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• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

The British government announced today that it would provide the Syrian rebels with $5 million to buy communications equipment and medical supplies, but the money cannot be used for weapons the rebel forces have repeatedly requested.

Despite the West's reluctance to directly arm the opposition, rebels have made strategic gains in recent weeks, both on the ground and in forcing a change in the way the Syrian Army fights back.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the funds would be used for things like satellite phones, medical kits, and generators, but was insistent that none of it would go toward weapons, the Associated Press reports. He also said that his government would increase its contact with the opposition's political arm to help it prepare for a possible post-Assad Syria. That preparation may be a response to important but subtle rebel gains in recent weeks.

Reuters reports that the drawn-out nature of the battle for Aleppo – and the regime's apparent reluctance to sweep in, overrun the rebels, and massacre residents – have raised speculation that the Syrian Army no longer has enough troops with the skills or morale to do the job.

Analysts acknowledged there could be other reasons: The Army's strategy may be to wear down the rebels and exhaust their ammunition supplies with shelling before going in on foot, it could be afraid of provoking outside intervention by demolishing the city, and it could be trying to figure out how to use its heavy weapons, which need open space to operate, in the rubble-strewn city streets.

But they also said that a fear of defections may be driving the reluctance to move into the city streets, where abandonment would be easier.  

The Guardian posited yesterday that rebel troops may be approaching parity with regime forces in terms of capability, if not actual troop numbers or weapon and tank supplies. "We did not have the experience to lay explosives, or any coherent leadership … but this is now changing," rebel fighter Khaldoun al-Omar, told the newspaper. "The battles are looking more like warfare between two armies, even though they far outgun us."

As a result, Syrian Army casualties are climbing. Regime troops are increasingly relying on air power until the last few days of a fight in order to avoid mass casualties and defections, the Guardian reports. Anti-aircraft weapons would be a true game changer for the rebels, but other countries, fearful they could end up in the wrong hands, seem wary to supply something so powerful.

Also helping the rebels is their control of more and more rural areas, giving them broad swathes of territory through which they can freely transport weapons, food, fuel, and troops. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, rebels now hold their "first substantial enclave of the 17-month uprising": the countryside between Aleppo and the Turkish border, giving them some 30 miles free of government troops. A similar enclave was crucial for Libyan rebels in their own uprising.

Now that they can operate openly in that territory, rebels have been forming de facto local governments and restoring order to the region. Turkey has become more willing to allow people, goods, and weapons across its border now that some modicum of governance is in place.