U.S. to Send $60M to Syrian Rebels

The White House pledged Thursday to give $60 million in nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition fighters, who have been fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s tyrannical rule for two years in a bloody civil war that has claimed as many as 60,000 lives. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the policy shift at an international conference in Rome, where European nations are also expected to follow suit. The Obama administration has so far mainly stayed out of Syria, where the rebels’ allegiances have been at times unclear, although the president has roundly criticized Assad and supported tough sanctions against his regime. On Thursday, Kerry said Assad is “out of time and must be out of power.”