Syria rebels 'to turn to Qaeda if West fails them'By Nino Blinac (AFP) – 4 days ago ALEPPO, Syria — With the West still refusing to arm Syria's opposition in the bloody fight against the regime, rebels in the flashpoint northern city of Aleppo warn that they could turn to Al-Qaeda for help.
"We don't want Al-Qaeda here, but if nobody else helps us, we will make an alliance with them," said Abu Ammar, a rebel commander in the central Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo, scene of raging battles for almost a month.
"And you can bet if Al-Qaeda comes here, they will brainwash the people," he said. "If Al-Qaeda enters Aleppo, the city will become their base within three months."
Syria's opposition has frequently called on a divided and deadlocked international community to act to halt President Bashar al-Assad's campaign of repression against a peaceful uprising that is now an armed insurgency.
It is pushing for the establishment of a no-fly zone similar to the one the United Nations authorised for Libya last year, or the channelling of weapons to the poorly equipped rebel Free Syrian Army.
But the FSA remains massively outweighed by the regular army.
"May God help us because it is impossible to defeat this regime," said Abu Ammar. "They have chemical weapons they will possibly use. They have tanks, planes, mortars, rockets and we have nothing."
He pleaded: "We want them to give us weapons to defend ourselves or to intervene militarily. We are angry. The Syrian people still like the European countries, but if it continues like this, you end up hating them."
Experts have repeatedly warned that the uprising could take on an increasingly radical flavour, if calls for assistance went unheeded.
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