BEIRUT — The chief of Syrian rebel forces said Friday that his fighters are in “desperate” need of weapons and ammunition rather than the food supplies and bandages that the US now plans to provide. The Obama administration Thursday announced it was giving an additional $60 million in assistance to the country's political opposition and said that it would, for the first time, provide non-lethal aid directly to rebels battling to oust Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The move was announced by US Secretary of State John Kerry at an international conference on Syria in Rome, and several European nations are expected in the coming days to take similar steps in working with the military wing of the opposition in order to ramp up pressure on Assad to step down and pave the way for a democratic transition. A number of Syrian opposition figures and fighters on the ground, however, expressed disappointment with the limited assistance. Gen. Salim Idris, chief of staff of the Syrian opposition's Supreme Military Council, said the modest package of aid to rebels — consisting of an undetermined amount of food rations and medical supplies — will not help them win against Assad's forces who have superior air power. “We don't want food and drink and we don't want bandages. When we're wounded, we want to die. The only thing we want is weapons,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from northern Syria. “We need anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to stop Assad's criminal, murderous regime from annihilating the Syrian people,” he said. “The whole world knows what we need and yet they watch as the Syrian people are slaughtered.” The United Nations says the conflict has cost the lives of at least 70,000 people and uprooted hundreds of thousands. The death toll appeared to grow, with claims from the coalition that Assad's forces executed 72 people after a raid Monday on Malkiyeh village in Aleppo province, adding that 49 bodies had been identified. The Aleppo Press Center, run by a network of anti-regime activists, said children, women and elderly people were among the victims, who it said were targeted on charges of having collaborated with rebel fighters. “Twenty-three other people have not been identified because their bodies were too badly burnt,” it said. — Agencies
