US to arm Syrian opposition, says Hagel

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, stated that US will arm the Iraqi security forces.

Hagel pledged to “monitor them closely to ensure that weapons do not fall into the hands of radical members of the opposition”, Isis, dictator Bashar Assad’s regime or “other extremist groups”. The most trusted and effective opposition forces will receive “increasingly sophisticated types of assistance”, which Hagel did not define.

He acknowledged “there will always be risk in a program like this” – Isis has already captured weapons believed to be provided by the US to Syrian opposition figures – but argued the threat from Isis justified the risk.