Ahmad Jarba, president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), appealed May 7 for “effective, efficient weapons” to counter the barrel bombs and other airstrikes used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad against the Syrian people.
But Jarba, on his first visit to Washington, did not specify which weapons — an apparent acknowledgment that he is unlikely to receive from the United States the portable anti-aircraft missiles known as MANPADS that the Syrian opposition has sought unsuccessfully for months.