PARIS — The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday. Officials in the United States and Europe have said the Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully vetted fighters opposed to Syrian President Basher Al-Assad, and Kerry's comments indicated that the Americans are working to make sure that its aid doesn't fall into the wrong hands. “We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve," Kerry said. “We need to help them to deliver basic services and to protect the legitimate institutions of the state." A decision whether to vastly increase the size and scope of assistance to Assad's foes is expected by Thursday when Kerry will attend an international conference on Syria in Rome that leaders of the opposition Syrian National Coalition have been persuaded to attend, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the shift in strategy has not yet been finalized and still needs to be coordinated with European nations, notably Britain. France, Syria's former colonial ruler, has been among the strongest supporters of the rebels, and French President Francois Hollande was the first Western leader to recognize their leadership. “We agree all of us on the fact that Mr. Basher Al-Assad has to quit," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. In Vienna, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan said lack of clear leader among Syria's opposition is no reason to maintain support for the “cruel" Al-Assad regime. “The international community thus far unfortunately has not taken the kind of position it was expected to take," Erdogan said at a UN event. “Some countries ask who will replace Assad when he leaves. I always say that major events, major revolutions, bring their own leaders," he said through an interpreter at a news conference. On the ground, Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes on rebels trying to storm a police academy outside Aleppo, while jihadi fighters battled government troops along a key supply road leading to the southeastern part of the city, activists said. Aleppo became a key front in the country's civil war after rebels launched an offensive there in July 2012. In months of bloody street fighting, opposition fighters have slowly expanded the turf under their control, although the combat has left much of the city in ruins. The police academy has recently emerged as a new front in the fight for Aleppo, which is considered a major prize in the conflict. Activists say the government has turned the facility into a military base, using it to shell opposition areas in the countryside as well as rebel-held neighborhoods inside the city. — Agencies
