FSA denies link to Syria-bound arms cargo

A senior officer in the rebel Free Syrian Army, has denied recent remarks, which were published Tuesday,  linking his group to the Syria-bound illegal arms cargo which was seized aboard a commercial vessel by the Lebanese Army over the weekend. The officer told As-Sharq Al-Awsat: “We have nothing to do with this ship, which we consider a fabrication by intelligence agencies to embarrass the international community and claim that weapons are reaching the Free Syrian Army”. The Lebanese daily newspaper, The Daily Star also reports, that the officer has said that the ship, named Lutfullah II, was an excuse to claim that the battle between Syrian rebels and the Assad regime is equal, which would give the latter justification to continue military operations against the Syrian people. The Lebanese Army intercepted Friday night a ship in Lebanon's waters. The ship's manifesto listed metal and the like, but an investigation revealed weapons aboard. The Lutfullah II intended to dock at the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon; the weapons, which originated in Libya, were bound for Syria. A  Lebanese military prosecutor judge, Saqr Saqr, ordered Saturday that the ship's 11-member crew be held for questioning. A statement, which was released Saturday by the Lebanese army confirmed the arms seizure and said the 11 detained crew members are of various Arab and foreign nationalities. In his remarks to the pan-Arab newspaper, As-Sharq Al-Awsat, the FSA officer also said: “If the Free Syrian Army were being armed by Turkey or any Arab country, the situation on the ground would have been different.” "We, in the Free Syrian Army, have only one source of arms and it is the Syrian regular army, some of whose members sell us light weaponry. We know that thus far there has been no international or Arab decision to arm us and we rely on our individual initiatives.”