US 'Told Syria Rebels' to Seek Intervention
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - US officials asked the Syrian opposition to call on the international community to hit positions belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and help rebels eliminate the self-declared jihadists, Al Jazeera reported.
The Syrian National Coalition, the main political opposition bloc, and the leadership of the Free Syrian Army, a loose conglomeration of armed rebel, are expected to make the appeal from Turkey on Saturday, Al Jazeera learned from sources inside the opposition.
The news come as the US is carrying out air strikes on ISIL targets in Iraq and a day after the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that aims to weaken the ISIL and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syria branch.
Commenting on the resolution, the Syrian Coalition's Special Representative to the UN, Najib Ghadbian, said, "The Syrian Coalition calls for targeted air strikes in Syria. Strikes should be backed up by intensive train and equip programmes for the moderate Syrian opposition forces that have been effectively fighting ISIL for over a year."
Another member of the coalition told Al Jazeera that the group was "getting different promises" from the US.
The ISIL, an al-Qaeda splinter group, has in the recent months seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate.
