US suspends aid shipments into Syria

The Obama administration has halted all deliveries of nonlethal U.S. aid to opposition forces in Syria, amid concerns about increasing violence between secular rebel groups and Islamic fundamentalists in the country. 

Washington’s decision to end the shipments came after members of the Islamic Front took over several warehouses in northern Syria, where fighters from the secular Supreme Military Council (SMC) were storing U.S.-provided supplies and equipment. 

The Obama administration has recognized the SMC’s political wing, the Syrian National Council, as the legitimate successor to the regime of President Bashar Assad. 

The status or location of that American aid, which runs the gamut from food and medical supplies to night-vision goggles and communication equipment, is still unknown, a senior U.S. official tells The Washington Post. 

The aid suspension comes a day after two senior commanders with the American-backed Free Syrian Army were kidnapped and executed by al Qaeda fighters. 

The two commanders, Mohammad al-Qadi and Ahmad Jahar, were taken by members of Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a teaming of al Qaeda’s Iraqi cell and affiliated Syrian militant groups, during a cross-border supply run from Turkey into the northern part of the country. 

Opposition leaders are expected to take part in scheduled peace talks with representatives from the Assad government in Geneva in January, led by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.