Report: Explosives Experts Entering Syria, Lutfallah ll Bound to Homs

Extremists headed from Lebanon to Syria in the past few months to carry out more bombings and suicide attacks aimed at shaking the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Around five experts trained in preparing explosives left a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon heading to Syria, Islamist sources told the daily.

The sources noted that the Syrian rebels are on a quest to find more experts who would like to join the revolt against Assad.

On the weapons shipment Lutfallah ll that was intercepted by the Lebanese navy last month, an Islamist weapons smuggler to Syria confirmed to al-Akhbar that it was bound to the Syrian rebels in Homs province.

He revealed that the smugglers were able to breach the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence, noting that the shipment was sent by a Lebanese agent.

According to reliable sources in the Syrian opposition, the fighters received previously three shipments of missiles through Lebanon, including Stinger shoulder-held missile launcher.

The sources denied that the three containers of arms seized off the northern coast are worth around $60 million.

They unveiled that the Syrian opposition had paid for the shipment, ruling out it was a “donation.”

A field commander in the “armed Syrian opposition told al-Akhbar newspaper that the smuggled weapons are flowing through the border crossings.

“The arms shipments are entering Idlib through the Turkish border under international cover,” the commander said.

He stated that the arms also enter Syria through Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.

Al-Akhbar reported that the Syrian rebels are demanding heavy and medium weapons instead of the light arms.

“A Kalashnikov will not topple the regime, we need missiles,” a senior Syrian opposition figure told the daily.