Obama urged to train, provide intelligence to Syria rebels

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers called Sunday on President Barack Obama to provide intelligence and training to Syrian rebels through Arab states to speed the fall of the regime of President Bashar alAssad.

Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said such a combination should also aim to leave a stabilizing force in place in Syria after Assad’s fall -- without committing US ground forces.

“US leadership through intelligence and training” — in coordination with Arab League partners — “could be hugely helpful to bringing the regime down quicker, number one, and try to at least have a stabilizing force exist after this happens,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The intensifying debate in the United States over what to do about Syria comes as Israel struck Syrian targets for the second time this week and follows US and other intelligence assessments that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons. — AFP