US to send Syrian rebels armor, night vision goggles and other ‘nonlethal aid’

The Obama administration is expected to give Syrian rebels broader nonlethal military assistance, including body armor and night-vision goggles, while stopping short of providing weapons to forces fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad.

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Administration officials say an announcement of the new aid is not imminent. But Secretary of State John Kerry says the administration had been holding intense talks on how to boost assistance to the rebels fighting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Those efforts have been very much front and center in our discussions in the last week in Washington,” Kerry said Tuesday, a day before meeting with Syrian opposition leaders in London. “I’m not sure what the schedule is, but I do believe that it’s important for us to try to continue to put the pressure on President Assad and to try to change his calculation.”

“I’m not sure what the schedule is, but I do believe that it’s important for us to try to continue to put the pressure on President Assad and to try to change his calculation,” Kerry said.

Critics say that the US are arming a force nearly as bad as the Assad regime. Video and reports of beheadings and horrible human rights violations are fueling the criticisms. One of the more recent reports state the rebels killed a Christian and fed the remains to dogs.

With Syria’s civil war in its third year, the U.S. and its allies are struggling to find ways to stem the violence that, according to the United Nations, has killed more than 70,000 people. Despite growing international pressure, Assad has managed to hang on to power far longer than the Obama administration first expected.