PHOTO: Rebels with a Grad rocket in Latakia Province, Spring 2014


Relying on statements by rebel commanders, Reuters reports that the opposition forces have finally received new supplies of rockets to confront the regime-Iranian-Hezbollah offensive in northwest Syria.

However, that story is incomplete and even misleading: while rebels have received the rockets, they have not been given the launchers to fire them.

The commanders told Reuters that the Grad rockets, with a range of 20 km (12 miles), had been provided in “excellent quantities” after the offensive, enabled by Russian airstrikes, threatened to cut rebel supply lines from the Turkish border to opposition-held parts of the city of Aleppo.

“It is excellent additional firepower for us,” said one of the commanders. The second said, “They give the factions longer reach” to hit positions beyond the front line.

But activists on the ground say the Grads were delivered without launchers. Rebel brigades who received the rockets had to share the few launchers that they possess.

The activists also said that rebels on the Latakia front, where Russian airstrikes and pro-regime offensives have regained almost all territory in the province, received no rockets. Rebel factions are sending Grads from other fronts to give the Latakia units some chance of resistance.

With renewed supplies, rebels could potentially threaten Russia’s bases in Latakia, but the effort would require dozens of launchers and thousands of Grads.

The US has restricted weapons to the rebels since last autumn, preferring to support Kurdish-led forces fighting the Islamic State in northeast Syria. However, as the threat of the regime-Iranian-Hezbollah offensive grew this month, rebels have been seen firing TOW anti-tank missiles and the Grad rockets — possibly with an increase in supplies from Turkey and Saudi Arabia.