With the help of allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Turkey is operating a “nerve center” that directs military and communications aid to Syria’s rebels from a city near its border, Gulf sources have told Reuters.

The news may help explain the increasing success of Syrian rebels, once considered “a rag-tag assortment of ill-armed and poorly organized groups,” in pulling off major strikes such as the recent bomb attack that killed Syria’s defense minister, the report states.

Reuters reports:

“Think of a triangle, with Turkey at the top and Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the bottom,” said a Doha-based source…

Qatar, the tiny gas-rich Gulf state which played a leading part in supplying weapons to Libyan rebels, has a key role in directing operations at the Adana base, the sources said. Qatari military intelligence and state security officials are involved.

Meanwhile, the former head of the UN observer mission in Syria said today that the fall of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad’s is “only a matter of time.”

But he added that his exit may not end the violence, which has killed some 19,000 people since it began in March 2011.

Thoughts about Qatar’s involvement?

Credit: Photo by FreedomHouse2