Syrian rebel fighters ‘to get salaries’

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Rebels seeking to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be paid salaries, the country’s opposition council has announced.

The Syrian National Council said money would also be given to soldiers who defect from the government's army.

“The SNC will take charge of the payment of fixed salaries of all officers, soldiers, and others who are members of the Free Syrian Army,” SNC President Burhan Ghalioun said.

During the ‘Friends of the Syria’ summit in Turkey, conference delegates said wealthy Gulf Arab states would supply millions of dollars a month for the SNC fund, The BBC reports.

Ghalioun said he hoped more substantial funding would help bind the disparate units of the Free Syrian Army into a more coherent fighting force, and encourage other soldiers to defect from the government side.

According to the report, some countries at the conference, notably Saudi Arabia, have been openly calling for insurgents in Syria to be given weapons.

But others, including the US and Turkey, oppose the move, fearing it could fuel an all-out civil war.