Video Shows Non-FSA Jihadists Ahrar al-Sham Using Croatian Weapons

Earlier this week the New York Times published their investigation into the new weapons appearing in Syria, which we now know to have been purchased by Saudi Arabia from Croatia and smuggled into Syria from Jordan.  The New York Times wrote:

The weapons’ distribution has been principally to armed groups viewed as nationalist and secular, and appears to have been intended to bypass the jihadist groups whose roles in the war have alarmed Western and regional powers.

For months regional and Western capitals have held back on arming the rebels, in part out of fear that the weapons would fall into the hands of terrorists. But officials said the decision to send in more weapons is aimed at another fear in the West about the role of jihadist groups in the opposition. Such groups have been seen as better equipped than many nationalist fighters and potentially more influential.

The below video posted by the jihadist group Ahrar al-Sham, a collection of various smaller groups based in the north of Syria, mainly around Idlib, Aleppo, and Hama, and not part of the Free Syrian Army, demonstrates that the Croatian weapons being provided to the Free Syrian Army have now begun to reach the hands of jihadists

We see examples of two of the Croatia weapons provided by Saudi Arabia, first the RBG-6 40mm grenade launcher

Then the M79 Osa rocket launcher, and M79 rocket pods

As David Enders writes for McClatchy Newspapers, Ahrar al-Sham's on-going co-operation with the Free Syrian Army has resulted in weapons supposedly intended for "armed groups viewed as nationalist and secular" reaching jihadists such as Ahrar al-Sham, with Enders reporting a spokesman for Ahrar al Sham, Ali Ankir, stating that "of course they share their weapons with us, we fight together."

This demonstrates one of the major problems when providing weapons to armed groups in Syria, no matter what controls are putting into place when supplying the weapons, once the weapons arrive in Syria it's next to impossible to control who the weapons go to.


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