taken to arm rebels. U.S. officials have confirmed that the administration has approved weapons and ammunition shipments to the opposition, giving few details.
Russia said the United States is in danger of repeating the mistake it made in Afghanistan in the 1980s when it backed religious extremists who later formed the al-Qaida terrorist network.
The U.S. move is a “disaster” for efforts to end Syria’s civil war, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview in St. Petersburg. “Al-Qaida was basically born from the mujahedeen movement financed by the United States when the Soviets were in Afghanistan. Then al-Qaida boomeranged.”
Meanwhile, activists reported that troops pounded several areas around the country on Friday, including the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun and Aleppo city.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a Syrian warplane carried out an air raid on Jobar, a key district on the edge of Damascus. It gave no word on casualties.
A rocket also slammed into a valley southeast of the Lebanese capital Friday, causing a blast that reverberated across large parts of Beirut and surrounding mountains. Sectarian tensions have risen sharply in Lebanon since the Shiite militant group Hezbollah openly joined Assad’s forces.
After hours of searching, Lebanese soldiers found the rocket’s remains in Jamhour, an area near the presidential palace, the Defense Ministry and the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahyeh, the military said in a statement. Two rocket launchers still holding one rocket also were found about 10 miles to the north of the city.
The military said a high-voltage electricity cable was damaged in the area where the rocket struck.
Also Friday, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said that soaring summer temperatures, overcrowding and worsening hygiene are the latest threats facing some 4 million children affected by Syria’s civil war.
In Syria, the availability of safe water is one third what it was before the crisis, UNICEF said. Of the more than 4.25 million displaced Syrians, many live in overcrowded shelters with insufficient access to toilets and showers. The agency also said the sewage systems are damaged or overwhelmed by the increase in displaced populations.
Information for this article was contributed by Henry Meyer of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 06/22/2013