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Syrian rebels making their own weapons in underground factories

OUTGUNNED: Syrian rebels make their own weapons as US troops prepare to join their fight against the murderous regime of President Bashar al-Assad as early as this weekend.

OUTGUNNED: Syrian rebels make their own weapons as US troops prepare to join their fight against the murderous regime of President Bashar al-Assad as early as this weekend. (AFP/Getty Images)

OUTGUNNED: Syrian rebels make their own weapons as US troops prepare to join their fight against the murderous regime of President Bashar al-Assad as early as this weekend. (AFP/Getty Images)

After two years of begging the West for weapons to fight the Assad regime, Syrian rebels are arming themselves with homemade grenades, mortars, shells and small arms fashioned in underground factories.

Members of the Free Syrian Army, one of several opposition groups, were photographed making mortar shells (above) and grenades (right) on industrial lathes in a factory in the flashpoint city of Aleppo, the country’s largest city.

Other rebels have been making small arms out of used parts, including pipes, old shotguns and whatever they can find in the war-ravaged countryside.

The rebels complain they’re heavily outgunned by President Bashar al-Assad’s tanks, helicopters and heavy artillery.

But the United States and other Western supporters of the rebels have been reluctant to provide more lethal firepower because of fears that it would end up in the hands of al Qaeda-linked groups.