The CIA is considering a secret contingency plan to expand
the US assassination drone strikes to Syria, former and current American
officials say.
The officials said the Counterterrorism Center, which runs
CIA’s drone operations in Pakistan and Yemen, has recently tasked some of its
agents to collect further intelligence on the situation in Syria, the Los
Angeles Times reported on Friday.
The targeting officers, who are based at CIA headquarters in
Langley, have formed a unit with US intelligence agents in Iraq, to examine
purported threats against "the US’ interests in Syria," the report
said.
The unit is closely working with Saudi, Jordanian and other
regional spy services, according to the report.
The CIA and the White House have declined to comment on the
issue.
According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative
Journalism, between 2,627 and 3,457 people have been killed by US drones in
Pakistan alone since 2004.
Some former CIA officials expressed skepticism about the
nature of Washington’s new contingency plan, saying no evidence substantiates
existential threats against the US’ interests in Syria.
The news comes on the same day as the summit of EU leaders
in Brussels failed to reach an agreement on lifting the body's arms embargo on
Syria to facilitate the flow of weapons to militants.
Although the US publicly claims that its role in Syria is
merely limited to providing food and medical supplies to the anti-government
militants, Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List revealed on March 7 that the US has
coordinated weapons shipments from Croatia to the militants in Syria.
According to the report, 3,000 tons of weapons in 75
planeloads have been transfered from Zagreb to the militants in Syria via
Jordan and Turkey. The weapons were reportedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the
request of the US.
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