US Support For Turkey Enables Syrian 'Moderate Rebels' to Commit Atrocities

US continuing support for Turkey after the coup attempt will enable Ankara-backed extremists in Syria to commit atrocities against civilians with impunity, former White House National Security Council advisor Gwenyth Todd told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said the United States would reconsider providing aid to Syrian opposition group Nour al-Din al-Zenki if reports are confirmed that members of the faction beheaded a child.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), Toner said, was putting together a commission to investigate the incident.

"As long as Europe, the United States and other allies continue to pretend that Turkey is still a democracy with peaceful intentions, the Free Syrian Army and other supposedly ‘moderate’ groups of well-armed extremist thugs will continue their terrible atrocities against Syrian civilians of all faiths," Todd told Sputnik on Wednesday.

According to Todd, the West's blind insistence on supporting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at any cost has allowed terrorists to be sheltered, armed and to travel freely to and from Syria, spreading their extremism abroad with total impunity.

The boy beheaded by the Syrian rebel group, Todd suggested, was undoubtedly not the first or even most recent victim of these power-hungry fanatics.

"There are no ‘moderate Sunni rebels’ in Syria," she claimed. "This has been shown to be true time and time again. There are plenty of moderate, apolitical Sunnis, Shia, Christians and even Jews in Syria, but not moderate rebels."

In the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, Todd warned, expect to see Erdogan exponentially increase his support for terrorist factions in Syria.

"If the West continues to treat Erdogan as an ally, in spite of his post-coup attempt crackdowns, Western support for these terrorists will continue by default, regardless of how many anti-ISIS [Islamic State] missions are flown out of Incirlik," Todd argued.

The Free Syrian Army, she added, is basically a group spawned and nurtured by Turkish President Erdogan to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad and install a Syrian government beholden to Ankara.

The Turkish government has launched a wave of purges in the judiciary, military, civil service and education in the wake of the July 15 military coup attempt that killed over 200 people and injured some 1,500. Earlier on Wednesday, Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey.