Syria Claims It Seized U.S. and Israeli-Made Munitions

Syrian authorities on Wednesday said they had found a large number of foreign-made weapons and ammunition, “including U.S.-made shells and Israeli-made mines left behind by terrorists,” in the southern part of the war-ravaged country.

The find included “U.S.-Israeli-made mines,” a reporter from the state-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said.

According to the news agency, a source told the SANA reporter that “authorities found during sweeping operations of … the southern region, more than 180,000 bullets, including large amounts of 14.5, and 12.5 machinegun ammo, in addition to hundreds of RPG fillings and shells.”

Further, authorities also seized “U.S.-made shells, Israeli-made mines, heavy and medium machineguns, and RPG launchers” according to the source.

Last June, Syrian authorities said they “found a large amount of weapons, ammunition, medical equipment, and medicine left behind by … terrorist groups in the southern region [of Syria],” SANA recalled.

Since 2015, reports have surfaced of U.S. weapons and ammunition intended for Syrian rebels falling into the hands of terrorist organizations active in the country, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

In 2018, Breitbart News reported on the story of Syrian rebel officer Maj. Anas Ibrahim Obaid, recruited by the Obama administration’s “$500 million program to train and equip a white-hat force of ‘moderate’ rebels who were supposed to forget about rebelling against dictator Bashar Assad and fight the Islamic State and al-Qaeda instead.”

Obaid said that, under the program’s direction, he and his fellow fighters were sent into Syria severely undermanned and under-armed. Al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, immediately seized the few arms they were allowed upon entering the country, forcing them to turn back. In response, the U.S. program trainers proposed sending the men into Syria unarmed. The fighters refused and were later allowed to re-enter better armed.

Obaid said his men began defecting almost immediately upon entering Syria. According to the report, Obaid’s “already tiny unit shrank from 72 to just 25 men before he himself decided to call it quits and resume fighting the Syrian regime in Aleppo. Unfortunately, that meant traveling through territory controlled by … [the al-Nusra Front]. … [T]he Obama administration had provided him with a cache of American weapons, ammo, and vehicles he could trade to the terrorists for safe passage, so that is what he did.”

Obaid said in 2018 that he continues to sell the American ammunition and weapons on the black market for profit. “The Americans were so angry when they found out, they cut my salary, but this was our only option through their territory to get home without getting killed,” he explained.