Smuggled arms prime rebels for new fight

Newly armed with mortars, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades smuggled across borders by truck and donkey, Syria's rebels are now ready to step up their fight against President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebel fighters say they have taken advantage of a shaky truce to regroup against a Syrian army that is showing signs of poor morale, desertions and equipment failure.

Thousand of shells and hundreds of sniper rifles, as well as anti-armor missiles, have been smuggled in via Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq in recent weeks, much of them from suppliers in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, fighters and opposition figures say.

Although the rebels say these additional weapons are not enough for them to topple Assad, they may have been a factor in the insurgents' announcement last week that they were abandoning the failing truce and resuming attacks on government targets.

"Now the Free Army has more sophisticated weapons. We still have less than we need but it is entering the country," said a fighter in the northwestern province of Idlib.

"It still does not cover all we need because the number of fighters is increasing. Thousands of soldiers are still waiting in Turkey for weapons," he said.

Call for cease-fire

China on Wednesday called for earnest efforts of all parties in Syria to stop the violence and cease fire as the United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said Syria is now in a full-scale civil war.

"I think there is a massive increase in the level of violence, so massive indeed that in a way it indicates some change of nature," Ladsous said.

It was the first time a UN official has openly spoken of civil war in Syria.

Amid the escalating violence in the region, "China expresses its great concern over the development of the situation in Syria. We think now it is facing a critical juncture", Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

The cease-fire should have gone into effect from April 12, but the bloodshed has not yet stopped in Syria. Violence killed 72 people on Tuesday alone, according to observers.

Reuters-China Daily-AFP