“We've received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground,” a spokesman for the so-called the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Louay Muqdad said on Friday.
“We have begun distributing them on the front lines, they will be in the hands of professional officers,” he added.
Muqdad did not give more details about the type of weapons or the countries providing them.
The spokesperson added that more shipments of other weapons are also on their way to end up in the hands of the militants.
The influx of new arms comes right after British media revealed that Saudi Arabia had sent the first batch of anti-tank missiles to the militants in the flashpoint city of Aleppo.
On June 14, US President Barack Obama ordered his administration to provide the militants with more sophisticated weapons, claiming that the Syrian government had used “chemical weapons” against the militants and thus crossed Washington’s “red line.” Damascus has rejected the allegations as “lies.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres and British officials have voiced support for Washington’s arming of the Takfiri militants in Syria.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his concerns about the supply of arms to militants in Syria.
Speaking at the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum on Friday, Putin censured the US for its double-standard policies vis-à-vis terrorist groups.
Putin questioned Washington’s delivery of arms to the militants, saying, “If the United States and the State Department recognize that one of the key opposition organizations, al-Nusra, is a terrorist organization officially recognized as terrorist which is linked to al Qaeda, how can they give weapons to that part of the opposition?”
He has already warned that the arms could end up in Europe one day.
The crisis in Syria began in March 2011 and many people, including large numbers of Syrian soldiers and security forces, have been killed in the foreign-sponsored militancy.
Last month, the Syrian president said militants from as many as 29 different countries were fighting against Syria.
The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants.
