Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Syrian rebels have received hundreds of tons of weapons in the war against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Diplomatic sources said Sunni rebels were receiving a huge amount of weapons and munitions through Turkey. They said the arms, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, stemmed from eastern Europe and Pakistan and financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“The expectation is that this is in preparation for a massive Western-organized rebel offensive in northern Syria,” a source said.

The sources said the United States organized the arms shipment to the rebels, reported to consist of 400 tons. They said this marked the largest shipment to the rebels in Syria over the last year.

The recipient of the weapons was identified as the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. The sources said FSA was organizing units to receive the weapons and deploy field commanders trained under U.S. auspices.

On Aug. 26, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunni rebels captured Khanasir, deemed a strategic town in northern Syria. The London-based Observatory said at least 50 Assad troops were killed as the rebels severed the regime’s only supply route from Aleppo.

The U.S. Congress has been urging President Barack Obama to strike the
Assad regime. On Aug. 26, a senior senator said he believed Washington would
intervene in Syria. Hours later, the administration confirmed the chemical
weapons attack around Damascus on Aug. 21.

“I do think action is going to occur,” Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking
Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “I think it
should be surgical, it should be proportional. It should be responsive to
what happened on the ground. I think we can get that right without us
getting mired in a conflict.”

A Turkish diplomat has denied that 400 tons of weapons arrived in
northern Syria. Ankara has consistently dismissed reports that Turkey was
helping arm the rebels.

“As has been the case with similar news reports in the past, this claim
is definitely not true,” the diplomat told the Zaman daily on Aug. 26.

Hours later, the Turkish military said it blocked nearly 4,000 would-be
infiltrators from Syria who sought to enter Turkey via 11 points along the
border. A statement by the General Staff said mobile army units, using live
fire and tear gas, spent nine hours repelling thousands of people on foot as
well as hundreds on horses and vehicles. The infiltrators were described as
smugglers who also hurled stones at Turkish troops.

“This [repelling of the Syrians] was done in a controlled way,” the
Turkish military said.

  financed by Gulf states, Free Syrian Army, Qatar, Sen. Bob Corker, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, U.S. said to organize major weapons transfer to Syria rebels