(Zaman Al Wasl)- After the opposition forces brought down a Sukhoi 25 fighter jet in northern Idlib province last Saturday, Moscow quickly accused Washington of supplying Stinger missiles, a portable anti-aircraft, to the Syrian opposition.
The U.S. State Department denied the accusation, stressing that it had not provided any of the Syrian opposition factions with missiles of this type and expressed concern about the bringing down of the Russian aircraft.
An observer of events in Syria knows that Washington purposively prevented the arrival of any portable anti-air weaponry to the opposition forces. Washington insisted on this even before the Russian military’s intervention at the end of September 2015, for several reasons including:
1- The Syrian opposition possessing mounted anti-aircraft missiles would enable them to bring down regime airplanes and helicopters, and therefore, hasten the collapse of the regime something the US did not work towards from the beginning of the revolution.
2- Tel Aviv’s clear opposition to the issue which was based on their belief that the Syrian opposition possessing such missiles threatens the Israeli state in the theater of its air operations within Syrian territory.
3- The Syrian resistance possessing these missiles threatens to the International Coalition aircrafts dedicated to bombing the Islamic State forces and sometimes the al-Nusra Front forces.
4- The United States provoked fear that these weapons will end up in the hands of “terrorist” groups which poses a threat to civil aviation, Coalition aircrafts and neighboring countries (a reference to Israel).
5- The resistance possessing these systems would negatively affect the performance of Russian air force weapons, and impede the execution of a secret agreement among Washington, Moscow, Amman, Ankara and Baghdad not to leak any anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
A single attempt
In mid-May 2014, a group of dissident officers and class officers of air defense specialization in Saudi Arabia on replicas of three generations of QW Chinese missiles. The results of the training were very good, and it was proposed that an air defense battalion be established in the southern region under the command of a dissident air defense officer, before the battalion would be replicated to all other parts of Syria.
Just when the Saudis were going to provide the battalion with weapons, Washington strongly objected to the move, arguing that the weapon might fall into the hands of “extremist groups,” which would threaten the security of civil aircrafts and the aviation of neighboring countries in an implicit reference to Tel Aviv.
The dissident officers presented Washington with different suggestions in an effort to convince the Americans. They suggested installing retina scan or fingerprint technologies for the missile operators to secure their use and prevent anyone else using the missiles, but the Americans rejected the idea perhaps because Washington was planning to start the International Coalition to launch attacks against the Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria.
Syrian military commanders put forward other proposals including sending non-Syrian nationals to operate the anti-aircraft weaponry under the protection of the most powerful military factions in the south and other parts of Syrian, but the United States also rejected this proposal.
The origin of the missile that brought down the Russian aircraft
It is possible to say that the Syrian resistance factions obtained portable anti-aircraft missiles after storming important regime military sites in recent years as happened after opposition factions stormed the Khan Toman warehouses in Aleppo on December 16, 2012 and March 28, 2013. Opposition forces also stormed the Mouhin warehouses in Homs on November 7, 2013 in addition to the 38th Air Defense Brigade in Daraa on March 23, 2013.
The opposition forces also took control of various air defense battalions at different points in time including the al-Duwailah battalion in Jabal al-Zawiyyah in Idlib on November 03, 2012, the Khanazir battalion in Aleppo on December 13, 2012, Tal al-Jabiya battalion on April 24, 2014, Tell al-Jumoaa on June 08, 2014, and the 61st Brigade and batteries artillery unit in Daraa countryside and al-Quneitra on July 16, 2014.
In the Eastern al-Ghouta in Damascus, Jaysh al-Islam seized Osa anti-aircraft missile trucks in 2012-2013.
Therefore, there are many documented cases of the regime forces leaving behind a variety of weapons after they fled from military sites. In one instance, regime forces left behind several Russian-made Cobra and Igla thermal missiles. Third parties tried to control these missiles and smuggle them out of Syria relying on the promise of large financial gains or in exchange for other types of weapons such as anti-armor or other weapons. Some of these attempts to buy these weapons succeeded and others failed.
Zaman Al Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.