PIERRE TORRES/AFP/GETTY IMAGES - Holding up the the first flag of the Baath Party regime, adopted by the Revolutionary Command Council, Syrians protest in the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo during the funeral of a man allegedly killed in the bombardment of Sukari on July 27, 2012. The Obama administration is warning Syrian opposition forces not to completely disband President Bashar al-Assad’s hated government apparatus if he is killed.
The increase was most dramatic in the use of suicide car bombs, a hallmark of Iraq’s branch of al-Qaeda.
“There is limited U.S. credible reporting in Syria, so there is a lot we do not know,” the official said. The official declined to talk about U.S. sources for the information, which are classified.
A look at the Syrian uprising one year later. Thousands of Syrians have died and President Bashar al-Assad remains in power, despite numerous calls by the international community for him to step down.
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At conference in Jordan, Kerry says peace process will be hard and slow but remains the best option.
The rising violence in a Lebanese city is evidence of increasing regional entanglement in Syria’s war.
The plan is aimed at appeasing American Jews and accommodating liberal Judaism at the Old City wall.
Nonetheless, the administration has gradually widened its embrace of the rebels, despite a lack of information about their backgrounds and agendas in a country largely defined by its ethnic and sectarian divisions.
The administration has explored ways to expand support short of arming the rebels, officials said. Some “non-lethal” aid supplied by the United States, such as communications equipment, can be used by rebels to coordinate and direct attacks with sophistication approaching that of the Syrian army.
The rebels are still badly out-gunned, however. Some Arab nations are funneling weapons to the rebels, but they do not have anything like the air power or aerial defenses of what some analysts say is second only to Israel as the best military in the Middle East.
To date, the United States has also supplied $64 million in humanitarian help inside Syria and for refugees in neighboring countries, said Tommy Vietor, White House National Security Council spokesman.
The administration is still struggling to develop a clear understanding of opposition forces inside the country, according to U.S. officials. U.S. spy agencies have expanded their efforts to gather intelligence on rebel forces and Assad’s regime in recent months, but they are largely confined to monitoring intercepted communications and observing the conflict from a distance, said officials who insisted on anonymity to discuss operations in Syria.
“Obama has been very reluctant, because he sees this as a slippery slope,” said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and a specialist on Syria. “Once you get in there and back a winner, you have to make sure that they win.”
Greg Jaffe contributed to this report.
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