world

The head of Syria’s rebels said Friday that the food and medical supplies the United States plans to give his fighters won’t bring them any closer to defeating President Bashar Assad’s forces.

“We don’t want food and drink, and we don’t want bandages. When we’re wounded, we want to die. The only thing we want is weapons,” Gen. Salim Idris, chief of staff of the opposition’s Supreme Military Council, told the Associated Press by telephone.

The former brigadier in Assad’s army warned that the world’s failure to provide heavier arms is only prolonging the nearly two-year-old uprising that has killed an ­estimated 70,000 people.

In what was described as a significant policy shift, the Obama administration said Thursday it was giving an additional $60 million in assistance to Syria’s political opposition and said it would, for the first time, provide non-lethal aid directly to rebels battling to topple Assad.

The move was announced by Secretary of State John Kerry at an international conference on Syria in Rome.

Associated Press